Robinson Crusoe | Page 9

the casks in
piles round the tent, to give it strength; and when this was done, I shut
up the door with the boards, spread one of the beds (which I had
brought from the ship) on the ground, laid two guns close to my head,
and went to bed for the first time. I slept all night, for I was much in
need of rest.

The next day I was sad and sick at heart, for I felt how dull it was to be
thus cut off from all the rest of the world I. I had no great wish for work:
but there was too much to be done for me to dwell long on my sad lot.
Each day as it came, I went off to the wreck to fetch more things; and I
brought back as much as the raft would hold. One day I had put too
great a load on the raft, which made it sink down on one side, so that
the goods were lost in the sea; but at this I did not fret, as the chief part
of the freight was some rope, which would not have been of much use
to me.
The twelve days that I had been in the isle were spent in this way, and I
had brought to land all that one pair of hands could lift; though if the
sea had been still calm, I might have brought the whole ship, piece by
piece.
The last time I swam to the wreck, the wind blew so hard, that I made
up my mind to go on board next time at low tide. I found some tea and
some gold coin; but as to the gold, it made me laugh to look at it. "O
drug!" said I, "Thou art of no use to me! I care not to save thee. Stay
where thou art, till the ship go down, then go thou with it!"
Still, I thought I might as well just take it; so I put it in a piece of the
sail, and threw it on deck that I might place it on the raft. Bye-and-bye,
the wind blew from the shore, so I had to swim back with all speed; for
I knew that at the turn of the tide, I should find it hard work to get to
land at all. But in spite of the high wind, I came to my home all safe. At
dawn of day I put my head out, and cast my eyes on the sea. When lo!
no ship was there!
This change in the face of things, and the loss of such a friend, quite
struck me down. Yet I was glad to think that I had brought to shore all
that could be of use to me. I had now to look out for some spot where I
could make my home. Half way up a hill there was a small plain, four
or five score feet long, and twice as broad; and as it had a full view of
the sea, I thought that it would be a good place for my house.
I first dug a trench round a space which took in twelve yards; and in
this I drove two rows of stakes, till they stood firm like piles, five and a
half feet from the ground. I made the stakes close and tight with bits of
rope; and put small sticks on the top of them in the shape of spikes.
This made so strong a fence that no man or beast could get in.
The door of my house was on the top, and I had to climb up to it by

steps, which I took in with me, so that no one else might come up by
the same way. Close to the back of the house stood a high rock, in
which I made a cave, and laid all the earth that I had dug out of it round
my house, to the height of a foot and a half. I had to go out once a day
in search of food. The first time, I saw some goats, but they were too
shy and swift of foot, to let me get near them.
At last I lay in wait for them close to their own haunts. If they saw me
in the vale, though they might be on high ground, they would run off,
wild with fear; but if they were in the vale, and I on high ground, they
took no heed of me. The first goat I shot had a kid by her side, and
when the old one fell, the kid stood near her, till I took her off on my
back, and then