Alice's Adventures in Wonderland: HTML Edition

								

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 no idea what
Latitude was, or Longitude either, but 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 downward! 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.
Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia?' (and she tried
to curtsey as she spoke--fancy curtseying as you're
falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) 'And
what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No,
it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up
somewhere.'
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon
began talking again. 'Dinah'll miss me very much to-night, I
should think!' (Dinah was the cat.) 'I hope they'll remember her
saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah my dear! I wish you were down
here with me! There are no mice in the air, I'm afraid, but you
might catch a bat, and that's very like a mouse, you know. But do
cats eat bats, I wonder?' And here Alice began to get rather
sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy sort of way,
'Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats?' and sometimes, 'Do bats eat
cats?' for, you see, as she couldn't answer either question, it
didn't much matter which way she put it. She felt that she was
dozing off, and had just begun to dream that she was walking hand
in hand with Dinah, and saying to her very earnestly, 'Now,
Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat?' when suddenly,
thump! thump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves,
and the fall was over.
Alice was not a bit hurt, and she jumped up on to her feet in
a moment: she looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before her
was another long passage, and the White Rabbit was still in
sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away
went Alice like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as
it turned a corner, 'Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's
getting!' She was close behind it when she turned the corner, but
the Rabbit was no longer to be seen: she found herself in a long,
low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the
roof.
There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked;
and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the
other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle,