l us that nothing is great or little otherwise than
by comparison. It might have pleased fortune to let the Lilliputians
find some nation where the people were as diminutive with respect to
them as they were to me. And who knows but that even this prodigious
race of mortals might be equally overmatched in some distant part of the
world, whereof we have yet no discovery?

Scared and confounded as I was, I could not forbear going on with these
reflections, when one of the reapers, approaching within ten yards of
the ridge where I lay, made me apprehend that with the next step I
should be squashed to death under his foot, or cut in two with his
reaping-hook. And, therefore, when he was again about to move, I
screamed as loud as fear could make me. Whereupon the huge creature trod
short, and looking round about under him for some time, at last espied
me as I lay on the ground. He considered awhile, with the caution of one
who endeavors to lay hold on a small dangerous animal in such a manner
that it shall not be able either to scratch or to bite him, as I myself
have sometimes done with a weasel in England.

[Illustration: "WHEREUPON THE HUGE CREATURE TROD SHORT." P. 10.]

At length he ventured to take me up between his forefinger and thumb,
and brought me within three yards of his eyes, that he might behold my
shape more perfectly. I guessed his meaning, and my good fortune gave me
so much presence of mind that I resolved not to struggle in the least as
he held me in the air, above sixty feet from the ground, although he
grievously pinched my sides, for fear I should slip through his fingers.
All I ventured was to raise my eyes towards the sun, and place my
hands together in a supplicating posture, and to speak some words in an
humble melancholy tone, suitable to the condition I then was in. For I
apprehended every moment that he would dash me against the ground, as we
usually do any little hateful animal which we have a mind to destroy.
But my good star would have it that he appeared pleased with my voice
and gestures, and began to look upon me as a curiosity, much wondering
to hear me pronounce articulate words, although he could not understand
them. In the meantime I was not able to forbear groaning and shedding
tears, and turning my head towards my sides; letting him know, as well
as I could, how cruelly I was hurt by the pressure of his thumb and
finger. He seemed to apprehend my meaning; for, lifting up the lappet o