My master’s design was to show me in all the towns by the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred miles, to any village, or person of quality’s house, where he might expect custom.  We made easy journeys of not above seven or eight score miles a day; for Glumdalclitch, on purpose to spare me, complained she was tired with the trotting of the horse.  She often took me out of my box at my own desire, to give me air and show me the country, but always held me fast by a leading-string.  We passed over five or six rivers, many degrees broader and deeper than the Nile or the Ganges; and there was hardly a rivulet so small as the Thames at London Bridge.  We were ten weeks in our journey, and I was shown in eighteen large towns, besides many villages and private families.

[Illustration]

On the twenty-sixth of October we arrived at the metropolis, called in their language, Lorbrulgrud, or Pride of the Universe.  My master took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the royal palace, and put out bills in the usual form, containing an exact description of my person and parts.[50] He hired a large room between three and four hundred feet wide.  He provided a table sixty feet in diameter, upon which I was to act my part, and palisadoed it round three feet from the edge, and as many high, to prevent my falling over.  I was shown ten times a day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people.  I could now speak the language tolerably well, and perfectly understood every word that was spoken to me.  Besides, I had learned their alphabet, and could make a shift to explain a sentence here and there; for Glumdalclitch had been my instructor while we were at home, and at leisure hours during our journey.  She carried a little book in her pocket, not much larger than a Sanson’s Atlas;[51] it was a common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their religion; out of this she taught me my letters, and interpreted the words.

CHAPTER III.

     THE AUTHOR SENT FOR TO COURT.  THE QUEEN BUYS HIM OF HIS MASTER THE
     FARMER, AND PRESENTS HIM TO THE KING.  HE DISPUTES WITH HIS
     MAJESTY’S GREAT SCHOLARS.  AN APARTMENT AT COURT PROVIDED FOR THE
     AUTHOR.  HE IS IN HIGH FAVOR WITH THE QUEEN.  HE STANDS UP FOR THE
     HONOR OF HIS OWN COUNTRY.  HE QUARRELS WITH THE QUEEN’S DWARF.

The frequent labors I underwent every day, made in a few weeks a very considerable change in my health; the more my master got by me, the more insatiable he grew.  I had quite lost my stomach, and was almost reduced to a skeleton.  The farmer observed it, and, concluding I must soon die, resolved to make as good a hand of me[52] as he could.  While he was thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a slardral, or gentleman-usher, came from court, commanding my master to carry me immediately thither, for the diversion