Robinson Crusoe in Words of One Syllable (Version 2) — 04 - Section 4

At first I thought that, for the lack of pen and ink, I should lose all note of time; so I made a large post, in the shape of a cross, on which I cut these words, "I came on these shores on the 8th day of June, in the year 1659" On the side of this post I made a notch each day as it came, and this I kept up till the last.

I have not yet said a word of my four pets, which were two cats, a dog, and a bird.

You may guess how fond I was of them, for they were all the friends left to me.

I brought the dog and two cats from the ship.

The dog would fetch things for me at all times, and by his bark, his whine, his growl, and his tricks, he would all but talk to me; yet he could not give me thought for thought.

If I could but have had some one near me to find fault with, or to find fault with me, what a treat it would have been!

Now that I had brought ink from the ship, I wrote down a sketch of each day as it came; not so much to leave to those who might read it, when I was dead and gone, as to get rid of my own thoughts, and draw me from the fears which all day long dwelt on my mind, till my head would ache with the weight of them.

I was a long way out of the course of ships: and oh, how dull it was to be cast on this lone spot with no one to love, no one to make me laugh, no one to make me weep, no one to make me think.

It was dull to roam, day by day, from the wood to the shore; and from the shore back to the wood, and feed on my own thoughts all the while.

So much for the sad view of my case; but like most things it had a bright side as well as a dark one.

For here was I safe on land, while all the rest of the ship's crew were lost.

Well, thought I, God who shapes our ways, and led me by the hand then, can save me from this state now, or send some one to be with me; true, I am cast on a rough and rude part of the globe, but there are no beasts of prey on it to kill or hurt me.

God has sent the ship so near to me, that I have got from it all things to meet my wants for the rest of my days.

Let life be what it may, there is sure to be much to thank God for; and I soon gave up all dull thoughts, and did not so much as look out for a sail.

My goods from the wreck had been in the cave for more than ten months;

and it was time now to put them right, as they took up all the space, and left me no room to turn in: so I made my small cave a large one, and dug it out a long way back in the sand rock.

Then I brought the mouth of it up to the fence, and so made a back way to my house.

This done, I put shelves on each side, to hold my goods, which made my cave look like a shop full of stores.

To make these shelves I cut down a tree, and with the help of a saw, an axe, a plane, and some more tools, I made boards.

A chair, and a desk to write on, came next.

I rose in good time, and set to work till noon, then I ate my meal, then I went out with my gun, and to work once more till the sun had set; and then to bed.

It took me more than a week to change the shape and size of my cave, but I had made it far too large; for in course of time the earth fell in from the roof;

and had I been in it, when this took place, I should have lost my life.

I had now to set up posts in my cave, with planks on the top of them, so as to make a roof of wood.

One day, when out with my gun, I shot a wild cat, the skin of which made me a cap; and I found some birds of the dove tribe, which built their nests in the holes of rocks.

I had to go to bed at dusk, till I made a lamp of goat's fat, which I put in a clay dish; and this, with a piece of hemp for a wick, made a good light.

As I had found a use for the bag which had held the fowl's food on board ship, I shook out from it the husks of corn.

This was just at the time when the great rains fell, and in the course of a month, blades of rice, corn, and rye, sprang up.

As time went by, and the grain was ripe, I kept it, and took care to sow it each year; but I could not boast of a crop of wheat, as will be shown bye-and-bye, for three years.

A thing now took place on the isle, which no one could have dreamt of, and which struck me down with fear.

It was this--the ground shook with great force, which threw down earth from the rock with a loud crash--once more there was a shock--and now the earth fell from the roof of my cave.

The sea did not look the same as it had done, for the shocks were just as strong there as on land.

The sway of the earth made me feel sick; and there was a noise and a roar all around me.

The same kind of shock came a third time; and when it had gone off, I sat quite still on the ground, for I knew not what to do.

Then the clouds grew dark, the wind rose, trees were torn up by the roots, the sea was a mass of foam and froth, and a great part of the isle was laid waste with the storm.

I

thought that the world had come to an end.

In three hours' time all was calm; but rain fell all that night, and a great part of the next day.

Now, though quite worn out, I had to move my goods which were in the cave, to some safe place.

I knew that tools would be my first want, and that I should have to grind mine on the stone, as they were blunt and worn with use.

But as it took both hands to hold the tool, I could not turn the stone; so I made a wheel by which I could move it with my foot.

This was no small task, but I took great pains with it, and at length it was done.

The rain fell for some days and a cold chill came on me; in short I was ill.

I had pains in my head, and could get no sleep at night, and my thoughts were wild and strange.

At one time I shook with cold, and then a hot fit came on, with faint sweats, which would last six hours at a time.

Ill as I was, I had to go out with my gun to get food.

I shot a goat, but it was a great toil to bring it home, and still more to cook it.

I spent the next day in bed, and felt half dead from thirst, yet too weak to stand up to get some drink.

I lay and wept like a child.

"Lord look on me!

Lord look on me!"

would I cry for hours.

At last the fit left me, and I slept, and did not wake till dawn.

I

dreamt that I lay on the ground, and saw a man come down from a great black cloud in a flame of light.

When he stood on the earth, it shook as it had done a few days since; and all the world to me was full of fire.

He came up and said "As I see that all these things have not brought thee to pray, now thou shalt die."

Then I woke, and found it was a dream.

Weak and faint, I was in dread all day lest my fit should come on.

Too ill to get out with my gun, I sat on the shore to think, and thus ran my thoughts: "What is this sea which is all round me?

and whence is it?

There can be no doubt that the hand that made it, made the air, the earth, the sky.

And who is that?

It is God who hath made all things.

Well then, if God hath made all things, it must be He who guides them;

and if so, no one thing in the whole range of His works can take place, and He not know it.

Then God must know how sick and sad I am, and He wills me to be here.

O, why hath God done this to me!"

Then some voice would seem to say, "Dost thou ask why God hath done this to thee?

Ask why thou wert not shot by the Moors, who came on board the ship, and took the lives of thy mates.

Ask why thou wert not torn by the beasts of prey on the coasts.

Ask why thou didst not go down in the deep sea with the rest of the crew, but didst come to this isle, and art safe."

A sound sleep then fell on me, and when I woke it must have been three o'clock the next day, by the rays of the sun: nay, it may have been more than that; for I think that this must have been the day that I did not mark on my post, as I have since found that there was one notch too few.

I now took from my store the Book of God's Word, which I had brought from the wreck, not one page, of which I had yet read.

My eyes fell on five words, that would seem to have been put there for my good at this time; so well did they cheer my faint hopes, and touch the true source of my fears.

They were these: "I will not leave thee."

And they have dwelt in my heart to this day.

I laid down the book, to pray.

My cry was "O, Lord, help me to love and learn thy ways."

This was the first time in all my life that I had felt a sense that God was near, and heard me.

As for my dull life here, it was not worth a thought; for now a new strength had come to me; and there was a change in my griefs, as well as in my joys.

I had now been in the isle twelve months, and I thought it was time to go all round it, in search of its woods, springs, and creeks.

So I set off, and brought back with me limes and grapes in their prime, large and ripe.

I had hung the grapes in the sun to dry, and in a few days' time went to fetch them, that I might lay up a store.

The vale, on the banks of which they grew, was fresh and green, and a clear, bright stream ran through it, which gave so great a charm to the spot, as to make me wish to live there.

But there was no view of the sea from this vale, while from my house, no ships could come on my side of the isle, and not be seen by me; yet the cool, soft banks were so sweet and new to me that much of my time was spent there.

In the first of the three years in which I had grown corn, I had sown it too late; in the next, it was spoilt by the drought; but the third years' crop had sprung up well.

I found that the hares would lie in it night and day, for which there was no cure but to plant a thick hedge all round it; and this took me more than three weeks to do.

I shot the hares in the day time; and when it grew dark, I made fast the dog's chain to the gate, and there he stood to bark all night.