The White Rabbit

It is a hot summer day. Alice is a little girl. She sits by a river with her big sister. Her sister reads a book. The book has no pictures and no conversations. Alice is bored. “What is the use of a book without pictures?” she thinks.

Then a White Rabbit runs past her. The Rabbit has pink eyes. That is not strange. But the Rabbit talks! “Oh dear! Oh dear! I am late!” he says. Then he takes a watch out of his pocket and looks at it.

Alice jumps up. A rabbit with a watch and a pocket? She never sees that! She runs after the Rabbit across the field. He goes down a big hole under a tree. Alice goes down the hole too. She does not think about how to get out again.

The hole is very deep. Alice falls and falls, but she falls very slowly. She has time to look around. On the walls there are cupboards and shelves with maps and pictures. She takes a jar from a shelf. It says “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but it is empty. “How far down am I?” she thinks. “Maybe I am at the center of the Earth!”

Suddenly, she lands on a pile of dry leaves. She is not hurt. She stands up and sees the White Rabbit at the end of a long hall. “Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it is!” he says. Then he turns a corner and he is gone.

Alice is now in a long, low hall with many doors. All the doors are locked. On a small glass table there is a tiny golden key. Behind a curtain, she finds a little door. The key opens it! Behind the door there is a beautiful garden with bright flowers. But the door is very small. Alice is too big for it.