Becky said to her father, "My friend told me how she found this tiny little man in her garden". Her father looked up from his book with an expression suggesting interest, so she continued.
"He was just a few inches high, but he looked the same as an ordinary man. He was wearing clothes like you see in the history books, and he had a tiny sword in his hand".
Becky's father, of course, wasn't fooled for an instant by this roundabout way of approaching the story. While Becky was speaking he turned round to scrabble in the bookcase until he found the volume he wanted.
"So did the tiny little man say anything to your friend?" he asked, "And did he speak English?"
"Yes: he asked her to help him".
"He'd certainly need some help!" her father said. "Here we are: Gulliver's Travels; the voyage to Lilliput, where the people are only six inches high. Has your friend read it, I wonder? Now in Lilliput everything is tiny: the animals, the birds, even the trees. But it would be a different matter if any Lilliputians tried to live here, where things are large. They couldn't last five minutes; it would be sheer murder!"
"Why?"
"Just think about it. How could people only six inches high defend themselves against stoats and foxes, or against hawks and owls? I think they'd have to live in the trees, like squirrels, and build themselves nests".
"They'd have weapons! This man had a sword".
"Swift's Lilliputians had sword too. It's a nice idea, but unfortunately it's impossible. If you were just six inches high, you couldn't build a fire hot enough to work metal. In fact, fire would be a terrible danger, like it is to all small creatures, and so would floods. You can read in this book how in Lilliput the royal palace catches fire and how Gulliver puts it out, though it's actually very rude!"
"Couldn't they survive somehow?"
"I think their best bet would be to get into someone's house and live under the floorboards, like the Borrowers. Then they'd be warm and dry, and they could pick up scraps of food, and find needles and nails to defend themselves against rats or other animals. I think if the tiny man asks for help again, your friend ought to invite him indoors.
"Oh, and by the way, she might ask him where he learned to speak English."
Later, Becky went down to the wild area at the bottom of the garden behind the pond, and waited. After a while the little man appeared again. He was so small he only reached half way up to her knee. He had black hair and a black beard, and wore a kind of white tunic. His sword was still in his hand.
"Would you like to come and live in our house, to keep you safe from wild animals?" asked Becky. But all he said was "Help me!" Becky wasn't sure whether she heard him speak, or it was a voice inside her head.
"How can I help you?" she asked.
"Find the Sampo. Find the Sampo".
"But I don't know what that is, or where to look!" Becky said. But the little man had vanished.
(To be continued)
