An American Robinson Crusoe for American Boys and Girls, Page 3

  Then he threw a great stone on the nut. The shell was crushed and asnow-white kernel lay before him. It tasted like almond. Withastonishment Robinson saw in the middle of the nut a large empty spacewhich must have been filled with fluid as the inside was wet. He wishedthat he had the juice to drink, for he was very thirsty. With this inview, he examined another and riper nut, and the outside came off moreeasily. But how could he break it and at the same time save the juice?He studied the hull of the cocoanut on all sides. At the ends were threelittle hollows. He attempted first to bore in with his fingers, but hecould not. "Hold!" he cried. "Maybe I can cut them there with the pointof my stone knife." This was done without trouble and out of the holeflowed the sweet, white juice.

  Robinson put a couple of nuts in his hunting bag, and also the shellsfrom the broken nuts. "Now," he thought, "I shall no longer have todrink from my hand." With this thought he went on his way.

  As Robinson came to a rock in his path, out jumped what Robinson took tobe a rabbit. He ran after him to catch him, but the rabbit was much theswifter. So Robinson hastened home, but before he reached it the starswere shining with their lustrous light. Tired Robinson stretched hislimbs on his bed of grass and leaves and slept soundly.

  XIV

  ROBINSON AS A HUNTER

  All the time Robinson was confined to the cave he kept thinking aboutthe rabbit he had seen and how he might catch one. Finally, hedetermined to make a spear. He broke down a thin, young sapling,stripped off its branches and in one end fastened a sharp stone. He thenwent to bed, for he wanted to be up early for his first hunting trip onthe morrow.

  With his hunting sack and spear, Robinson began to creep very, verycautiously through the underbrush. But he did not go far before he saw alot of rabbits feeding peacefully on the soft leaves and grass. He drewback and threw his spear with all his might. But the spear did not reachthe rabbits. It fell far short and the rabbits sprang up and ran quicklyaway. He tried it several times with the same result. Then Robinson,discouraged, turned back home and ate his corn, bananas, and cocoanutswithout meat. In the meantime he found a new kind of food. Hediscovered a nest of eggs. How good they tasted to him!

  But his longing for meat was still very great. "I will try to make a bowand arrow," he said. No sooner said than done. He bent a long piece oftough, young wood and stretched between the ends a cord twisted out ofthe fiber taken from the cocoanut shell. He then sought for a piece ofwood for arrows. He split the ends with his flint knife and fastened insplinters of stone. At the other end he fastened on some feathers foundon the ground. The arrows flew through the air with great swiftness."They will go far enough," thought Robinson, "if I could only hitanything."

  He practised shooting. He stuck his stone knife in a tree and shot at itthe whole day long. At first he could not hit it at all. The arrows flewfar from the mark. After a while he could hit the tree, but not theknife. Then as he practised, his arm grew ever surer, until at last hecould hit the knife at almost every attempt. After a few days he againwent rabbit hunting. He thought that the rabbit did not offer a mark sohigh as his knife, so he stuck a stone in the ground and practisedshooting at that. He gradually increased the distance until he could hitthe mark at twenty or thirty yards.

  The next morning Robinson took his bow and arrows and went out to hunt.He aimed at a rabbit, shot, and it fell, pierced by the arrow. His veryfirst shot was successful.

  He hastened up and took the dead rabbit on his shoulder, carried it tohis cave and skinned it. Then he cut off a nice, large piece of meat andwas going to roast it, but alas, he had no fire!

  XV

  ROBINSON'S SHOES AND PARASOL

  The next morning Robinson could not get up. His feet were swollen andsore in consequence of walking without shoes over thorns and stones. Hemust remain the whole day in his cave.

  Before him, in the sun, his walking stick stuck in the ground. Hethought how he had been troubled yesterday to find his way and about theshadow. He had now time to study it. He watched it the whole daythrough. In the morning it pointed toward the land. In the eveningtoward the sea. This comes from the daily movement of the sun. Hedetermined to study the matter more carefully.

  Robinson got up and with great effort walked to the spring. There hecooled his burning feet, and gathered some large leaves, which he boundon them. He decided to remain in his cave a few days, for he had enoughfood stored up to last him some length of time. He planned how he mightmake himself a pair of shoes. As soon as his feet were well, he soughtout some thick bark and put fastenings of tough, strong fiber on it.These served very well to protect his feet.

  But he must have some further protection from the sun. It beamed so hotthat his hat was not enough. He made a parasol out of leaves like hishat. He took a straight stick for a handle. He tied some reeds togetherand bent them into a hoop. He then fastened the upper end of the stickin the center of the hoop by means of six reeds which formed the ribs ofthe parasol. To keep out the sun he covered this framework with large,broad leaves. With a cord he tied the stem ends of the leaves to thestick just above where the reeds were tied.

  Spread out, these broad leaves completely covered the ribs. Their tipsreached over the hoop. They were fastened together by means of small,needle-like fish-bones Robinson had found on the beach.

  XVI

  GETTING FIRE

  Now Robinson had heard that savages take two dry pieces of wood and rubthem so long on each other that they at length begin to burn.

  He tried it. The sweat ran down his cheeks, but every time the wood wasabout to catch fire his strength would give out, and he was obliged torest, and when he began again the wood was cold.

  "How will it be in winter," he cried, "when it is cold, and I have nofire?" He must try other ways of preparing meat for his table. He mustthink of some other way of getting fire. He remembered that once, when aboy at home, he had in playing with a stick made it hot by twirling iton end on a piece of wood. "I will try this," he thought. He searchedfor a good hard stick and a piece of wood upon which to turn or twirl itwith his hands. Having found the best materials at hand, he began totwirl the stick. He made a little hollow in the block of wood in whichto turn his upright stick. There was heat but no fire. He twirled andtwirled, but he could not get the wood hot enough to blaze up or ignite.He had not skill. Besides his hands were not used to such roughtreatment. Soon they blistered and this method had to be given up.

  "I must have fire," he still thought, and recalled the sparks that flewfrom the stone pavements of the streets when the iron shoes of thehorses struck them as they slipped and strained at their cruel loads.Why may I not get fire by striking together two stones? He sought outtwo hard stones and with great diligence kept striking them togetheruntil his strength gave out, and he was obliged again to acknowledgefailure.

  He remembered that sometimes travelers put the meat underneath thesaddle and ride on it until it is soft. He tried it with pounding. Helaid some of the meat on a flat stone and pounded it. It became quitesoft and tasted very well. He then tried hanging it in the sun andfinally wrapped it in leaves and buried it for a few hours in the hotsand.

  XVII

  ROBINSON MAKES SOME FURNITURE

  One thing troubled Robinson very much. He could not sit comfortablywhile eating. He had neither chair nor table. He wished to make them,but that was a big job. He had no saw, no hammer, no auger and no nails.Robinson could not, therefore, make a table of wood.

  Not far from his cave he had seen a smooth, flat stone. "Ay," thoughthe, "perhaps I can make me a table out of stone." He picked out the beststone and built up four columns as high as a table and on these he laidhis large, flat stone. It looked like a table, sure enough, but therewere rough places and hollows in it. He wanted it smooth. He took clayand filled up the holes and smoothed it off. When the clay dried, thesurface was smooth and hard. Robinson covered it with leaves and deckedit with flowers till it was quite beautiful.

  When the table was done, Robinson began on a ch
air. He made it also ofstone. It had no back. It looked like a bench. It was uncomfortable tosit on. Robinson covered it with moss. Then it was an easy seat.

  Table and chair were now ready. Robinson could not move them from onecorner to another, nor when he sat on the chair could he put his feetunder the table, and yet he thought them excellent pieces of furniture.

  Every day Robinson went hunting and shot a rabbit, but the meat wouldnot keep. At home they would have put it in the cellar. If only he had acellar! He saw near his cave a hole in the rock. He dug it out a littlewith his mussel shell and found that it led back under a rock.

  From much bending over in digging, Robinson's back, unused to severetoil, ached wretchedly. He decided to make a spade. With his flint hebored four holes in a great, round mussel shell. They formed a rectangleas long as a little finger and as wide. Through these holes he drewcocoanut fibre and bound the shell to a handle fast and strong.

  With his spade he dug a hole so deep that he could stand in it upright.Then he put in a couple of shelves made of flat stones. In this cellarhe put his rabbit meat and his eggs. Then he laid branches over it andfinally covered the whole with leaves.

  XVIII

  ROBINSON BECOMES A SHEPHERD

  With his bow and arrow, Robinson went hunting every day. The rabbitssoon learned to know him and let themselves be seldom seen. As soon asthey saw him, they took alarm. They became timid and shy. One dayRobinson went out as usual to shoot rabbits. He found none. But as hecame to a great rock he heard from behind a new sound, one he had notheard before in the island. Ba-a-a, it sounded.

  "A kid," thought Robinson, "like that with which I have so often playedat home."

  He slipped noiselessly around the rock and behold, really there stood akid. He tried to call it, but the kid sought safety in flight. Hehastened after it. Then he noticed that it was lame in one fore foot. Itran into some brush, where Robinson seized it by the horns and held itfast.

  How Robinson rejoiced! He stroked it and fondled it. Then he thought,how could it come into this wilderness on this lonesome island? "Hasyour ship been cast upon the rocks too, and been broken to pieces? Youdear thing, you shall be my comrade." He seized the goat by the legs,and no matter how it kicked, carried it to his cave.

  Then he fetched quickly a cocoanut shell full of water and washed andbathed the goat's wounded leg. A stone had rolled down from the hill andhad inflicted a severe wound on its left fore leg, or perhaps it hadstepped into a crack in the rocks. Robinson tore off a piece of linenfrom his shirt, dipped it in water and bound it with shreds of thecocoanut upon the wound. Then he pulled some grass and moss and made asoft bed near the door of the cave. After he had given it water, itlooked at him with thankful eyes and licked his hand.

  Robinson could not sleep that night. He thought continually of his goatand got up time and again to see if it was safe. The moon shone clear inthe heavens. As Robinson sat before the goat's bed he looked down on hisnew possession as lovingly as a mother on her child.

  The next morning Robinson's first thought was, "I am no longer alone. Ihave a companion, my goat." He sprang up and looked for it. There shelay on her side, still sleeping.

  As he stood and considered, the thought came to him that perhaps thegoat had escaped from its keeper. There must then be some one living onthe land. He quickly put on his shoes and his hat, took his parasol, andran to the rock where he had found the goat.

  He called, he sought, he peered about to see if some shepherd were theresomewhere. He found nothing. He found no trace of man. There was noroad, no bridge, no field, no logs, not even a chip or shaving to showthat the hand of man had been there.

  But what was that? In the distance ran a herd of goats over the rocks.But no dog followed them and no shepherd. They ran wild on the island.They had perhaps been left there by some ship. As he came home henoticed the goat sorrowfully. The bandage had become dry. The goat mightbe suffering pain. Robinson loosened the bandage, washed the wound againand bound it up anew. It was so trustful. It ran after him and hedecided always to protect it.

  "I will always be your shepherd and take care of you," he said.

  XIX

  ROBINSON BUILDS A HOME FOR HIS GOAT

  But the goat was a new care. Wild animals could come and kill and carryRobinson's goat away while he slept, and if the goat got frightenedwhile he was hunting it would run away.

  "I will have to make me a little yard in front of my cave," he said,"for my goat to live in." But from whence must come the tools? He hadneither hatchet nor saw. Where then were the stakes to come from? Hewent in search of something. After hunting for a long time he came upona kind of thistle about two feet higher than himself, having at its topa red torch-like blossom. There were a great many of them.

  "Good!" thought Robinson. "If I could only dig up enough of them andplant them thick around the door of my cave, I would have just thething. No one could get at me, nor at the goat, either. The thorns wouldkeep anything from creeping through, peeping in or getting over."

  So he took his mussel-shell spade and went to work. It was pretty hard,but at length he succeeded in laying bare the roots of quite a number.But he could not drag them to his cave on account of the thorns stickingin him. He thought a long time. Finally, he sought out two strong polesor branches which were turned up a little at one end and like a sledrunner. To these he tied twelve cross-pieces with bark. To the foremosthe tied a strong rope made from cocoa fiber. He then had something thatlooked much like a sled on which to draw his thistle-like brush to hiscave. But for one day he had done enough. The transplanting of thethistles was hard work. His spade broke and he had to make a new one. Inthe afternoon he broke his spade again. And as he made his third one, hemade up his mind that it was no use trying to dig with such a weak toolin the hard ground. It would only break again.

  "If I only had a pick." But he had none. He found a thick, hard, sharpstone. With it he picked up the hard earth, but had to bend almostdouble in using it. "At home," he thought, "they have handles to picks."The handle was put through a hole in the iron. He turned the matterover and over in his mind, how he might put a hole through the stone.But he found no means. He searched out a branch with a crotch at oneend. He tied the stone to this with strong cocoa fiber and bark. How hiseye glistened as he looked at the new tool! Now he began to work. Hefirst loosened up the earth with his pick, then he dug it out with hisspade and planted in a high thistle. Many days he had to work, butfinally one evening the hedge was ready. He had a row in a semi-circlein front of his cave. He counted the marks on his calendar tree. The dayon which he had begun to make his hedge he had especially marked out.He had worked fourteen days.

  ROBINSON'S TOOLS]

  He had completed his hedge with the exception of a small hole that mustserve for a door. But the door must not be seen from without.

  As Robinson thought, it came to him that there was still place for twothistles on the outside. He could easily get in, but the entrance wasdifficult to find from the outside.

  Robinson looked on his hedge from without. It was not yet thick enough.For this reason he planted small thistles between the larger ones. Withthe digging them out and transplanting them he was a whole week longer.

  Finally, the hedge and the yard were ready. Now Robinson could restwithout fear and sleep in his cave, and could have his goat near him allthe time. It delighted him greatly. It ran after him continually like adog. When he came back from an absence, it bleated for joy and ran tomeet him as soon as he got inside the hedge. Robinson felt that he wasnot entirely alone. He had now a living being near him.

  XX

  ROBINSON GETS READY FOR WINTER

  There was one thing that troubled Robinson greatly. "What will become ofme when the winter comes? I will have no fire to warm me. I have noclothing to protect me from the cold, and where shall I find food whensnow and ice cover all the ground and when the trees are bare and thespring is frozen? It will be cold then in my cave; what shall I do? Itis cold and
rainy already. I believe this is harvest time and winterwill soon be here. Winter and no stove, no winter clothing, no winterstore of food and no winter dwelling. What shall I do?"

  He considered again the project of making fire. He again sought out twopieces of wood and sat down and rubbed them together. The sweat rolleddown his face. When the wood began to get warm, his hand would becometired, and he would have to stop. When he began again the wood was cold.He worked for an hour or two, then he laid the wood aside and said, "Idon't believe I can do it. I must do the next best thing. I can at leastget warm clothing to protect me from the rain and snow." He looked downat his worn, thin clothing, his trousers, his shirt, his jacket; theyhad become so thin and worn that they were threadbare.

  "I will take the skins of the hares which I have shot and will make mesomething," he thought. He washed and cleaned them, but he needed aknife and he set about making one. He split one end of a tough piece ofwood, thrust his stone blade in it and wound it with cocoa fibre. Hisstone knife now had a handle. He could now cut the skins quite well. Butwhat should he do for needle and thread? Maybe the vines would do. "Butthey are hardly strong enough," he thought. He pulled the sinews fromthe bones of the rabbit and found them hard. Maybe he could use them. Hefound fish skeletons on the seashore and bored a hole in the end of thesmall, sharp rib bones. Then he threaded his bone needle with the rabbitsinews and attempted to sew, but it would not go. His needle broke. Theskin was too hard. He bored holes in the edge of the pieces of skin andsewed through the holes. This went very well.