CHAPTER SEVEN

Escaping Brobdingnag

Every day that I was in Brobdingnag, I missed my family and thought about returning home. However, the queen had paid a thousand gold pieces for me, and I knew the queen would never let me leave.

One sunny weekend, the king and queen decided to go to the beach. The queen carried me with her in my box. Of course, Glumdalclitch would come with us. Unfortunately, that weekend Glumdalclitch became sick with a terrible cold and had to stay in bed. She could not take care of me as she had always done, so she instructed a young servant boy to stay with me. That afternoon, the boy and I decided to go to the beach to get some fresh air. The boy carried me down to the beach in my box and, while he watched me, I began to walk around in the warm, yellow sand.

As I walked, I stared out at the ocean. I felt sad as I thought about the thousands of miles that lay between me and my family. I walked past large shells and rocks and tried to build castles in the sand. Finally I grew tired and went back to my box to sleep. The servant boy was some distance away from me. He was climbing around on some rocks, probably searching for tasty bird's eggs. I lay down on my bed and fell deeply asleep.

I do not know how many hours I slept, but when I woke up I thought that the servant boy was carrying me in an extremely rough manner. The whole box was swinging back and forth in a strange way. I got out of bed and looked out of my window. Instead of the familiar faces I knew, I saw nothing but blue sky and clouds! "Have I died and gone to Heaven?" I thought.

The servant who had built me my house had made a window on top, so that I could lie on my bed and feel the sunshine. When I looked up at the window, I had a horrible surprise! A giant eagle was carrying me as it flew. I decided that the eagle must have flown down and grabbed my box before the servant boy could catch me. "What will happen to me now?" I thought.

I found out soon enough. The next moment, the eagle let go of my box and I began to fall quickly towards the earth below. As I fell, I thought about my wife and children and prayed to God that I would live. The next thing I remember was a loud sound and complete darkness. A moment later, I felt myself moving up again. Slowly, light began to come up through my windows. When I could stand, I looked out of my window, not knowing what I would see.

All around me was the blue ocean. My box had not broken, and was floating along in the water. Where I would finally arrive, I did not know.

For two days I floated in the ocean. I had no food to eat or water to drink. I simply looked out the window and hoped that somehow, I would be saved.

On the morning of the third day, I was awakened by the sound of footsteps! I didn't stop to think, but yelled out in the language of Brobdingnag, "Help! Please save me!"

I was amazed to hear a man's voice answer me in English! "Hello? Is someone in there? Do you speak English?"

"Yes!" I cried, "Please lift my house up onto your ship! I've been trapped on the ocean for three days."

There was silence for a few moments. "Are you crazy, friend? We can't lift this house up onto our ship—it's much too big!"

Immediately I realized my mistake. If these men spoke English, they must be my size! "Of course, you're right," I said, "Just get me out of here, please! I'm starving to death."

In a few moments a rope was lowered through the window in my roof. I held onto the rope and was pulled out of the house by six or seven men. I could not believe that I was finally around people my own size after living so long in a land of giants!

"Where do you come from?" I asked them excitedly.

"We are sailing from England, and we're returning home now. Our captain saw a large object in the water, and sent a group of us to see what it was. We never expected that we would find a house! Where do you come from?"

I smiled. "It's a very long story. I'll be happy to tell it to you, but could you please take me back to your ship? I would like to return to England with you if I can. I haven't seen my family in a long time."

When we were back on the ship I told the men everything about the land of the giants. I am not sure that they believed me, but no one could explain why there was a house floating in the water!

After a few months of sailing, I was finally home in England again. As I threw my arms around my wife and children, I felt that I would never want to leave home again.

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