After two years in the country of Brobdingnag, the king and queen made a journey to the towns and cities of the south. I travelled with them in my box.

We arrived near the sea. Glumdalclitch and I were very tired after our journey, but I wanted to see the sea again.

'Glumdalclitch,' I said, 'we're tired, but I'd like to be outside. Let's go down to the sea.'

She called a boy. He carried my box, and we went out. The boy was not very careful. I felt more ill than before.

'I'll sleep for a time,' I told Glumdalclitch.

She shut my windows and my door. Then I went to sleep.

Suddenly I woke up, because the box moved. Up and up, and very fast. I moved to a window and opened it. I looked out, but I could see nothing - only sky.

Then I knew.

'One of the country's great seabirds is carrying me away!' I cried.' When it's near its home, it will break my box. Then the bird will carry me to the young birds for food.'

My box began to move faster and faster - up and down. Through the window I saw two other birds. They began to fight with my bird and it could not carry me.

I fell into the sea with a loud noise and I went down ... down ... under the dark water. Then, suddenly, my box came up again to the top of the water and stayed there.

'I'm not dead!' I cried, 'and the water isn't coming in. But what's going to happen to me? How can I get out? Will I die because I'm hungry or thirsty or cold? Will great winds break my box ?'

* * *

One day, I heard a loud noise. Something pulled my box up about a metre, and I could hear the sound of people. So I shouted in different languages. Something or somebody moved the top of the box, and then I heard, in English, the words: 'Is anybody there?'

'Yes,' I shouted.' I'm an Englishman. Please help me.'

'Your box is now near our ship,' he answered, 'and one of our men is going to break it. Then you can climb out.'

'No don't, wait!' I called.' Pull the box out of the water and put me on a table.'

The men laughed. When I was out of the box and in the ship, I understood. They were not bigger than I was!

'Why are you shouting ?' asked one man.

'Do you know the country of Brobdingnag?' I asked him. ‘There the people are very very big - more than twenty metres tall. I had to shout, or they couldn't hear me. I was there before my journey in the box.'

‘This can't be true,' he said.

So I showed him the things in my box. When he saw a tooth from one of the king's servants, he laughed. It was nearly half a metre long.

'Please can I have it ?' he asked.

After that he was kind to me. ‘When you're in England again, you'll have to write down your story,' he said.

* * *

Then I travelled home to my family. It was strange in a world with people of my size.

'Am I in Lilliput again?' I thought.

I could not see my wife and children because I always looked up at the sky. I had to do this in Brobdingnag when I wanted to see people's faces.

My family and friends talked about me.

‘He's ill after his travels,' said one friend.

‘He isn't going to sea again!' said my wife.

But I travelled again, and you will read about that journey in my next story.