one of the fowling pieces and one of the pistols and a horn of powder; and thus armed I traveled for discovery up to the top of that hill; where, after I had, with great labor and difficulty, got up to the top, I saw my fate, to my 5 great affliction. I was on an island, and no land was to be seen, except some rocks, which lay a great way off, and two small islands, which lay about three leagues to the west.

I found also that the island I was on was barren, and, as I saw good reason to believe, uninhabited, except by 10 wild beasts, of whom, however, I saw none; yet I saw abundance of fowls, but knew not their kinds; neither, when I killed them, could I tell what was fit for food, and what not. At my coming back, I shot at a great bird which I saw sitting upon a tree on the side of a great 15 wood. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the creation of the world. I had no sooner fired, but from all the parts of the wood there arose an innumerable number of fowls of many sorts, making a confused screaming and crying, every one according to his 20 usual note; but not one of them of any kind that I knew. · DANIEL DEFOE: Robinson Crusoe.

a ba'ted, gone down, become less; quar'ter, the stern of the ship; am mu ni'tion, powder; mor ti fi ca'tion, disappointment, vexation; nav i ga'tion, art of sailing; hab i ta'tion, dwelling place.

1. What supplies did Robinson Crusoe find on the ship? 2. Tell in your own words how he managed to get the supplies from the ship to the shore. 3. How many miles away were the nearest islands -three leagues?

Sentence Study: Subject and Predicate. - Underline the simple subject and the simple predicate in the following:

1. Robinson Crusoe built a raft.

2. He lived alone for many years.

3. One day he saw footprints in the sand.
4. The breaking waves dashed high.
5. The Pilgrims landed at Plymouth.
6. The live thunder leaps from crag to crag.
7. In the groves the robins sing.
8. In the fields fresh flowers spring.
9. By the shining Big-Sea-Water

Stood the wigwam of Nokomis.
10. An angry man heeds no counsel.
11. A little spring once lost its way.

12. The brook flows on forever.

Word Study: Appropriate Words. It is said of Lincoln that when he was a young man he could never hear any one use an inappropriate word without saying the sentence over and over until he had found the best word to express the meaning intended.

His speeches are noted for the fact that he said what he had to say simply and briefly, and that the words he used were fitting. They were the right words in the right place.

Very few people are as careful in this respect as they should be. The words sweet, awful, fine, lovely, grand, and funny are used to describe persons and things to which they do not at all apply. We may speak of an awful shipwreck, but not of an awful lesson. Look in the dictionary for the real meaning of the word. Robinson Crusoe had many strange adventures, not funny ones.

Written Exercise.Write sentences, using appropriately the words given above. Which of them might be properly used with mountain, sunset, accident, story, day, scene, harbor, landscape, storm, anecdote?

63

ADVENTURES OF ROBINSON CRUSOE (Continued)

II. THE FORTRESS

My thoughts were next wholly employed about securing myself against either savages, if any should appear, or wild beasts, if any were in the island; and I had many thoughts of the method how to do this, and what kind of dwelling 5 to make, whether I should make me a cave in the earth, or a tent upon the earth. In short, I resolved upon both.

I soon found the place I was in was not good to settle in, particularly because it was upon a low marshy ground near the sea, and I believed would not be wholesome; and 10 more particularly because there was no fresh water near it. So I resolved to find a more healthy and more convenient spot of ground.

I consulted several things in my situation which I found would be proper for me. First, health and fresh 15 water; secondly, shelter from the heat of the sun; thirdly, security from ravenous creatures, whether men or beasts; fourthly, a view to the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight I might not lose any advantage for my deliverance.

In search for a place proper for this, I found a little 20 plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this

little plain was steep as a house side, so that nothing could come down upon me from the top. On the side of

this rock there was a hollow place, worn a little way in, like the entrance or door of a cave; but there was not really any cave, or way into the rock at all.

On the flat of the green, just before this hollow place, I resolved to pitch my tent. This plain was not above an hundred yards broad, and about twice as long, and lay like a green before my door, and at the end of it descended irregularly every way down into the low grounds by the seaside. It was on the N.N.W. side of the hill, so that I was sheltered from the heat every day, till it came to a 10 W. and by S. sun, or thereabouts, which in those countries is near the setting.

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half circle before the hollow place, which took in about ten yards in its semidiameter from the rock, and twenty yards in its diameter 15 from its beginning and ending. In this half circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground until they stood very firm like piles, the biggest end being out of the ground about five feet and a half, and sharpened on the top. The two rows did not stand 20 above six inches from one another.

Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and laid them in rows one upon another, within the circle, between these two rows of stakes, up to the top, placing other stakes in the inside leaning against them, 25 about two feet and a half high, like a spur to a post; and this fence was so strong that neither man or beast could

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get into it, or over it. This cost me a great deal of time and labor, especially to cut the piles in the woods, bring them to the place, and drive them into the earth.

The entrance into this place I made to be not by a 5 door, but by a short ladder to go over the top; which ladder, when I was in, I lifted over after me, and so I was completely fenced in, and fortified, as I thought, from all the world, and consequently slept secure in the night, which otherwise I could not do.

Into this fortress, with infinite labor, I carried all my riches, all my provisions, ammunition, and stores, of which you have the account above. And I made me a large tent, which, to preserve me from the rains that in one part of the year are very violent there, I made double, 15 smaller tent within, and one larger tent above it, and covered the uppermost with a large tarpaulin, which I had saved among the sails.

one

Into this tent I brought all my provisions, and everything that would spoil by the wet; and having thus in20 closed all my goods, I made up the entrance, which, till now, I had left open, and so passed and repassed, as I said, by a short ladder.

When I had done this, I began to work my way into the rock; and bringing all the earth and stones that I dug 25 down out through my tent, I laid them up within my fence in the nature of a terrace, so that it raised the ground within about a foot and a half; and thus I made