Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole🕳🐇

F sat in his cave, wondering his past. "I'm the worst character in Alphabet Lore, everybody hates me", F said to himself. "But I just wanted my friends to stay alive, but I accidentally kidnapped them. And I don't like being a villain just like before". He thinks of being a normal letter, "Do I need more friends? Do I want to be a hero just like the LMNOP crew?", all his mistakes were never forgotten by him, however, some other letters call him a monster. So he was considering in his own mind (as well as he could, for the hot day made him feel very sad and bored), whether the pleasure of hurting the other letters would be worth the trouble of getting up and being a villain, when suddenly his best friend, N, ran close by him. There was nothing so very remarkable in that; nor did F think it so very much out of the way to hear N say to himself, "Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!" (when he 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 N actually took a watch out of its waistcoat-pocket, and looked at it, and then hurried on, F started to his feet, for it flashed across his mind that he had never before seen his best friend with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, he ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

In another moment down went F after it, never once considering how in the world he 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 F had not a moment to think about stopping himself before he found himself falling down a very deep well.

Either the well was very deep, or he fell very slowly, for he had plenty of time as he went down to look about her and to wonder what was going to happen next. First, he tried to look down and make out what he was coming to, but it was too dark to see anything; then he looked at the sides of the well, and noticed that they were filled with cupboards and book-shelves; here and there he saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs. He took down a jar from one of the shelves as he passed; it was labelled "ORANGE MARMALADE", but to his great disappointment it was empty: he did not like to drop the jar for fear of k!lling somebody underneath, so managed to put it into one of the cupboards as he fell past it.

"Well!" thought F to himself, "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?" he 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, F had learnt several things of this sort in his lessons in the schoolroom, and though this was not a very good opportunity for showing off his knowledge, as there was no one to listen to his, 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?" (F had no idea what Latitude was, or Longitude either, but thought they were nice grand words to say.)

Presently he began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the letters that walk with their heads downward! I think-" (he 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, Q, is this New Zealand or Australia?" (and he tried to curtsey as he spoke-fancy curtseying as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) "And what an ignorant letter he'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 F soon began talking again. "All the letters call me a monster, kidnapper, crybaby- maybe they'll remember me if I'm at the good side", he thought, and here F began to get rather sleepy, and went on saying to himself, in a dreamy sort of way, "Do all the letters like me?" and sometimes, "Do all letters wanted to beat me up again?" for, you see, as he couldn't be best friends with R, I, E, N, D, and S and answer either question, it didn't much matter which way he put it. He felt that he was dozing off, and had just begun to dream that he and saying to her very earnestly, "Now, my friends, wanna hang out together?" when suddenly, thump! thump! down he came upon a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and the fall was over.

F was not a bit hurt, and he jumped up on to his feet in a moment: he looked up, but it was all dark overhead; before him was another long passage, and N was still in sight, hurrying down it. There was not a moment to be lost: away went F like the wind, and was just in time to hear it say, as it turned a corner, "Oh dear, how late it's getting!" He was close behind it when he turned the corner, but N was no longer to be seen: he found himself 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 F had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, he walked sadly down the middle, wondering how he was ever to get out again.

Suddenly he came upon a three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and F's first thought was that it 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, he came upon a low curtain he had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: he tried the little golden key in the lock, and to his great delight it fitted!

F opened the door and found that it led into a small passage, not much larger than a rat-hole: he knelt down and looked along the passage into the loveliest garden you ever saw. How he longed to get out of that dark hall, and wander about among those beds of bright flowers and those cool fountains, but he could not even get his head through the doorway; "and even if my head would go through," thought F "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 F 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 he went back to the table, half hoping he might find another key on it, or at any rate a book of rules for shutting others up like telescopes: this time he found a little bottle on it, ("which certainly was not here before," said F,) and 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 F was not going to do that in a hurry. "No, I'll look first," he said, "and see whether it's marked 'poison' or not"; for he had read several nice histories about some letters 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 she 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 F 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, toffee, and hot buttered toast,) he very soon finished it off.

"What a curious feeling!" said F, "I must be shrinking". Then he wondered that he's shutting up like a telescope.

And so it was indeed: he was now only ten inches high, and his face brightened up at the thought that he was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, he waited for a few minutes to see if she was going to shrink any further: he felt a little nervous about this; "for it might end, you know," said F to himself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle. I wonder what I should be like then?" And he tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for he could not remember ever having seen such a thing.

After a while, finding that nothing more happened, he decided on going into the garden at once; but, alas for F, when he got to the door, he found out he had forgotten the little golden key, and when he went back to the table for it, he found he could not possibly reach it: he could see it quite plainly through the glass, and he tried his best to climb up one of the legs of the table, but it was too slippery; and when he had tired himself out with trying, F sat down and cried.

"Come on, there's no use in crying like that!" said F to himself, rather sharply; "I advise you to leave off this minute!" He generally gave himself very good advice, (though he very seldom followed it), and sometimes he scolded himself so severely as to bring tears into his eyes; and once he remembered trying to box his own ears for having cheated himself in a game of croquet he was playing against himself, for F was very fond of pretending to be a friend. "But it's no use now," thought F, "to pretend to be a friend! Why, there's hardly enough of me left to make one respectable letter!"

Soon his eye fell on a little glass box that was lying under the table: he opened it, and found in it a very small cake, on which the words "EAT ME" were beautifully marked in currants. "Well, I'll eat it," said F, "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 I'll get into the garden, and I don't care which happens!"

He ate a little bit, and said anxiously to himself, "Which way? Which way?", holding his hand on the top of his head to feel which way it was growing, and he was quite surprised to find that he remained the same size: to be sure, this generally happens when he eats cake, but F had got so much into the way of expecting nothing but out-of-the-way things to happen, that it seemed quite impossible for life to go on in the common way.

So he set to work, and very soon finished off the cake.

Hiiiiii, this chapter has a lot of words, but some of the chapters have many words too~

Stay tuned for Chapter 2..........................

°~Kholeen~°