Gulliver's Travel - Part 7

Part Seven: The Queen

We performed our special show for the Queen, and the Queen loved it.

She smiled when I bowed to her, and she pretended to be frightened when I

took out my sword. She clapped very loudly when we finished.

'What a wonderful little man!' she said to the farmer. 'I want to keep him.

Will you sell him to me?'

'Yes, I'll sell him to you, Your Majesty,' the farmer told her.

I was sad, because I liked Glumdalclitch. Then I had a good idea. I

approached the Queen. I could speak a few words of their language now,

and I asked her to do something for me.

The Queen smiled at me.

'What is it, little man?' she asked. 'What can I do for you?'

'Can Glumdalclitch stay here with me, Your Majesty?' I asked.

'Of course she can!' the Queen said. 'You two are friends, aren't you?'

That is how my life with the Queen of Brobdingnag began. The Queen

introduced me to the King, and he and I became friends very quickly. The

King asked me a lot of questions about England. He was very surprised that

everybody in England was small like me.

The King and Queen ordered a special box for me. It was made of wood,

and there was a table inside, and some small chairs and a bed. The inside of

the box was covered with soft material, so that I would not be hurt when

someone carried it from one place to another. I kept a collection of

interesting objects in the box. One of these was a servant's tooth - it was

more than a metre in length!

It was a happy time for me, but there were many dangers because of my

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small size. There are some incidents that I remember particularly.

Every morning Glumdalclitch carried my box to the window. One day she

carried me to the window as usual, and then she left me there. Some huge

wasps came in through the window, and entered the box. They were the

size of birds in England, and they were very fierce. I was frightened of them.

I took out my sword and fought them. I killed four of them. Luckily, the

others flew away.

Another dangerous occasion that I remember was this. Glumdalclitch left

me in the garden one day, and the weather was very bad. First it rained, and

then it hailed very hard. The hail-stones were the size of tennis-balls, and

they hurt me badly. I managed to hide under a tree, but I was still hit by

some of them.

Another danger came from an idea that the Queen had. She knew that I

like boats, and she ordered one of her servants to make a little boat for me.

The servant put the boat into a tank of water on the table. I spent many hours

in this boat. One day, however, a frog jumped out of the water into the boat.

I thought the boat would sink, and I was frightened. I was lucky, and I

managed to push the frog out of the boat.

The King and I had many conversations. He was a friendly man, but he did

not understand anything about science. He was very surprised when I told

him about the English army. He could not understand when I described the

cannons that the army uses. When I offered to build a cannon for his own

army, he became angry.

'No, Gulliver, I forbid it!' he said. 'I don't understand what these cannons

are, but they seem terrible things. Never mention this subject again, please!'

My real problems in Brobdingnag started with the Queen's dwarf.Before

my arrival at the palace, he had been the smallest person anyone had ever

seen. I was much, much smaller than him, and he was jealous. He played all

sorts of tricks on me — some of them were very dangerous.

We were having dinner with the Queen one night. The dwarf suddenly

picked me up, and dropped me into a bowl of cream.

The bowl was very deep, and I nearly drowned. Luckily Glumdalclitch

was there, and she saved me.

Another evening the dwarf attacked me again at dinner. This time he

picked me up and pushed me into a bone on the Queen's plate.

He attacked me a third time in the garden one afternoon. I was walking

under some apple trees. He climbed into one of the trees, and shook the

branches. The apples, which were the size of barrels, fell onto the ground

near me. It was a very dangerous and foolish thing to do.

It was not only the dwarf who was dangerous. Animals were also a danger

to me, because I was so small. One day the gardener's dog picked me up in

his mouth.

I was very frightened, and I thought he was going to eat me.

The dog carried me very gently to the gardener, and dropped me at his feet.

But the worst fright I had was with a monkey. The monkey came into a

room of the palace. He picked me up, and carried me away. He seemed to

think I was a baby monkey. He tried to give me food to eat, and then he

climbed onto the roof of the palace with me in his hand. I was terrified.

Some of the Queen's servants saw what happened. They ran to fetch

ladders, and they climbed onto the roof to save me.

I spent about two years in Brobdingnag. Once again I began to think of

home, and to be lonely. I was tired of being special because of my size. I

wanted to go back to England.

One day the King decided to visit one of his palaces near the sea. He

wanted me and Glumdalclitch to go with him, as usual.

We travelled to the palace together. When we arrived, Glumdalclitch did

not feel very well, and she went to bed.

One of the King's servants carried my box to the beach. I was inside, and I

enjoyed looking at the waves from the window.

The servant put the box down, and then he went back inside the palace. It

was a hot day, and I fell asleep in the box.

I woke up suddenly when the box began to move. I looked out of the

window, and the ground was a long way away—I was up in the air! I

couldn't understand what had happened. Then I looked again, and I saw that

a huge eagle was flying with the box in its mouth. I was very frightened,

and I did not know what to do.

Then I heard another noise. I looked out of the window, and there were

two large birds flying towards the eagle. They attacked the eagle. They had a

terrible fight. In the middle of the fight the eagle dropped the box.

The box fell into the sea with a great crash 'I thought the box would

break, but it was very strong. It floated in the water for a long time.

The captain of an English ship saw the box in the water. He ordered his

men to bring it onto the ship. The sailors were very surprised when they saw

a man inside it.

The captain asked me to tell him my story, and I did. He did not believe

the things I told him about Brobdingnag. 'Giants!' he said. 'You don't expect

me to believe that, do you? Giants don't really exist, my friend!'

'Then where do you think this came from?' I asked him. I went into the

box for a moment, and took out the servant's tooth that I kept there. I showed

it to the captain. Now he believed my story!