[00:02.66] Chapter 6, The Wisdom of the King.
[00:07.86] I got so tired of being laughed at by everyone in Brobdingnag,
[00:13.96] that I started making things, for I could do finer work with my small hands than any of the king's craftsmen.
[00:24.26] I made a purse out of the Queen's hair, and even a comb from bits of the king's beard.
[00:34.66] But it was when the king and I talked to each other, that I was really able to show myself to be a clever and sensible man.
[00:47.56] As I pointed out to him, small creatures like bees are cleverer and more hard-working than many larger animals.
[00:56.86] After all, people don't always expect the tallest person to have the best brains.
[01:06.86] The king was a wise man, and he wanted to hear all about where I'd come from, because he was hoping to find some good ideas he could copy in Brobdingnag.
[01:20.36] So I told him all about everything.
[01:24.96] I told him about the army, our hobbies, the law, Parliament, and finished up with a quick trip through our history.
[01:41.36] All this took several afternoons, and at the end of it all, the king, who had been taking notes, had a whole list of questions for me.
[01:55.26] Now, Brobdingnag is completely cut off from the rest of the world, so the people there are very ignorant and backward.
[02:07.56] I think that was why the king hadn't really understood very much that I told him.
[02:15.46] His first question was, how were our members of parliament trained?
[02:22.86] And he was very surprised to find out they weren't actually trained at all.
[02:31.76] I have to say though, that the king didn't know very much about making up laws, because in Brobdingnag, no law is allowed to be more than 22 words long.
[02:46.26] This means that even ordinary people can understand the laws perfectly well, so there is hardly any need for lawyers or politicians.
[02:56.66] I found this very strange indeed.
[03:05.26] The king hadn't understood anything much I'd said about the army either.
[03:12.46] He couldn't understand why people meddled with things outside their own kingdom.
[03:21.46] He was also astonished by what I told him about our history, which seemed to him to be all murders, plots and rebellions.
[03:34.96] And when I told him about our marvelous invention called a gun, that can shoot out bits of metal so hard it can sink ships holding a thousand men, or even knock the walls of cities down, he was filled with horror at the thought of so much blood and destruction.
[03:58.86] He said he'd rather lose half his kingdom than use such a thing, and he commanded me never to tell anybody else about it.
[04:09.46] This was obviously very silly of him.
[04:13.96] But then, the king had such odd ideas that he thought that all you needed to run a country was common sense and fairness.
[04:26.76] This, of course, made him quite unlike any human ruler.
[04:33.76] He also said that anyone who could make two ears of corn grow where one had grown before, would do more good for his country than any king.
[04:47.26] When we got to hobbies, he was very puzzled by the idea of lotteries and gambling, and asked if it didn't make some people very poor and unhappy.
[05:03.86] At last, when I'd explained everything as well as I could, the king closed his book of notes.
[05:14.06] And then he told me very gently that although I seemed a nice, honest sort of man, the little people who were the rulers of the countries I'd told him about, seemed to be the nastiest collection of horrible creatures that ever crawled upon the face of the earth.
[05:34.56] I was quite upset about him talking about humans like that.
[05:39.76] Perhaps the king found it hard to take us seriously because we were small.
[05:47.76] After all, I'd felt much the same way about the leaders of Lilliput.
[05:56.36] I always hoped that someday I'd go home from Brobdingnag.
[06:04.16] As I said, everyone was very kind, but I was longing to be able to walk about without being afraid of being trodden to death by a frog.
[06:19.46] I'd been in Brobdingnag for about two years when the king and queen decided to visit their Southern Palace, which was near the coast.
[06:31.06] I journeyed quite comfortably in my traveling box.
[06:35.96] I even got a chance to enjoy the sun, which came through my skylight onto my hammock.
[06:43.96] Poor Glumdalclitch, however, got a dreadful cold on the journey.
[06:51.66] She had to go to bed, and when a page took me down to the beach, the sight of the waves that separated me from home made me so sad that I began to feel ill myself.
[07:06.46] I decided to have a lie down in my hammock while the page went off to look for bird's eggs.
[07:15.86] I was woken up by my box jerking about so violently that it nearly tipped me out onto the floor.
[07:27.36] And before I knew what was happening, my box had shot up into the air and I was being carried away very fast.
[07:37.26] I shouted for help, but there was no answer, and when I heard a loud flapping above my head, I realized my terrible danger.
[07:49.36] An eagle had picked up my box, so it could smash it on the rocks.
[07:56.06] Then it could pick my body out of the wreckage and eat it, just as it did with tortoises.
[08:05.66] There were a couple of huge bangs, and my box began to fall so fast I could hardly breathe.
[08:18.46] The fall ended in a huge roaring noise, and everything went dark.
[08:25.56] I'd given myself up for lost, when I began to rise up again and saw green light through my windows.
[08:34.46] My box was floating on the sea.
[08:40.46] I suppose my bird must have been attacked by other eagles, which made it drop me.
[08:50.16] My box was leaking only a little, but my skylight was open, and one big wave could easily tip my box over and sink it.
[09:01.86] Even if I didn't drown, I wasn't going to survive long at sea without water or food.
[09:10.86] I spent about four hours lurching about on the water, expecting every moment to be my last.
[09:20.46] And in the end, I heard a scratching sound, and my box began to bob about in a different way, as if I was being towed.
[09:37.06] I hurriedly unscrewed