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.

“Well,” thought Alice to herself, “after such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling downstairs.”

Down, down, down.  Would the fall never come to an end?  “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).

Down, down, down.  Then 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 him say, as he turned a corner, “Oh, my ears and whiskers, how late it is getting!” She was close behind him when she turned the corner, but the Rabbit was no longer to be seen.  She found herself in a long narrow hall, which was lit up by lamps hanging from the roof.

In the hall she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass.  There was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and Alice’s first idea was that this might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, for, at any rate, it would not open any of them.  However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high.  She tried the little golden key in the lock, and, to her great delight, it fitted.

Alice opened the door, and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole.  She knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw.  How she longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but she could not even get her head through the doorway.

There seemed to be no use in waiting near the little door, so she went back to the table, half hoping she might find another key on it, or at any rate, a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes.  This time she found a little bottle on it ("which certainly was not here before,” said Alice), and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words DRINK ME beautifully printed on it in large letters.  Alice tasted it, and very soon finished it off.