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Gulliver and his master
Before Reading: As a comment, Write 5 dangers Gulliver may face living in a country full of giants.
Soon after we arrived, the whole family sat down at the table for dinner. There was a large piece of meat on a plate about eight metres across. The farmer put me on the table, with some small pieces of bread and meat in front of me. I was very frightened of falling off the edge of the table, which was ten metres from the ground. The farmer and his family were delighted to watch me eating food with my own small knife and fork. But when I started walking across the table to the farmer, his youngest son, a boy of about ten, picked me up by my legs. He held me so high in the air that my whole body trembled. Fortunately his father took me away once, and angrily hit the boy hard on the head. But I remembered how cruel children can be to small animals, and I did not want the boy to take his revenge on me. So I fell on my knees and asked them not to punish the child any more. They seemed to understand.
Just then I heard a noise behind me. It sounded like twelve machines running at the same time. I turned my head and saw a huge cat, three times larger than one of our cows. The wife held it in her arms, so that it could not jump at me. But in fact, because I showed no fear, there was no danger, and the cat even seemed a little afraid of me.
At the end of dinner, a servant came in with the farmer’s one-year old son in her arms. He immediately started crying and screaming, because he wanted to play with me. His mother smiled and put me in his hand. When he picked me up and put my head in his mouth, I shouted so loudly that he dropped me. Luckily, I was not hurt, but it showed me how dangerous life was going to be in Brobdingnag.
After eating, the farmer, or my master, as I shall now call him, went back to his work in the fields. I think he told his wife to take good care of me, because she put me carefully on her bed and locked the bedroom door. I was exhausted, and slept for two hours.
Gulliver had dinner with his new masters in Brobdingnag.
Gulliver was confronted by two rats as large as big dogs in England.
When I woke up, I felt very small and lonely in such a huge room, and on such a large bed. Suddenly I saw two huge rats ran towards me across the bed. One came right up to my face, so I pulled out my sword and cut open his stomach. The other ran away at once. I walked up and down on the bed, to control my trembling legs, and looked at the dead rat. It was as large as a big dog, and it’s tail measured two metres. When my master’s wife came into the room some time later, I showed her how I had killed the rat. She was delighted that I was not hurt, and threw the dead rat out of the window.
Stop and Reflect:
What dangers did Gulliver face in the paragraphs above?
If you were Gulliver what would you have done in each dangerous situation?
My master had a daughter who was about nine years old. She was given the special responsibility of taking care of me, and I owe her my life. During my stay in her country we were always together, and she saved me from many dangerous situations. I called her Glumdalclitch, which means ‘little nurse’. She was good at sewing, and managed to make some clothes for me in the thinnest materials available. She also made me a small bed, which was placed on a shelf too high for
rats to reach. Perhaps the most useful thing she did was to teach me the language, so that in a few days I could speak it quite well.
Soon all my master’s neighbours were talking about the strange little creature he had found in a field. One of them came to see me, and as I walked towards him across the table, he put on his glasses. His eyes behind the glasses looked like the full moon shining into the windows. I thought this was very funny, and laughed loudly. Unfortunately, that made him very angry. I heard him whispering to my master all evening, and I was sorry I had laughed at him.
Stop and Reflect:
What was the most useful thing Glumdalclitch taught Gulliver?
Next day Glumdalclitch came to me in tears.
‘You’ll never guess what’s happened!’ she told me sadly.
‘Our neighbor has advised Father to show you to people, for money! Father’s going to take you to market tomorrow, where there’ll be crowds of people ready to pay for entertainment! I’m so ashamed! And perhaps you’ll get hurt! Other people won’t be as careful with you as I am.’
‘Don’t worry, Glumdalclitch,’ I replied. ‘As I’m a stranger here, I don’t mind being showed to people like a strange wild animal. I must do what your father wants.’
I was secretly hoping I would one day find a way of escaping and returning to my own country.
So the next day my master and his daughter got on their huge horse. Glumdalclitch carried me inside a small box, which had air-holes so that I could breathe. When we arrived at the market town, my master hired the largest room in the public house, and placed me upon the table there. His daughter stayed close to me to make sure that nobody hurt me. I was told to speak in their language, pull out my sword, drink from a crowd and do other things to amuse the crowd. Only thirty people were allowed in to see me at one time. On that first day everybody wanted to see me, and I was shown to over three hundred and fifty people.
My master’s plan was so successful that he arranged to show me again on the next market day. I did not look forward to this at all. I was so tired with the journey and the entertainment that I could only walk and speak with difficulty for the next three days. Even when we were at home, neighbours and friends from all parts of the country came to look at me, and my master made me work hard to amuse them. So I had almost no rest.
My master finally realized that he could make a fortune by showing me to people all over the country. So about two months after my arrival in Brobdingnag, we left the farm and started our journey to the capital. As before, Glumdalclitch came with us, to take care of me. On the way we stopped to many towns and villages, so that I could be shown to people. At last, after a journey of nearly five thousand kilometres arrived at the capital. Now I had to work even harder, as people came to look at me ten times a day.
Stop and Reflect:
What was Gulliver's master's plan?
Gulliver's master's plan was to show Gulliver to the people in Brobdingnag to make money.