[Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift]@TWC D-Link bookGulliver’s Travels CHAPTER VIII 9/10
I had only one misfortune, that the rats on board carried away one of my sheep; I found her bones in a hole, picked clean from the flesh.
The rest of my cattle I got safe ashore, and set them a-grazing in a bowling-green at Greenwich, where the fineness of the grass made them feed very heartily, though I had always feared the contrary: neither could I possibly have preserved them in so long a voyage, if the captain had not allowed me some of his best biscuit, which, rubbed to powder, and mingled with water, was their constant food. The short time I continued in England, I made a considerable profit by showing my cattle to many persons of quality and others: and before I began my second voyage, I sold them for six hundred pounds.
Since my last return I find the breed is considerably increased, especially the sheep, which I hope will prove much to the advantage of the woollen manufacture, by the fineness of the fleeces. I stayed but two months with my wife and family, for my insatiable desire of seeing foreign countries, would suffer me to continue no longer.
I left fifteen hundred pounds with my wife, and fixed her in a good house at Redriff.
My remaining stock I carried with me, part in money and part in goods, in hopes to improve my fortunes.
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