THE CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
WITH COLOUR PICTURES
SOME years before my beard announced approaching manhood, or, in other words, when I was neither man nor boy, I expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world, from which I was discouraged by my parents. A cousin of my mother's took a fancy to me, and his eloquence had more effect than mine, for my father consented to my accompanying him.
I set off on a journey to Russia, in the midst of winter. I went on horseback, as the most convenient manner of traveling. I was but lightly clothed, and of this I felt the inconvenience the more I advanced north-east. I went on: night and darkness overtook me. No village was to be seen. The country was covered with snow, and I was unacquainted with the road. Tired, I alighted and fastened my horse to something, like a pointed stump of a tree, which appeared above the snow. For the sake of safety, I placed my pistols under my arm, and lay down on the snow, where I slept so soundly that I did not open my eyes until full daylight. It is not easy to conceive my astonishment to find myself in the midst of a village, lying in a churchyard; nor was my horse to be seen, but I heard him soon after neigh somewhere above me. On looking upwards I beheld him hanging by his bridle to the weather-cock of the steeple. Matters were now very plain to me: the village had been covered with snow overnight: a sudden change of weather had taken place; I had sunk down to the churchyard while asleep, gently, and in the same proportion as the snow had melted away; and what in the dark I had taken to be a stump of a little tree appearing above the snow, to which I
THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN
WITH COLOUR PICTURES
SOME years before my beard announced approaching manhood, or, in other words, when I was neither man nor boy, I expressed in repeated conversations a strong desire of seeing the world, from which I was discouraged by my parents. A cousin of my mother's took a fancy to me, and his eloquence had more effect than mine, for my father consented to my accompanying him.
I set off on a journey to Russia, in the midst of winter. I went on horseback, as the most convenient manner of traveling. I was but lightly clothed, and of this I felt the inconvenience the more I advanced north-east. I went on: night and darkness overtook me. No village was to be seen. The country was covered with snow, and I was unacquainted with the road. Tired, I alighted and fastened my horse to something, like a pointed stump of a tree, which appeared above the snow. For the sake of safety, I placed my pistols under my arm, and lay down on the snow, where I slept so soundly that I did not open my eyes until full daylight. It is not easy to conceive my astonishment to find myself in the midst of a village, lying in a churchyard; nor was my horse to be seen, but I heard him soon after neigh somewhere above me. On looking upwards I beheld him hanging by his bridle to the weather-cock of the steeple. Matters were now very plain to me: the village had been covered with snow overnight: a sudden change of weather had taken place; I had sunk down to the churchyard while asleep, gently, and in the same proportion as the snow had melted away; and what in the dark I had taken to be a stump of a little tree appearing above the snow, to which I
