Henry Brocken

o talk wit

from a far

TAYLOR C

ining dazzling clear high above me, and, next, that the delightful noise of running water babbled close against my ear. I lay upon a str

cold rills. This soon refreshed me, for the sun had, it would seem, long been dwel

before my mind returned fully to

d snatched her bridle also out of Fate's grasp. Perhaps even now she was seeking her master by the greener pasture of the wide plains around me. Perhaps the far-o

few steps along the banks of the stream-for here was fresh water, at least-when a sound like

descried an innumerable herd of horses streaming across these level pastures, and at the extre

e much above my own, yet so gross in shape and immense of head he seemed at first almost dwarfish. He came to a stand twenty paces or so from me, on the ridge of a gentle inclination, and gazed down on me with wild, bright eyes. Even at this distance I could p

, and demanded loudly where I was, what was this place, and who was he. His very ears pricked forward, he listened so intently. He came nearer yet, then stayed, tossed his head into the air, whirled the long leath

ared to be a vast wooden shed, or barn, with one rude chimney, and surrounded by a thi

ucted me thither, told, I suppose, where he had found me, and poured out with childish zeal his own amazement and delight. By this time, too, his voice had begun to lose its first strangeness, and to take a meaning for me. And I

desire no tidings of what follies may be beyond my boundaries, no aid, and no amity. I admit no trespasser here and will bear with none. It appears, however, that your life has passed beyond your own keeping: I may not, therefore, refuse you shelte

t tender recognition, as if, little though his speec

ut of these open lands into this repellent yard. I glanced at the shock-haired creature, alert, half-human, beside me; across the li

I need have no fear of blood and treachery at his hands, however primitive and disgusting his household, or distorted his intellect might be. He

t quite so calmly. Yet even in his broad countenance dwelt a

both of them as squarely in the face as I knew how, passed o

sun that revolted me. All man's seemliness and affection for the natural things of earth were absent. Here was only a brutal and bald order, as of an intelligence like that of the yellow-locked, swift-footed creature behind me. Perhaps also it was the mere unfamiliarit

ow at my side, and would to heave

at faint and disgusting,-perhaps because it was merely strange to me. The walls of this lofty room were of rough, substantial timber, bare and weatherproof; the floor was of the colour of earth, seemi

tle mound, and doubtless commanded from its upper

lullaby, and cold too with exhaustion after running so far at the heels of the creature who had found me. And I dwelt in a kind of dream on the tra

Yet not so fast as that the young "Gulliver" had not finished his before me, and sat at length watching every mouthful I took from beneath his sun-enticing thatch of hair. Ever and again he would toss up his chin with a shrill guffaw, or stoop his

last, long, brotherly glance at me, he withdrew. And presently after I heard from afar his high, m

beam of sunlight drew across the floor. The crisp air of the pasture flowed th