She made me seven shirts, and some other linen, of as fine cloth as could be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth; and these she constantly washed for me with her own hands.  She was likewise my school-mistress, to teach me the language.  When I pointed to anything, she told me the name of it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able to call for whatever I had a mind to.  She was very good-natured, and not above forty feet high, being little for her age.  She gave me the name of Grildrig, which the family took up, and afterwards the whole kingdom.  The word imports what the Latins call nanunculus, the Italians homunceletino, and the English mannikin.  To her I chiefly owe my preservation in that country.  We never parted while I was there; I called her my Glumdalclitch, or little nurse; and should be guilty of great ingratitude if I omitted this honorable mention of her care and affection towards me, which I heartily wish it lay in my power to requite as she deserves.

It now began to be known and talked of in the neighborhood, that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the bigness of a splacnuck, but exactly shaped in every part like a human creature; which it likewise imitated in all its actions, seemed to speak in a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs, went erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it was called, do whatever it was bid, had the finest limbs in the world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman’s daughter of three years old.  Another farmer, who lived hard by, and was a particular friend of my master, came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of this story.  I was immediately produced and placed upon a table, where I walked as I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made my reverence to my master’s guest, asked him in his own language how he did, and told him he was welcome, just as my little nurse had instructed me.  This man, who was old and dim-sighted, put on his spectacles to behold me better, at which I could not forbear laughing very heartily, for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining into a chamber at two windows.  Our people, who discovered the cause of my mirth, bore me company in laughing, at which the old fellow was fool enough to be angry and out of countenance.  He had the character of a great miser; and, to my misfortune, he well deserved it by the cursed advice he gave my master, to show me as a sight upon a market-day in the next town, which was half an hour’s riding, about two-and-twenty miles from our house.  I guessed there was some mischief contriving, when I observed my master and his friend whispering long together, sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard and understood some of their words.

[Illustration:  “I CALLED HER MY GLUMDALCLITCH.”  P. 22.]