http://www.arcamax.com/fiction/b-1103-17
Robinson Crusoe
From this moment I began to conclude in my mind that it was possible
for me to be more happy in this forsaken, solitary condition than it
was probable I should ever have been in any other particular state in
the world; and with this thought I was going to give thanks to God for
bringing me to this place. I know not what it was, but something
shocked my mind at that thought, and I durst not speak the words.
"How canst thou become such a hypocrite," said I, even audibly, "to
pretend to be thankful for a condition which, however thou mayest
endeavour to be contented with, thou wouldst rather pray heartily to
be delivered from?" So I stopped there; but though I could not say I
thanked God for being there, yet I sincerely gave thanks to God for
opening my eyes, by whatever afflicting providences, to see the former
condition of my life, and to mourn for my wickedness, and repent. I
never opened the Bible, or shut it, but my very soul within me blessed
God for directing my friend in England, without any order of mine, to
pack it up among my goods, and for assisting me afterwards to save it
out of the wreck of the ship.
Thus, and in this disposition of mind, I began my third year; and
though I have not given the reader the trouble of so particular an
account of my works this year as the first, yet in general it may be
observed that I was very seldom idle, but having regularly divided my
time according to the several daily employments that were before me,
such as: first, my duty to God, and the reading the Scriptures, which
I constantly set apart some time for thrice every day; secondly, the
going abroad with my gun for food, which generally took me up three
hours in every morning, when it did not rain; thirdly, the ordering,
cutting, preserving, and cooking what I had killed or caught for my
supply; these took up great part of the day. Also, it is to be
considered, that in the middle of the day, when the sun was in the
zenith, the violence of the heat was too great to stir out; so that
about four hours in the evening was all the time I could be supposed
to work in, with this exception, that sometimes I changed my hours of
hunting and working, and went to work in the morning, and abroad with
my gun in the afternoon.
To this short time allowed for labour I desire may be added the
exceeding laboriousness of my work; the many hours which, for want of
tools, want of help, and want of skill, everything I did took up out
of my time. For example, I was full two and forty days in making a
board for a long shelf, which I wanted in my cave; whereas, two
sawyers, with their tools and a saw-pit, would have cut six of them
out of the same tree in half a day.
My case was this: it was to be a large tree which was to be cut down,
because my board was to be a broad one. This tree I was three days in
cutting down, and two more cutting off the boughs, and reducing it to
a log or piece of timber. With inexpressible hacking and hewing I
reduced both the sides of it into chips till it began to be light
enough to move; then I turned it, and made one side of it smooth and
flat as a board from end to end; then, turning that side downward, cut
the other side til I brought the plank to be about three inches thick,
and smooth on both sides. Any one may judge the labour of my hands in
such a piece of work; but labour and patience carried me through that,
and many other things. I only observe this in particular, to show the
reason why so much of my time went away with so little work - viz.
that what might be a little to be done with help and tools, was a vast
labour and required a prodigious time to do alone, and by hand. But
notwithstanding this, with patience and labour I got through
everything that my circumstances made necessary to me to do, as will
appear by what follows.
I was now, in the months of November and December, expecting my crop
of barley and rice. The ground I had manured and dug up for them was
not great; for, as I observed, my seed of each was not above the
quantity of half a peck, for I had lost one whole crop by sowing in
the dry season. But now my crop promised very well, when on a sudden
I found I was in danger of losing it all again by enemies of several
sorts, which it was scarcely possible to keep from it; as, first, the
goats, and wild creatures which I called hares, who, tasting the
sweetness of the blade, lay in it night and day, as soon as it came
up, and eat it so close, that it could get no time to shoot up into
stalk.
This I saw no remedy for but by making an enclosure about it with a
hedge; which I did with a great deal of toil, and the more, because it
required speed. However, as my arable land was but small, suited to
my crop, I got it totally well fenced in about three weeks' time; and
shooting some of the creatures in the daytime, I set my dog to guard
it in the night, tying him up to a stake at the gate, where he would
stand and bark all night long; so in a little time the enemies forsook
the place, and the corn grew very strong and well, and began to ripen
apace.
But as the beasts ruined me before, while my corn was in the blade, so
the birds were as likely to ruin me now, when it was in the ear; for,
going along by the place to see how it throve, I saw my little crop
surrounded with fowls, of I know not how many sorts, who stood, as it
were, watching till I should be gone. I immediately let fly among
them, for I always had my gun with me. I had no sooner shot, but
there rose up a little cloud of fowls, which I had not seen at all,
from among the corn itself.
This touched me sensibly, for I foresaw that in a few days they would
devour all my hopes; that I should be starved, and never be able to
raise a crop at all; and what to do I could not tell; however, I
resolved not to lose my corn, if possible, though I should watch it
night and day. In the first place, I went among it to see what damage
was already done, and found they had spoiled a good deal of it; but
that as it was yet too green for them, the loss was not so great but
that the remainder was likely to be a good crop if it could be saved.
I stayed by it to load my gun, and then coming away, I could easily
see the thieves sitting upon all the trees about me, as if they only
waited till I was gone away, and the event proved it to be so; for as
I walked off, as if I was gone, I was no sooner out of their sight
than they dropped down one by one into the corn again. I was so
provoked, that I could not have patience to stay till more came on,
knowing that every grain that they ate now was, as it might be said, a
peck-loaf to me in the consequence; but coming up to the hedge, I
fired again, and killed three of them. This was what I wished for; so
I took them up, and served them as we serve notorious thieves in
England - hanged them in chains, for a terror to of them. It is
impossible to imagine that this should have such an effect as it had,
for the fowls would not only not come at the corn, but, in short, they
forsook all that part of the island, and I could never see a bird near
the place as long as my scarecrows hung there. This I was very glad
of, you may be sure, and about the latter end of December, which was
our second harvest of the year, I reaped my corn.
I was sadly put to it for a scythe or sickle to cut it down, and all I
could do was to make one, as well as I could, out of one of the
broadswords, or cutlasses, which I saved among the arms out of the
ship. However, as my first crop was but small, I had no great
difficulty to cut it down; in short, I reaped it in my way, for I cut
nothing off but the ears, and carried it away in a great basket which
I had made, and so rubbed it out with my hands; and at the end of all
my harvesting, I found that out of my half-peck of seed I had near two
bushels of rice, and about two bushels and a half of barley; that is
to say, by my guess, for I had no measure at that time.
However, this was a great encouragement to me, and I foresaw that, in
time, it would please God to supply me with bread. And yet here I was
perplexed again, for I neither knew how to grind or make meal of my
corn, or indeed how to clean it and part it; nor, if made into meal,
how to make bread of it; and if how to make it, yet I knew not how to
bake it. These things being added to my desire of having a good
quantity for store, and to secure a constant supply, I resolved not to
taste any of this crop but to preserve it all for seed against the
next season; and in the meantime to employ all my study and hours of
working to accomplish this great work of providing myself with corn
and bread.
It might be truly said, that now I worked for my bread. I believe few
people have thought much upon the strange multitude of little things
necessary in the providing, producing, curing, dressing, making, and
finishing this one article of bread.
I, that was reduced to a mere state of nature, found this to my daily
discouragement; and was made more sensible of it every hour, even
after I had got the first handful of seed-corn, which, as I have said,
came up unexpectedly, and indeed to a surprise.
First, I had no plough to turn up the earth - no spade or shovel to
dig it. Well, this I conquered by making me a wooden spade, as I
observed before; but this did my work but in a wooden manner; and
though it cost me a great many days to make it, yet, for want of iron,
it not only wore out soon, but made my work the harder, and made it be
performed much worse. However, this I bore with, and was content to
work it out with patience, and bear with the badness of the
performance. When the corn was sown, I had no harrow, but was forced
to go over it myself, and drag a great heavy bough of a tree over it,
to scratch it, as it may be called, rather than rake or harrow it.
When it was growing, and grown, I have observed already how many
things I wanted to fence it, secure it, mow or reap it, cure and carry
it home, thrash, part it from the chaff, and save it. Then I wanted a
mill to grind it sieves to dress it, yeast and salt to make it into
bread, and an oven to bake it; but all these things I did without, as
shall be observed; and yet the corn was an inestimable comfort and
advantage to me too. All this, as I said, made everything laborious
and tedious to me; but that there was no help for. Neither was my
time so much loss to me, because, as I had divided it, a certain part
of it was every day appointed to these works; and as I had resolved to
use none of the corn for bread till I had a greater quantity by me, I
had the next six months to apply myself wholly, by labour and
invention, to furnish myself with utensils proper for the performing
all the operations necessary for making the corn, when I had it, fit
for my use.