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10 - Gulliver's Travels - Jonathan Swift · Classic Adventure Books Library

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  Chapter two, a description of the farmer's daughter. The author carried to a
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  market town and then to the metropolis. The particulars of his journey. My
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  mistress had a daughter of nine years old, a child of towardly parts for
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  her age, very dexterous at her needle, and skillful in dressing her baby.
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  Her mother and she contrived to fit up the baby's cradle for me against
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  night. The cradle was put into a small drawer of a cabinet, and
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  the drawer placed upon a hanging shelf for fear of the rats. This was
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  my bed all the time I stayed with those people, though made more convenient
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  by degrees as I began to learn their language and make my wants known.
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  This young girl was so handy that after I had once or twice pulled off
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  my clothes before her, she was able to dress and undress me, though
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  I never gave her that trouble when she would let me do either myself.
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  She made me seven shirts and some other linen of as fine cloth as could
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  be got, which indeed was coarser than sackcloth, and these she constantly washed
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  for me with her own hands. She was likewise my schoolmistress to teach me
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  the language. When I pointed to anything, she told me the name of
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  it in her own tongue, so that in a few days I was able
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  to call for whatever I had a mind to. She was very good natured
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  and not above forty feet high. Being little for her age, she gave
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  me the name of Grildrigg, which the family took up and afterwards the whole
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  kingdom. The word imports what the Latins called nanunculus, the Italians Homo keel
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  tino, and the English Manikin to her. I chiefly owe my preservation in
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  that country. We never parted while I was there. I called her my
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  glumdale glitch or little nurse, and should be guilty of great ingratitude if I
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  admitted this honor mention of her care and affection towards me, which I heartily
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  wish it lay in my power to requite as she deserves, instead of being
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  the innocent but an happy instrument of a disgrace, as I have too much
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  reason to fear. It now began to be known and talked of in the
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  neighborhood that my master had found a strange animal in the field, about the
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  bigness of a splack nook, but exactly shaped in every part like a human
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  creature, which it likewise imitated in all its actions, seemed to speak in
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  a little language of its own, had already learned several words of theirs.
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  When erect upon two legs, was tame and gentle, would come when it
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  was called, do whatever it was bid. Had the finest limbs in the
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  world, and a complexion fairer than a nobleman's daughter of three years old.
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  Another farmer, who lived hard by and was a particular friend of my master,
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  came on a visit on purpose to inquire into the truth of this story.
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  I was immediately produced and placed upon a table, where I walked as
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  I was commanded, drew my hanger, put it up again, made my
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  reverence to my master's guest, asked him in his own language how he did,
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  and told him he was welcome, Just as my little nurse had instructed
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  me. This man, who was old and incited, put on his spectacles
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  to behold me better, at which I could not forbear, laughing very heartily,
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  for his eyes appeared like the full moon shining into a chamber at two
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  windows. Our people who discovered the cause of my mirth bore my company in
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  laughing, at which the old fellow was full enough to be angry and out
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  of countenance. He had the character of a great miser, and to my
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  misfortune, he well deserved it by the cursed advice he gave my master to
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  show me as a sight upon a market day in the next town, which
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  was half an hour's riding and two and twenty miles from our house. I
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  guessed there was some mischief when I observed my master and his friend whispering together,
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  sometimes pointing at me, and my fears made me fancy that I overheard
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  and understood some of their words. But the next morning, Glumdalklitch, my
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  little nurse, told me the whole matter, which she had cunningly picked out
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  from her mother. The poor girl laid me on her bosom and fell a
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  weeping with shame and grief. She apprehended some mischief would happen to me from
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  rude, vulgar folks, who might squeeze me to death or break one of
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  my limbs by taking me in their hands. She had also observed how modest
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  I was in my nature, how nicely I regarded my honor, and what
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  an indignity, I should conceive it to be exposed for money, as a
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  public spectacle to the meanest of the people. She said to her Papa and
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  Mamma had promised that Grildric should be hers, but now she found they meant
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  to serve her as they did last year when they pretended to give her a
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  lamb, and yet as soon as it was fact sold it to a butcher.
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  For my own part, I may truly affirm that I was less concerned
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  than my nurse. I had a strong hope which never left me, that
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  I should one day recover my liberty, And as to the ignominy of being
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  carried about for a monster, I considered myself to be a perfect stranger in
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  the country, and that such a misfortune could never be charged upon me as
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  a reproach, if ever I should return to England, since the King of
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  Great Britain himself, in my condition, must have undergone the same distress.
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  My master, pursuant to the advice of his friend, carried me in a
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  box the next market day to the neighboring town, and took along with him
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  his little daughter, my nurse, upon a pillion behind him. The box
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  was close on every side, with a little door for me to go in
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  and out, and a few gibnet holes to let in air. The girl
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  had been so careful as to put the quilt of her baby's bed into it
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  for me to lie down on it. However, I was terribly shaken and
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  discomposed in this journey, though it was but of half an hour, for
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  the horse went about forty feet at every step, and trotted so high that
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  the agitation was equal to the rising and falling of a ship in a great
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  storm, but much more frequent. Our journey was somewhat farther than from London
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  to Saint Alban's. My master alighted at an inn which he used to frequent,
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  and after consulting a while with the innkeeper and making some necessary preparations,
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  he hired the goltrod or crier to give notice through the town of a strange
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  creature to be seen at the sign of the Green Eagle, not so big
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  as a spluck nock, an annual in that country, very finely shaped,
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  about six feet long, and in every part of the body resembling a human
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  creature, could speak several words, and before a hundred diverting tricks. I
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  was placed upon a table in the largest room of the nar which might be
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  near three hundred feet square. My little nur stood on a low stool close
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  to the table to take care of me and direct what I should do.
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  My master to avoid a crowd would suffer only thirty people at a time to
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  see me. I walked about on the table as the girl commanded. She
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  asked me questions as far as she knew. My understanding of the language reached,
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  and I answered them as loud as I could. I turned about several
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  times to the company, paid my humble respects, said they were welcome,
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  and used some other speeches I had been taught. I took up a thimble
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  filled with liqueur which Glumdalklitch had given me for a cup, and drank their
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  health. I dropped my hanger and flourished with it after the manner of fences
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  in England. My nurse gave me a part of a straw, which I
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  exercised as a pike, having learnt the art in my youth. I was
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  that day shown to twelve sets of company, and as often forced to act
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  over again the same fopperies till I was half dead with weariness and vexation,
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  for those who had seen me made such wonderful reports that the people were ready
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  to break down the doors to come in. My master, for his own
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  interest, would not suffer any one to touch me except my nurse, and
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  to prevent danger, bengeres were set round the table at a distance as to
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  put me out of everybody's reach. However, an unlucky schoolboy aimed a hazel
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  nut directly at my head, which very narrowly missed me. Otherwise it came
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  with so much violence that it would have infallibly knocked out my brains, for
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  it was almost as large as the small pumpkin. But I had the satisfaction
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  to see the young rogue well beaten and turned out of the room. My
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  master gave public notice that he would show me again the next market day,
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  and in the meantime he prepared a covenant vehicle for me, which he had
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  reason enough to do, for I was so tired with my first journey,
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  and with entertaining company for eight hours together, that I could hardly stand upon
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  my legs or speak a word. It was at least three days before I
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  recovered my strength, and that I might have no rest at home all the
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  neighboring gentlemen from a hundred miles round, hearing of my fame, came to
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  see me. At my master's own house. There could not be fewer than
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  thirty persons with their wives and children, for the country is very populous,
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  and my master demanded the rate of a full room whenever he showed me at
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  home, although it were only to a single family, so that for some
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  time I had but little ease every day of the week except Wednesday, which
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  is there sabbath. Although I were not carried to the town, my master,
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  finding how profitable I was likely to be, resolved to carry me to
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  the most considerable cities of the kingdom. Having therefore provided himself with all the
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  things necessary for a long journey, and settled his affairs at home, he
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  took leave of his wife, and upon the seventeenth of orbus Gust seventeen o
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  three, about two months after my arrival, we set out for the metropolis,
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  situated near the middle of that empire and about three thousand miles distance from
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  our house. My master made his daughter, Glumdalklitch, ride behind him.
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  She carried me on her lap in a box tied about her waist. The
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  girl had lined it on all sides with the softest cloth she could get,
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  well quilted underneath, furnished it with her baby's bed, provided me with linen
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  and other necessaries, and made everything as convenient as she could. We had
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  no other company but a boy of the house, who rode after us with
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  the luggage. My master's design was to show me in all the towns by
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  the way, and to step out of the road for fifty or a hundred
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  miles to any village or person of qualities house where he might expect custom.
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  We made easy journeys of not above seven or eight score miles a day for
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  glumdalklitch on purpose to sept complained. She was tired with the trotting of the
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  horse. She often took me out of my box at my own desire to
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  give me air and show me the country, but always held me fast by
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  a leading string, who passed over five or six rivers many degrees broader and
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  deeper than the Nile or the Ganges. And there was hardly river let so
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  small as the Thames. At London Bridge, we were ten weeks in our
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  journey, and I was shown in eighteen large towns beside many villages and private
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  families. On the twenty sixth day of October, we arrived at the metropolis,
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  called in their language law Berlgrud or Pride of the Universe. My master
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  took a lodging in the principal street of the city, not far from the
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  royal Palace, and put out bills in the usual form containing an exact description
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  of my person and parts. He hired a large room between three and four
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  hundred feet wide. He provided a table sixty feet in diameter upon which I
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  was to act my part, and pallisdoed it round three feet from the edge
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  and as many high to prevent my falling over. I was shown ten times
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  a day, to the wonder and satisfaction of all people. I could now
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  speak the language tolerably well and perfectly understood every word that was spoken to me.
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  Besides, I had learnt their alphabet and could make a shift to explain
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  a sentence here and there. For Glumdalklitch had been my instructor while we were
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  at home and at leisure hours during our journey. She carried a little book
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  in her pocket, not much larger than a Samson's atlas. It was a
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  common treatise for the use of young girls, giving a short account of their
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  religion. Out of this she taught me my letters and interpreted the words.
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  End of Chapter two, Part two