When the queen traveled with the king, she liked to take Glumdalclitch and me with her.
I enjoyed traveling with them and seeing the countryside.
I was amazed at how big Brobdingnag was compared to England.
"I can't believe the size of your country!"
I often exclaimed to Glumdalclitch.
"It is five thousand kilometers wide and ten thousand kilometers long.
England would fit into it many times over!
I wonder why we in England have never heard of Brobdingnag."
"The tutor said that my country is a peninsula," she reminded me.
"That means that the sea surrounds the country on three sides.
On the fourth side, the mountains are so high that no one has ever been able to cross them.
The sea near Brobdingnag is full of rocks and always very rough.
Before your ship, no other ship had ever come close to Brobdingnag.
You are the first person from another country to come here."
"My ship had almost run out of water," I told her.
"We were desperate.
That is why the sailors and I came here in the rowboat.
We were lucky to find a little beach to land on."
During our travels, I learned a lot about Brobdingnag.
It contained 51 big cities, hundreds of large towns, and many villages.
We lived in the capital city.
A river about five kilometers wide ran through the capital.
The palace, which was near the river, was not just one building, but dozens of buildings.
Even the smallest one was many times bigger than the largest building in England.
What really amazed me about the palace was the kitchen.
Glumdalclitch and I visited it one day.
"It looks to be almost two hundred meters high!" I exclaimed to Glumdalclitch.
"And I've never seen pots and pans and knives this big.
That knife there is three times as tall as I am!
If I ever get back to England, no one will believe me when I tell them about this kitchen."
My days in the capital were very pleasant.
Sometimes Glumdalclitch said to me,
"Let's go out and explore the city.
We always see such interesting things.
Because I lived on a farm, I am just as curious as you are about this city."
I enjoyed exploring, so I always said,
"That's a great idea."
We traveled in one of the palace carriages pulled by horses.
Glumdalclitch put me in my box and held it on her lap.
"Look at that," she would say to me when something caught her attention.
"Would you like a better view?
I'll ask the driver to stop so that you can see better."
One day the queen said, "Your bedroom box is too big for traveling.
Glumdalclitch has trouble holding it on her lap, and I am afraid that she might drop it.
I will tell the carpenter to make you a smaller one."
"How kind of you," I said to her.
"A smaller box will be much more convenient.
My new traveling box was about three and a half meters square and three meters high.
Three of the walls had a window with metal bars on the outside to protect me.
Two large loops on the fourth side of my box could be used to tie the box to the waist of whoever carried it.
"Look!" exclaimed Glumdalclitch.
"The furniture is attached to the floor.
It can't move around and hurt you!"
Also, the clever carpenter had hung a hammock from the ceiling.
"Are you comfortable?" she asked as she carried my box.
"Very comfortable," I replied, swinging in my cozy hammock.