Alice's Adventures under Ground by Lewis Carroll

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 where 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 was worth the trouble of getting up and / picking the daisies, when a white rabbit with pink eyes ran close / by her.

There was nothing very remarkable in that, nor did Alice think it / so very much out of the way to hear the rabbit say to itself / "dear, 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, 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, / full of curiosity, she hurried across the field after it, and was / just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the / hedge. In a 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 a 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 would 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 were maps and pictures / hung on pegs. She took a jar down off 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 most 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 / of showing off her knowledge, as there was no one to hear her, / still it was good practice to say it over,) "yes that's the right / distance, but then what Longitude or Latitude-line shall I be / in? " (Alice had no idea what Longitude was, or Latitude 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 be to come out among the / people that walk with their heads downwards! 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 will miss me very much tonight, I / should think! " (Dinah was the cat.) "I hope they'll remember her / saucer of milk at tea-time! Oh, dear Dinah, I wish I had you / here! 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, my dear. But / do cats eat bats, I wonder? " And here Alice began to get rather / sleepy, and kept 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, 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 was saying to her very earnestly, "Now, / Dinah, my dear, tell me the truth. Did you ever eat a bat? " when / suddenly, bump! bump! down she came upon a heap of sticks and / shavings, and the fall was over.

Alice was not a bit hurt, and jumped on to her feet directly: 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 just heard it say, as it turned a corner, "my ears / and whiskers, how late it's getting! " She turned the corner after / it, and instantly found herself in a long, low hall, lit up by a / row of lamps which hung from the roof.