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Title: The New Gulliver and Other Stories

Author: Barry Pain

Release Date: August 27, 2010 [EBook #33542]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE NEW GULLIVER AND OTHER STORIES

By

BARRY PAIN

Author of "STORIES IN GREY"

T. WERNER LAURIE, Ltd.

CLIFFORD'S INN

LONDON

CONTENTS

THE NEW GULLIVER
IN A LONDON GARDEN
ZERO
WHEN I WAS KING
THE SATYR
THE CHOICE
THE PIANO-TUNER
THE PEARLS AND THE SWINE

THE NEW GULLIVER

CHAPTER I

_(The first few pages of the account of his travels by Mr Lemuel
Gulliver, junior, have unfortunately been damaged by fire and are for
the most part illegible. They contain reference to a sea-fog and to a
shipwreck. He appears to have escaped by swimming, and his record of the
number of days he spent in the water and the distance covered verges
upon the incredible. His statement that he lived principally upon the
raw flesh of those sharks which made the mistake of attacking him will
also be accepted with reserve by those who remember the latitude in
which the Island of Thule is traditionally placed. The legible and
consecutive manuscript begins with his arrival at the island.)_

I now wrung the water from my clothes as well as I might, and spread
them on the rocks in the sun. After an hour, perhaps, I was so far
recovered from my exertions that I thought I might now see what manner
of island this was to which my ill-chance had brought me. Donning my
clothes again I climbed up the low cliff.

The land that now lay before me appeared to be for the most part flat
and bleak in character. There were long stretches of sand and coarse
grass, and here and there a group of stunted shrubs. Presently, in the
far distance, by the aid of my perspective-glass, I made out several
cultivated plots, but nowhere could I detect any building which might
serve as a human habitation. At one point, which I guessed to be about
two miles away, a co