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Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland
Kapitel 1:
Down the rabbit-hole, Lewis Carroll, Seite 1 ( von 3 )
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and
of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister
was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is
the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or
conversations?"
So she was considering in her own mind, (as well as she could, for the hot day
made her feel very sleepy and stupid,) whether the pleasure of making a
daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies,
when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
There was nothing so very remarkable in
that; nor did Alice think it so
very much out of
the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be
too late!" (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that
she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite
natural;) but when the Rabbit actually
took a watch out of
its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started
to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a
rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and,
burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and was just in time
to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went Alice after it, never once considering how in the
world she was to get out again.
The rabbit-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped
suddenly down, so suddenly that Alice had not a moment to think about stopping
herself before she found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep
well.
Either the well was very deep, or she fell very slowly, for she had plenty of
time as she went down to look about her, and to wonder what was going to happen
next. First, she tried to look down and make out what she was coming to, but it
was too dark to see anything: then she looked at the sides of the well, and
noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there
she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. She took down a jar from one of the
shelves as she passed; it was labelled "ORANGE MARMALADE," but to her
great disappointment it was empty: she did not like to drop the jar for fear of
killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as
she fell past it.
"Well!" thought Alice to herself, "after such a fall as this, I
shall think nothing of tumbling down stairs! How brave they'll all think me at
home! Why, I wouldn't say anything about it, even if I fell off the top of the
house!" (Which was very likely true.)
Down, down, down. Would the fall
never come to an
end! "I wonder how many miles I've fallen by this time?" she said
aloud. "I must be getting somewhere near the centre of the earth. Let me
see: that would be four thousand miles down, I think -" (for, you see,
Alice had learnt several things of this sort in her lessons in the schoolroom,
and though this was not a
very good
opportunity for showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to listen to
her, still it was good practice to say it over) "- yes, that's about the
right distance - but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude I've got
to?" (Alice had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or Longitude
either, but she thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right
through the
earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their
heads downwards! The Antipathies, I think -" (she was rather glad there
was no one
listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) "- but I
shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know.
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