wenty
miles from our house. I guessed there was some mischief contriving
when I observed my master and his friend whispering long together,
sometimes pointing at me; and my fears made me fancy that I overheard
and understood some of their words.

But the next morning Glumdalclitch, my little nurse, told me the whole
matter, which she had cunningly picked out from her mother. The poor
girl laid me on her bosom, and fell a-weeping with shame and grief.
She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from rude vulgar
folks, who might squeeze me to death, or break one of my limbs by
taking me in their hands. She had also observed how modest I was in my
nature, how nicely I regarded my honor, and what an indignity I should
conceive it to be exposed for money as a public spectacle to the
meanest of the people. She said her papa and mama had promised that
Grildrig should be hers; but now she found they meant to serve her as
they did last year, when they pretended to give her a lamb, and yet,
as soon as it was fat, sold it to a butcher. For my own part, I may
truly affirm that I was less concerned than my nurse. I had a strong
hope, which never left me, that I should one day recover my liberty:
and as to the ignominy of being carried about for a monster, I
considered myself to be a perfect stranger in the country, and that
such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as a reproach if ever
I should return to England, since the King of Great Britain himself,
in my condition, must have undergone the same distress.

My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a box
the next market-day to the neighboring town, and took along with him
his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him. The box was
close on every side, with a little door for me to go in and out, and a
few gimlet-holes to let in air. The girl had been so careful as to put
the quilt of her baby's bed into it for me to lie down on. However, I
was terribly shaken and discomposed in this journey, tho it were but
of half an hour; for the horse went about forty feet at every step,
and trotted so high that the agitation was equal to the rising and
falling of a ship in a great storm, but much more frequent. Our
journey was somewhat farther than from London to St. Alban's. My
master alighted at an inn which he used to frequent; and after
consulting a while with the innkeeper, and making some necessary
preparations, he hired the "grultrud," or cri