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V . Big - Endians and Little - Endians Two weeks after I got my freedom , Reldresal came to see me . He sat in my hand while we talked . “ Our country has two great problems , ” he said . “ There is a quarrel at home , and there is danger from abroad . At home we have two parties , the High - Heels and the Low - Heels . They are named after the heels of their shoes . The Emperor uses only Low - Heels in his government . The two parties hate each other so much that they will not eat or talk together . We are a little worried that the Emperor’s son likes the High - Heels . At least , one of his heels is higher than the other , so he limps . “ Now the danger from abroad . The island of Blefuscu is the other great empire of the world . You say that there are other countries full of people as big as you . But our wise men do not believe it . They think you fell from the moon . Our history of six thousand moons speaks of only two great empires , Lilliput and Blefuscu . And for thirty - six moons they have been at war . “ This is how it started . In the old days everybody broke their eggs at the big end . But when our Emperor’s grandfather was a boy , he broke an egg in this way and cut his finger . So his father made a new law . From that day , everybody had to break their eggs at the small end . We call the people who refused Big - Endians . “ The people hated this law . There have been six rebellions because of it . One Emperor lost his life , and another lost his crown . The rebels always ran away to Blefuscu , and its kings helped them . Eleven thousand people have chosen to die rather than break their eggs at the small end . People have written hundreds of books about this question . But the books of the Big - Endians are forbidden here . “ The rulers of Blefuscu say that we have broken the teaching of our great prophet Lustrog . His holy book says that ‘ all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end ’ . I think every man can decide for himself which end is the convenient one . But the Big - Endians have many friends in Blefuscu , so the war goes on . We have lost forty large ships and thirty thousand men . Now the enemy has built a great fleet , a whole army of ships , and they are ready to attack us . The Emperor trusts in your strength . ” “ I am a stranger here , ” I said , “ so I will not take part in your quarrels . But I am ready to risk my life to protect the Emperor and his country against any enemy . ” VI . The Fleet and the Fire Only a channel of sea , eight hundred yards wide , lay between Lilliput and Blefuscu . I told the Emperor my plan : I wanted to capture the enemy’s whole fleet . The sailors told me that the channel was about six feet deep in the middle . I lay down behind a small hill and looked across the water with my telescope . I saw about fifty warships in the harbour . I asked for their strongest rope and some iron bars . Their rope was as thin as string . I made it three times thicker , and I bent the bars into hooks . In this way I made fifty hooks on fifty ropes .
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