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Page 25
When we had supped (sitting together in the great room), I climbed the
ladder into the loft and was soon fast asleep. But from dreams
distracted with confusion I awoke at the first shafts of dawn. I stood
beside the narrow window in the wall of the loft and watched the
distant river change to silver, the bright green of the grass appear.
This seemed a place of few and timorous birds, and of fewer trees. But
all across the dews of the grasses lay a tinge of powdered gold, as
if yellow flowers were blooming in abundance there. I saw no horses,
no sign of life; heard no sound but the cadent wail of the ash-grey
birds in their flights. And when I turned my eyes nearer home, and
compared the distant beauty of the forests and their radiant clouds
with the nakedness and desolation here, I gave up looking from the
window with a determination to be gone as soon as possible from a
country so uncongenial.
Moreover, Mr. Gulliver, it appeared, had returned during the night to
his first mistrust of my company. He made no sign he saw me, and left
his uncouth servant to attend on me. For him, indeed, I began to feel
a kind of affection springing up; he seemed so eager to befriend me.
And whose is the heart quite hardened against a simple admiration? I
rose very gladly when, after having stuffed a wallet with food, he
signed to me to follow him. I turned to Mr. Gulliver and held out my
hand.
"I wish, sir, I might induce you to accompany me," I said. "Some day
we would win our way back to the country we have abandoned. I have
known and loved your name, sir, since first I browsed on
pictures--Being measured for your first coat in Lilliput by the little
tailors:--Straddling the pinnacled city. Ay, sir, and when the farmers
picked you up 'twixt finger and thumb from among their cornstalks...."
I had talked on in hope to see his face relax; but he made no sign he
saw or heard me. I very speedily dropped my hand and went out. But
when my guide and I had advanced about thirty yards from the stockade,
I cast a glance over my shoulder towards the house that had given me
shelter. It rose, sad-coloured and solitary, between the green and
blue. But, if it was not fancy, Mr. Gulliver stood looking down on me
from the very window whence I had looked down on him. And there I do
not doubt he stayed till his fellow-yahoo had passed across his
inhospitable lands out of his sight for ever.
I was glad to be gone, and did not, at first, realise that the least
danger lay before us. But soon, observing the extraordinary vigilance
and caution my companion showed, I began to watch and hearken, too.
Evidently our departure had not passed unseen. Far away to left and to
right of us I descried at whiles now a few, now many, swift-moving
shapes. But whether they were advancing with us, or gathering behind
us, in hope to catch their tyrant alone and unaware, I could not
properly distinguish.
Once, for a cause not apparent to me, my guide raised himself to his
full height, and, thrusting back his head, uttered a most piercing
cry. After that, however, we saw no more for a while of the beasts
that haunted our journey.
All morning, till the sun was high, and the air athrob with heat and
stretched like a great fiddlestring to a continuous, shrill vibration,
we went steadily forward. And when at last I was faint with heat and
thirst, my companion lifted me up like a child on to his back and set
off again at his great, easy stride. It was useless to protest. I
merely buried my hands in his yellow hair to keep my balance in such a
camel-like motion.
A little after noon we stayed to rest by a shallow brook, beneath a
cluster of trees scented, though not in blossom, like an English
hawthorn. There we ate our meal, or rather I ate and my companion
watched, running out ever and again for a wider survey, and returning
to me like a faithful dog, to shout snatches of his inconceivable
language at me.
Sometimes I seemed to catch his meaning, bidding me take courage, have
no fear, he would protect me. And once he shaded his eyes and pointed
afar with extreme perturbation, whining or murmuring while he stared.
Again we set off from beneath the sweet-scented shade, and now no
doubt remained that I was the object of very hostile evolutions.
Sometimes these smooth-hooved battalions would advance, cloudlike, to
within fifty yards of us, and, snorting, ruffle their manes and wheel
swiftly away; only once more in turn to advance, and stand, with heads
exalted, gazing wildly on us till we were passed on a little. But my
guide gave them very little heed. Did they pause a moment too long in
our path, or gallop down on us but a stretch or two beyond the limit
his instinct had set for my safety, he whirled his thong above his
head, and his yell resounded, and like a shadow upon wheat the furious
companies melted away.
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