From then on, the king of Lilliput did not demand much of me.
I suppose that was because he no longer liked me.
I could do as I pleased and go wherever I liked in Lilliput.
Not long after the Blefuscan officials visited me, I had an opportunity to help the king of Lilliput.
About midnight one night, people screaming outside my house woke me up.
They were frantic, and I could not understand what they were shouting.
Suddenly, some palace officials arrived.
"Hurry!" one of them cried.
"You must come with us.
It's an emergency—the palace is on fire!"
"Of course," I replied and rushed to get dressed.
"Jump onto my hand.
I'll carry you all so that we'll get there quickly."
We hurried to the palace.
The fire had started by accident in the room of one of the queen's maids.
A burning candle had fallen over and some curtains caught on fire.
When we arrived, the fire was out of control.
Many people were trying to put it out.
Two ladders were leaning up against the castle walls near the open windows of the maid's room.
A man was at the top of each ladder.
People were passing buckets of water up to those men.
The men threw water on the flames, but it did not do much good.
The Lilliputian buckets were tiny and held very little water.
As each minute passed, the fire burned more strongly.
"The fire's spread to another room!" cried one of the men on the ladder.
"The whole palace might burn down!" shouted the other one.
A feeling in my body suddenly gave me an idea.
The night before, I had drunk quite a lot of wine.
The wine had made me very thirsty.
So I had drunk a lot of water too, enough to fill about twenty Lilliputian barrels.
I had felt so tired after drinking the wine that I had fallen asleep right away.
I could feel all that water still inside me.
The firefighters did not have enough water to put out the fire. But I did.
"Stand back!" I shouted to them.
"I will put out the fire.
Please turn your backs to me and don't look."
I did just what a little boy would do when he is outside and needs to go to the bathroom.
I aimed through the open windows at the fire.
Soon, the fire was out.
"Hooray!" shouted the crowd of people who had been watching.
"Three cheers for the Enormous One!
He has saved the palace."
The emergency was over, so I went back to my house.
I was happy that I had been able to put out the fire.
But I was worried that the king would not like the way I had done it.
The king had a law about people doing what I had done right outside the palace.
The next day, the king sent me a message. It said:
Enormous One: Your behavior was against the law.
I realize, though, that there was no other way to put out the fire.
So I will excuse your bad behavior just this once.
I am grateful that you saved my palace.
The queen was not as understanding as the king.
My behavior disgusted her.
She told everyone she would not allow the burned part of the palace to be repaired.
"I will never go into those rooms again," she said.
"I will never forgive the giant.
He has no manners!"