NOTE: The latitude, as listed, is currently unavailable, so you'll unfortunately have to use the really simple [cache] hint. This red text will be deleted once the latitude is back.
Alice was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her. She 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 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.
Either the hole 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. 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 she saw maps and pictures hung upon pegs.
She grabbed a page from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labeled `GC4D40', but to her great disappointment it looked like gibberish: she stuffed it into the her front pocket.
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 4000 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.)
Down, down, down. There was nothing else to do, so Alice soon began talking again when suddenly, thump! thump! down she came into a central plaza, 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 sky overhead; before her was maze of pathways, and the White Rabbit was still in sight, hurrying down the northeastern path. 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 went down the hill, `Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it's getting!' She was close behind it when the Rabbit leapt into the woods and was no longer to be seen. She found herself near a long, two story hall.
The doors of the hall were all locked; Alice walked sadly down the west hill, wondering how she was ever to find the rabbit again.
At the bottom of the hill, she came upon a little two-legged bench. It looked as if it were made of wood, but was clearly from no tree Alice had ever seen. She sat, and looked again at the paper she'd grabbed as she was falling down the hole.
''Curious.'' she thought. ''What could this mean?'' Alice asked herself as she stared at the page.
Alice thought she might have been able to figure it out, as her basic mathematics were quite good. She could tell that E was a six or a one, but the sound of creaking trees kept distracting her as she tried to concentrate. ''Creeeak... creeeak...'' The sound reminded Alice of her sister's violin lessons, which were extrordinarily painful to listen to.
And then... 'Purrrr...,' came a sound from under the bench. Alice looked and saw nothing. She looked more closely, and saw a large cat sitting underneath, grinning from ear to ear.
`Cheshire Puss,' she began, rather timidly, as she did not at all know whether it would like the name: however, it only grinned a little wider. She went on. `Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?'
`That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,' said the Cat.
`I don't much care where--' said Alice.
`Then it doesn't matter which way you go,' said the Cat.
`--so long as I get SOMEWHERE,' Alice added as an explanation.
`Oh, you're sure to do that,' said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough.'
Alice felt that this could not be denied, so she tried another question. `What sort of people live about here?'
`In THAT direction,' the Cat said, waving its right paw round, `lives a Rabbit'; and it vanished quite slowly,
beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.
