All wish to ask further questions was gone; but at last a young woman made her way through the gaping throng, with a baby in her arms, and a little girl about three years old clinging to her other hand. All three looked the very image of his wife.

66

"What is thy name?" asked he wildly. Mary." "And your father's?" "Heaven bless him! It is now twenty years since we sought him day and night on the mountain: his flock came back, but he never was heard of any more. I was then seven years old." The goatherd could hold no longer. "I am Peter," cried he, “I am Peter, and no other," as he took the child from his daughter's arms and kissed it. All stood gaping, and not knowing what to say or think, till at length one voice was heard, Why, it is Peter!" and then several others cried, "Yes, it is, it is Peter! Welcome, neighbour; welcome home, after twenty long years."

66

The Wood-Mouse.

D

'YE know the little wood-mouse-
That pretty little thing,

That sits among the forest leaves
Or by the forest spring?

Its fur is red, like the chestnut,
And it is small and slim ;
It leads a life most innocent,
Within the forest dim.

'Tis a timid, gentle creature,
And seldom comes in sight;
It has a long and wiry tail,

And eyes both black and bright.

It makes its bed of soft, dry moss,
In a hole that's deep and strong;
And there it sleeps, secure and warm,
The weary winter long.

And though it keeps no calendar,

It knows when flowers are springing;

And it waketh to its summer life
When the nightingale is singing.

Upon the boughs the squirrel plays,
The wood-mouse plays below;
And plenty of food she finds for herself
Where the beech and chestnut grow.

He sits in the hedge-sparrow's nest,
When its summer brood is fled,
And picks the berries from the bough
Of the hawthorn over head.

And I saw a little wood-mouse once,
Like Oberon in his hall,

With the green, green moss beneath his feet,
Sit under a mushroom tall.

I saw him sit and his dinner eat,
All under the forest tree-

His dinner of chestnut, ripe and red—.
And he ate it heartily.

I wish you could have seen him there :
It did my spirit good,

To see the small thing God had made
Thus eating in the wood!

I saw that God regarded them,
Those creatures weak and small :

Their table in the wild is spread,
By Him who cares for all!

MARY HOWITT.

Gulliver in Brobdingnag.

CHAPTER IV.

HE frequent labours 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 greedy he grew. I had quite lost my appetite, 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 as he could. While he was thus reasoning and resolving with himself, a Sardval, or gentleman usher, came from court, commanding my

master to carry me immediately thither for the diversion of the queen and her ladies. Some of the latter had already been to see me, and reported strange things of my beauty, behaviour, and good sense. Her majesty, and those who attended her, were beyond measure delighted with my demeanour. I fell on my knees, and begged the honour of kissing her imperial foot, but this gracious princess held out her little finger towards me, which I embraced in both my arms, and put the tip of it with the utmost respect to my lip. She asked me some general questions about my country and my travels, which I answered as distinctly and in as few words as I could. She asked whether I would be content to live at court. I bowed down to the border of the table on which I was placed, and humbly answered that I was my master's slave, but, if I were at my own disposal, I should be proud to devote my life to her majesty's service.

She then asked my master whether he was willing to sell me at a good price. He, who apprehended I could not live a month, was ready enough to part with me, and demanded a thousand pieces of gold, which were ordered him on the spot, each piece being about the bigness of eight hundred sovereigns. I then said to the queen, I must beg the favour that Glumdalditch, who had always tended me with so much care and kindness, and understood how to do it so well, might be admitted into her service, and continue to be my nurse and instructor. Her majesty agreed to my petition, and easily got the farmer's consent, who was glad enough to have his daughter preferred at court; and the poor girl herself was not able to hide her joy. My late master withdrew, bidding me farewell, and saying he had left me. in good service, to which I replied not a word, only making him a slight bow.

The queen observed my coldness, and when the farmer was gone out of the apartment asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her majesty that I owed no other obligation to my late master than his not dashing out the brains of a poor harmless creature, found by chance in his field, which obligation was amply recompensed by the gain he had made in showing me through half the kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for; that the life I had since led was laborious enough to kill an animal with ten times my strength; that my health was much

impaired by the continual drudgery of entertaining the rabble every hour of the day; and that, if my master had not thought my life in danger, her majesty would not have got so cheap a bargain. But as I was out of all fear of being ill-treated under the protection of so great and good an empress, so I hoped my late master's apprehensions would prove to be groundless; for I already found my spirits revive by the influence of her august presence.

The queen then took me in her own hand, and carried me to the king, a prince of much gravity and austere countenance. Though he be as learned a person as any in his dominions, and had been educated in philosophy, and particularly in mathematics; yet, when he observed my shape exactly, and saw me walk erect before I began to speak, he conceived I might be a piece of clockwork, contrived by some ingenious artist. But when he heard my voice, and found what I said to be regular and rational, he could not conceal his astonishment. He was by no means satisfied with the account I gave him of the manner I came into his kingdom, but thought it a story concerted between Glumdalditch and her father, who had taught me a set of words to make me sell at a better price. With this idea he put several other questions to me, but still received reasonable

answers.

His majesty sent for three great scholars, who were then in weekly waiting, according to the custom in that country. These gentlemen, after they had awhile examined my shape with much nicety, were of different opinions concerning me. They all agreed that I could not be produced according to the regular laws of Nature, because I was not framed with a capacity of preserving my life, either by swiftness, or climbing of trees, or digging holes in the earth. They observed by my teeth, which they viewed with great exactness, that I was a carnivorous animal; yet, most quadrupeds being an overmatch for me, and field-mice, with some others too nimble, they could not imagine how I should be able to support myself, unless I fed upon snails and other insects, which they offered by many learned arguments to prove that I could not possibly do.

They would not allow me to be a dwarf, because my littleness was beyond all degrees of comparison; for the queen's favourite

dwarf, the smallest ever known in that kingdom, was near thirty feet high. After much debate, they concluded unanimously that I was only replum scalcath, which is interpreted literally lusus naturæ-a determination exactly agreeable to the modern philosophy of Europe, whose professors have invented this wonderful solution of all difficulties, to the unspeakable advancement of human knowledge.

After this decisive conclusion, I entreated to be heard a word or two. I applied myself to the king, and assured his majesty that I came from a country which abounded with millions of both sexes, and of my own stature; where the animals, trees, and houses were all in proportion; and where, in consequence, I might be as able to defend myself, and to find sustenance, as any of his majesty's subjects could do here. To this the learned men replied with a smile of contempt, saying that the farmer had instructed me very well in my lesson.

The king, who had a much better understanding, dismissed his learned men and sent for the farmer, who, by good fortune, was not yet gone out of town. Having, therefore, first examined him privately, and then confronted him with me and the young girl, his majesty began to think that what we told him might possibly be true. He desired the queen to order that a particular care should be taken of me; and was of opinion that Glumdalditch should still continue in her office of tending me, because he observed we had a great affection for each other.

A convenient apartment was provided for her at court. She had a sort of a governess appointed to take care of her education, a maid to dress her, and two other servants for menial offices; but the care of me was wholly appropriated to herself. The queen commanded her own cabinet-maker to contrive a box that might serve for a bedchamber, made after a model that Glumdalditch and I should agree upon. This man was a most ingenious artist, and, according to my description, in three weeks finished for me a wooden chamber of sixteen feet square and twelve feet high, with sash-windows, a door, and two closets, like a London bedchamber. A nice workman, who was famous for little curiosities, undertook to make me two chairs, with backs and frames of a substance not unlike ivory, and two tables, with cabinet to put my things in.