Alice In Wonderland Bedtime Story: a magical tale to read

Chapter 1: Down the Rabbit Hole

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 peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversations?” As she pondered this, her attention was caught by a white rabbit with pink eyes, running close by.

Not just any rabbit, but a rabbit that pulled a watch out of his waistcoat pocket, exclaiming, “Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” Before Alice could think twice, she ran after the rabbit and, in a blink, found herself falling down a very deep hole. Down, down, down she went. It seemed to Alice she was falling more slowly than usual, and she had plenty of time to look about her.

She noticed the walls were lined with cupboards and bookshelves. Maps and pictures were hung upon pegs. She took a jar from one of the shelves as she passed; it was labeled “ORANGE MARMALADE”, but to her disappointment, it was empty. Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end?

Chapter 2: The Pool of Tears

With a thump, Alice finally landed on a heap of sticks and dry leaves, and her 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 it say, as it turned a corner, “Oh my ears and whiskers, how late it’s getting!”

Alice 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 Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again.

Suddenly, 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 thought was that it might belong to one of the doors. 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, 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 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.

Chapter 3: The Caucus Race and a Long Tale

Continuing her journey, Alice soon found herself by the seaside, where a number of animals and birds had gathered. They were all dripping wet, and as they had no way of getting dry, they were consulting about how to proceed. The Mouse, who seemed to be a person of authority among them, directed the party into a Caucus Race. This race involved running in a circle with no clear start or finish, the point of which Alice couldn’t quite understand. However, after much running, everyone was declared a winner, and prizes were distributed.

Alice longed to ask the White Rabbit for help, but he was nowhere to be found. Instead, she listened to the Mouse’s long and sad tale about a “Fury and a Mouse,” which Alice found rather hard to follow, as the Mouse often got the words wrong. As the Mouse grew more agitated, Alice tried to calm him by talking about her cat, Dinah, which only caused all the animals to grow hostile and abandon her for mentioning such a dreaded creature as a cat.

Feeling quite lonely and upset, Alice was beginning to wonder if she should simply sit down and cry again when a new character appeared: the Caterpillar. Smoking a hookah and sitting atop a large mushroom, the Caterpillar looked down at Alice with heavy-lidded eyes, and in a languid, sleepy voice, he asked her, “Who are YOU?”

Chapter 4: Pig and Pepper

Deciding to keep looking for the Rabbit, Alice ventured deeper into Wonderland and came upon a house that piqued her interest. As she approached, a fish-footman delivered an invitation from the Queen to play croquet to a frog-footman at the house, which belonged to the Duchess. Deciding this might be her chance to find the Rabbit, Alice walked into the house, only to be met with a cacophony of sound and a rather violent scene.

Inside, the Duchess was nursing a baby; her cook was throwing dishes and the air was thick with pepper. The Duchess was very rude to Alice, and the baby cried bitterly. Snatching the baby away from the Duchess, Alice decided to take it outside, only to find that it had transformed into a pig. Baffled, she set the pig down and it trotted away into the woods. This place was getting curiouser and curiouser, Alice thought.

Chapter 5: A Mad Tea-Party

Tired and bewildered, Alice came across a table set under a tree outside, where the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea. A Dormouse sat between them, fast asleep. The table was large, but the three were all crowded together at one corner. “No room! No room!” they cried out when they saw Alice coming. “There’s plenty of room!” said Alice indignantly, and she sat down in a large armchair at one end of the table.

The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all he said was, “Why is a raven like a writing-desk?” “Come, we shall have some fun now!” thought Alice. “I’m glad they’ve begun asking riddles—I believe I can guess that,” she added aloud. But the Hatter and the March Hare only sighed deeply, and the Dormouse shook its head impatiently and said, without opening its eyes, “Of course, of course; just what I was going to remark myself.”

The tea party was bizarre, with riddles that had no answers and manners that defied any conventional etiquette. Yet, in this mad company, Alice found a strange kind of sense and nonsense that somehow made more sense than anything else in Wonderland.

Chapter 6: The Queen’s Croquet Ground

Alice’s adventures led her finally to the beautiful garden she had seen through the little door. This garden belonged to the Queen of Hearts, and it was here that a grand game of croquet was taking place. The croquet equipment, however, was not at all ordinary: the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingos, and the soldiers of the Queen had to double themselves up and stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.

The Queen was a fearsome figure, who seemed to solve all disputes by exclaiming “Off with their heads!” This made Alice quite nervous, but she joined the game of croquet, which was the most curious and chaotic version of the game she had ever seen.

As the game progressed, the Cheshire Cat appeared, floating in mid-air, its grin the first thing to arrive and the last to fade. Its cryptic comments and sudden disappearances confused everyone except Alice, who was by now quite accustomed to unexplainable wonders.

Chapter 7: The Trial

The climax of Alice’s adventure came with a trial, where the Knave of Hearts was accused of stealing tarts made by the Queen. The courtroom was packed with characters Alice had met on her journey, and the evidence presented was as nonsensical as everything else in Wonderland. Alice found herself being called as a witness, and under the scrutiny of the King and Queen of Hearts, she began to grow—larger and larger, until she towered over the court.

“Silence!” shouted the Queen. “I won’t!” said Alice. “Off with her head!” the Queen shouted at the top of her voice. But by this point, Alice had grown to her full size and had lost all fear of the diminutive tyrant. “Who cares for you?” said Alice (she had grown to her full size by now). “You’re nothing but a pack of cards!”

At this, all the cards rose up into the air and flew down upon her. She gave a little scream, half of fright and half of anger, and tried to beat them off, and found herself lying on the bank, with her head in her sister’s lap, who was gently brushing away some dead leaves that had fluttered down from the trees upon her face.

“Awake at last, my dear!” said her sister. “I’ve had such a curious dream!” said Alice. And she told her sister, as well as she could remember them, all these strange Adventures of hers that you have just been reading about; and when she had finished, her sister kissed her, and said, “It WAS a curious dream, dear, certainly: but now run in to your tea; it’s getting late.” So Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.

As children nestled in their beds, listening to the tale of Alice’s incredible journey, they drifted into sleep filled with dreams of their own Wonderland, inspired by the boundless imagination and whimsy of a girl named Alice. They learned that adventures awaited at every turn and that the world was brimming with wonders to explore, just beneath the surface of everyday life.