Down, down, down. Would the fall never come to an end!
The long fall into Wonderland stretches time and stretches patience. Repetition slows the sentence so we feel the drop as she does. Her anxiety is gentle, curious worry rather than panic—a child measuring the unknown by counting it. Thematically, this is the first big transformation: passing from one set of rules into another. It shows how change can feel endless while it’s happening. Many readers recognize that unsettled gap between leaving the familiar and not yet arriving. The line makes falling a metaphor for any start you can’t control but must ride through.