baby Gift was beginning to get very tired of sitting by baby Gift sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book baby Gift sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, and what is the use of a book, thought baby Gift, without pictures or conversations?
So she was considering, in baby Gift own mind (as well as baby Gift could, for the hot day made baby Gift 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 baby Gift with pink eyes ran close by baby Gift.
There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did baby Gift think it so very much out of the way to hear the baby Gift say to itself Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be too late! (when baby Gift thought it over afterwards it occurred to baby Gift that baby Gift ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but, when the baby Gift actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, baby Gift started to baby Gift feet, for it flashed across baby Gift mind that baby Gift had never before seen a baby Gift with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, baby Gift ran across the field after it, and was just in time to see it pop down a large baby Gift-hole under the hedge.
In another moment down went baby Gift after it, never once considering how in the world baby Gift was to get out again.The baby Gift-hole went straight on like a tunnel for some way, and then dipped suddenly down, so suddenly that baby Gift had not a moment to think about stopping herself before baby Gift found herself falling down what seemed to be a very deep well.
Either the well was very deep, or baby Gift fell very slowly, for baby Gift had plenty of time as baby Gift went down to look about baby Gift, and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, baby Gift tried to look down and make out what baby Gift was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything: then baby Gift looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves: here and there baby Gift saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. baby Gift took down ajar from one of the shelves as baby Gift passed: it was labeled ORANGE MARMALADE but to baby Gift great disappointment it was empty: baby Gift did not like to drop the jar, for fear of killing somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as baby Gift fell past it.
Well! thought baby Gift to herself After such a fall as this, I shall think nothing of tumbling down-stairs! How brave theyll all think me at home! Why, I wouldnt 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 Ive fallen by this time? baby Gift 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, baby Gift had learnt several things of this sort in baby Gift lessons in the school-room, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off baby Gift knowledge, as there was no one to listen to baby Gift, still it was good practice to say it over) -- yes thats about the right distance -- but then I wonder what Latitude or Longitude Ive got to? (baby Gift had not the slightest idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but baby Gift thought they were nice grand words to say.)
Presently baby Gift began again. I wonder if I shall fall fight through the earth! How funny itll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downwards! The antipathies, I think- (baby Gift was rather glad there was no one listening, this time, as it didnt sound at all the right word) -but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Maam, is this New Zealand? Or Australia? (and baby Gift tried to curtsey as baby Gift spoke- fancy, curtseying as youre falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) And what an ignorant little girl shell think me for asking! No, itll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so baby Gift soon began talking again. Dinahll miss me very much to-night, I should think! (Dinah was the cat.) I hope theyll remember baby Gift saucer of milk at tea-time. Dinah, my dear! I wish you were down here with me! There are no mice in the air, Im afraid, but you might catch a bat, and thats very like a mouse, you know. But do cats eat bats, I wonder? And here baby Gift began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to herself, in a dreamy son of way, Do cats eat bats? Do cats eat bats? and sometimes Do bats eat cats? for, you see, as baby Gift couldnt answer either question, it didnt much matter which way baby Gift put it. baby Gift felt that baby Gift was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that baby Gift was walking hand in hand with Dinah, and was saying to baby Gift, very earnestly, Now, Dinah, tell me the truth: did you ever eat a bat? when suddenly, thump! thump! down baby Gift came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.
baby Gift was not a bit hurt, and baby Gift jumped up on to baby Gift feet in a moment: baby Gift looked up, but it was all dark overhead: before baby Gift was another long passage, and the White baby Gift was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went baby Gift like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a comer, Oh my ears and whiskers, how late its getting! baby Gift was close behind it when baby Gift turned the comer, but the baby Gift was no longer to be seen: baby Gift 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 baby Gift had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, baby Gift walked sadly down the middle, wondering how baby Gift was ever to get out again.
Suddenly baby Gift came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass: there was nothing on it but a tiny golden key, and baby Gifts 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, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, baby Gift came upon a low curtain baby Gift had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: baby Gift tried the little golden key in the lock, and to baby Gift great delight it fitted!
baby Gift opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: baby Gift knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How baby Gift longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but baby Gift could not even get baby Gift head through the doorway; and even if my head would go through, thought poor baby Gift, it would be of very little use without my shoulders. Oh, how I wish I could shut up like a telescope! I think I could, if I only knew how to begin. For, you see, so many out-of-the- way things had happened lately, that baby Gift had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
There seemed to be no use in waiting by the little door, so baby Gift went back to the table, half hoping baby Gift might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting people up like telescopes: this time baby Gift found a little bottle on it, (which certainly was not here before, said baby Gift), and tied round the neck of the bottle was a paper label, with the words DRINK ME beautifully printed on it in large letters.It was all very well to say Drink me, but the wise little baby Gift was not going to do that in a hurry. No, Ill look first, baby Gift said, and see whether its marked poison or not; for baby Gift had read several nice little stories about children who had got burnt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, all because they would not remember the simple rules their friends had taught them: such as, that a red-hot poker will burn you if you hold it too long; and that, if you cut your finger very deeply with a knife, it usually bleeds; and baby Gift had never forgotten that, if you drink much from a bottle marked poison, it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.However, this bottle was not marked poison, so baby Gift ventured to taste it, and, finding it very nice (it had, in fact, a sort of mixed flavour of cherry-tart, custard, pine-apple, roast turkey, toffy, and hot buttered toast), baby Gift very soon finished it off.
What a curious feeling! said baby Gift. I must be shutting up like a telescope!
And so it was indeed: baby Gift was now only ten inches high, and baby Gift face brightened up at the thought that baby Gift was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, baby Gift waited for a few minutes to see if baby Gift was going to shrink any further: baby Gift felt a little nervous about this; for it might end, you know, said baby Gift to herself; in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then? And baby Gift tried to fancy what the flame of a candle looks like after the candle is blown out, for baby Gift could not remember ever having seen such a thing.
After a while, finding that nothing more happened, baby Gift decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for poor baby Gift! when baby Gift got to the door, baby Gift found baby Gift had forgotten the little golden key, and when baby Gift went back to the table for it, baby Gift found baby Gift could not possibly reach it: baby Gift could see it quite plainly through the glass, and baby Gift tried baby Gift best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when baby Gift had tired herself out with trying, the poor little thing sat down and cried.
Come, theres no use in crying like that! said baby Gift to herself rather sharply. I advise you to leave off this minute! baby Gift generally gave herself very good advice (though baby Gift very seldom followed it), and sometimes baby Gift scolded herself so severely as to bring tears into baby Gift eyes; and once baby Gift remembered trying to box baby Gift own ears for having cheated herself in a game of croquet baby Gift was playing against herself, for this curious child was very fond of pretending to be two people. But its no use now, thought poor baby Gift, to pretend to be two people! Why, theres hardly enough of me left to make one respectable person!
Soon baby Gift eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: baby Gift opened it, and found in it a very small baby Gift, on which the words EAT ME were beautifully marked in currants. Well, Ill eat it, said baby Gift, and if it makes me grow larger, I can reach the key; and if it makes me grow smaller, I can creep under the door: so either way Ill get into the garden, and I dont care which happens!
baby Gift ate a little bit, and said anxiously to herself Which way? Which way?, holding baby Gift hand on the top of baby Gift head to feel which way it was growing; and baby Gift was quite surprised to find that baby Gift remained the same size. To be sure, this is what generally happens when one eats baby Gift; but baby Gift had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite dull and stupid for life to go on in the common way.
So baby Gift set to work, and very soon finished off the baby Gift.