But a more dangerous accident happened to me in the same garden when my little nurse had left me for a few minutes alone. While she was away, a small white spaniel belonging to one of the gardeners, ranged by the place where I lay. The dog, following the scent, came directly up, and took me in his mouth. Wagging his tail, he ran straight to his master, and set me gently on the ground. Luckily, he had been so well taught, that I was carried between his teeth without the least hurt. But the poor gardener, who knew me well, was in a terrible fright. He took me up tenderly in both his hands, and asked me how I did; but I was so amazed and out of breath that I could not speak a word. In a few minutes, however, I came to myself, and he carried me safely to my little nurse.
The longer I stayed in Brobdingnag the fewer accidents I had, as I gradually adapted myself to the huge size of everything about me. After a while, in fact, I even contrived a way so that I could read the giants’ books, although they were several times as big as I was. The book I wished to read was opened and put leaning against the wall, and in front of it, a kind of step-ladder, which the Queen’s carpenter had made for me, twenty-five feet high, and fifty wide. Mounting to the upper step of the ladder, I began reading at the top of the page, walking along to the right till I got to the end of the line. So I went, back and forth, till I had got a little below the level of my eyes. Then I descended gradually, going on in the same way to the bottom; after which I mounted again, and began the other page in the same manner. As for turning the leaf, that I could easily do with both hands, for it was as thick and stiff as pasteboard, and even in the largest books not more than twenty feet long.
But the Queen, who was always thinking up ways to amuse me, gave me the best pastime of all. She asked me one day whether I knew how to sail or row. I told her that I understood both very well, but I did not see how I could do either in her country, where the smallest rowboat is as big as a man-of-war among us. For even if I had a boat small enough for me to manage, it could never live in any of the giants’ rivers. But the Queen only smiled and said that if her carpenter could make me a boat, she would provide a place for me to sail in. So, in ten days I had a pleasure boat, complete with all its tackling, big enough to hold eight Englishmen. And in an outer room of the palace the Queen had ordered built along the wall a wooden trough, three hundred feet long, and eight deep, which two servants could fill with water in half-an-hour.
Here I often used to row for my own pleasure, as well as that of the Queen and her ladies. Sometimes I would put up my sail, and then I had only to steer while the ladies gave me a breeze with their fans. And when they were tired, some of the pages would blow my sail forward, while I showed my skill by steering starboard or larboard as I pleased. When I was through, Glumdalclitch always carried my boat back into her closet and hung it on a nail to dry.
One day a servant who was filling my trough, let a huge frog slip out of his pail. The beast lay concealed till I was put into my boat, when, seeing a resting-place, he climbed up and made it lean so much on one side, that I was forced to balance it with all my weight on the other to keep it from overturning. When the frog had got in, he hopped at once half the length of the boat, and then over my head, rubbing against me with his slimy body. The hugeness of his features made him seem the most deformed animal imaginable. However, I asked Glumdalclitch to let me deal with him alone. I banged him awhile with one of my oars, and finally forced him to leap out of the boat.
But even though I was the favorite of a great Queen and the delight of a whole Court, I could not help sometimes wishing to be in a country where I need not live in fear of being stepped on like a toad or a young puppy. But my escape came sooner than I expected, and in a most curious way.
Besides the large box in which I was usually carried, the Queen had a smaller one made for me, about twelve feet square, for convenience in traveling. On top was a great ring, by which one of the giants could carry the box in his hand. And on one side were two iron loops, through which a person carrying me on horseback could run a leather belt and buckle it around his waist. The other sides had windows, latticed with iron wire to prevent accidents. Inside, I had a hammock swung from the ceiling, and a small hole cut in the roof just above it to give me air in hot weather. There were, besides, two chairs screwed to the floor so that they could not be tossed about by the motion of the horse or coach.
It was in this traveling-box that I made my last trip in the giants’ country. One spring I was carried in it to spend a few days at the seashore along with the Queen and Glumdalclitch. My poor little nurse and I were tired by the journey. I had only a little cold, but Glumdalclitch was sick in bed. I longed to see the ocean, and asked leave to have one of the pages carry me along beside the sea. I shall never forget how unwillingly Glumdalclitch consented, bursting into a flood of tears, as if she had a foreboding of what was to happen.
The page took me out in my box, and walked with me on the rocks along the shore. Feeling slightly ill, I ordered him to set me down so that I could take a nap in my hammock. I got in, and the boy shut the window to keep out the cold. For some time I lay and watched him out the window, as he searched about among the rocks for birds’ eggs. But after a while he went out of my sight altogether, and feeling more and more drowsy, I fell asleep.
There was a sudden, violent pull on the ring of my box, and I awoke with a start. I felt my room raised high in the air, and then carried forward at a terrific speed. The first jolt almost shook me out of my hammock, but afterward the motion was easy enough. I called out several times as loud as I could, but all in vain. I looked out my windows, but could see nothing but clouds and sky. I listened, and made out a noise over my head like the flapping of wings. Then for the first time I realized what had happened. Some eagle had got the ring of my box in his beak. Soon, no doubt, he meant to let it fall on a rock like a turtle in a shell, and pick out my body to devour it.