CHAPTER THREE

Meeting the King

When I woke up, I felt the ground moving below me. I looked over to my side as far as I could, and saw that I was lying on a long wooden platform that was set on hundreds of small wheels. I heard strange sounds below me, like the feet of many small horses. I was amazed that these little people were able to lift something as large as my body and place it on this platform. Much later, I learned that when the little people had found me sleeping on the beach the day before, the king of Lilliput had ordered his men to build a platform as big as me with wheels for carrying me into their city. The king's scientists had also built hundreds of pulleys to lift me onto it. It took two thousand of the king's strongest soldiers to lift me up! Once I was on the platform, the men brought their little horses to pull the ropes. There were two thousand horses in total and one thousand soldiers who walked on each side of me.

As we traveled, I looked around at this strange new land as much as I was able. I could see the tops of trees on both sides of my body. The largest trees were still shorter than I was! It seemed that everything in this land was very small, not just the people. The mountains were just hills to me and the lakes were small pools. Because of my great weight, the horses moved very slowly. By evening, we had traveled only a short distance. We slept through the night, and the next morning we continued our journey. Finally, in the middle of the day we arrived in Mildendo, which I saw was a large city.

Mildendo was surrounded by a large wall with a gate. As we passed through this gate, I heard the sounds of thousands of little people running around me. Men, women and children ran up to look at the large object the soldiers had brought back. When they saw that it was a giant man, they shouted in surprise and fear, and talked to one another excitedly in their strange language. Soon, we stopped moving and I saw a tiny castle before me. It was no more than three feet high, but it was as beautiful as any castle I had seen in Europe! On the second floor of the castle there was a large golden door. This door opened and a little man wearing beautiful clothes and a golden crown came out. The man raised his hand in the air, and all the people became quiet at once. I guessed that this man must be the king of Lilliput.

The king looked down on me with great excitement in his eyes and began to speak. I could not understand his words, but he seemed friendly. I nodded my head and tried to look peaceful, hoping that he would decide to let me go. I had not stood up in two days!

When the king finished speaking, I felt myself being moved again. Soon I saw that I was being taken to a building that was larger and stronger looking than any other I had seen. Later I found out that this was a temple. A few years ago, there had been a terrible murder at this temple, so the king and queen decided that the Lilliputians should not use the temple anymore. Some of the people took a large chain and put it around my left ankle. Then they put the other part of the chain around the temple, so that I was chained to the building!

After this, some men came up to me and finally cut the ropes that were tied to my body. For the first time since I had arrived in this strange land, I stood up and looked around me.

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