the sea in it, that I never once considered how I should get it off the land, and it was really in its own nature more easy for me to guide it over forty-five miles of sea than about forty-five fathoms of land where it lay, to set it afloat in the water.

8. I went to work upon this boat the most like a fool that ever man did who had any of his senses awake. I pleased myself with the design, without determining whether I was ever able to undertake it, not but that the difficulty of launching my boat came often into my head; but I put a stop to my inquiries into it, by this foolish answer which I gave myself: Let's make it first, I'll warrant I'll find some way or other to get it along, when it's done.

This was a most preposterous method, but the eagerness of my fancy prevailed, and to work I went. I felled a cedar tree-I question much whether Solomon ever had such a one for the building of the temple at Jerusalem. It was five feet ten inches diameter at the lower part next the stump, and four feet eleven inches diameter at the end of twenty-two feet, after which it lessened for a while, and then parted into branches. It was not without infinite labour that I felled this tree: I was twenty days hacking and hewing at it at the bottom, I was fourteen more getting the branches and limbs and the vast spreading head of it cut off, which I hacked and hewed through with axe and hatchet and inexpressible labour. After this it cost me a month to shape it, and dub it to a proportion, and to something like the bottom of a boat, that it might swim upright, as it ought to do. It cost me near three months more to clear the inside and work

1 Preposterous, absurd.

it out, so as to make an exact boat of it. This I did, indeed, without fire, by mere mallet and chisel, and by the dint of hard labour, till I had brought it to a very handsome Periagua, and big enough to have carried twenty-six men, and consequently big enough to have carried me and all my cargo.

9. When I had gone through this work I was extremely delighted with it. The boat was really much bigger than I ever saw a canoe or Periagua, that was made of one tree, in my life. Many a weary stroke it had cost, you may be sure, and there remained nothing but to get it into the water; and had I gotten it into the water, I make no question but I should have begun the maddest voyage and the most unlikely to be performed that ever was undertaken.

10. But all my devices to get it into the water failed me, though they cost me infinite labour too. It lay about one hundred yards from the water, and not more; but the first inconvenience was, it was uphill towards the creek. Well, to take away this discouragement, I resolved to dig into the surface of the earth, and so make a declivity. This I began, and it cost me a prodigious deal of pains; but who grudge pains that have their deliverance in view? But when this was worked through, and this difficulty managed, it was still much the same, for I could no more stir the canoe than I could the other boat.

II. Then I measured the distance of ground, and resolved to cut a dock or canal, to bring the water up to the canoe, seeing I could not bring the canoe down to the water. Well, I began this work, and when I had begun to enter into it, and calculate how deep it was to be dug, how broad, how the stuff to

be thrown out, I found that by the number of hands I had, being none but my own, it must have been ten or twelve years before I should have gone through with it; for the shore lay so high, that at the upper end it must have been at least twenty feet deep so at length, though with great reluctancy,' I gave this attempt over also. This grieved me heartily, and I now saw, though too late, the folly of beginning a work before we count the cost, and before we judge rightly of our own strength to go through with it. DEFOE, Robinson Crusoe.

IX. ADVICE FOR CHILDREN.

I. IT is the age when they are still quite young, to teach children to be trustworthy and to be merciful and humane.2 We lived in a garden of about two acres, partly kitchen garden with walls, partly shrubbery and trees, and partly grass. There were the peaches, as tempting as any that ever grew, and yet as safe from fingers as if no child was ever in the garden. It was not necessary to forbid. The blackbirds, the thrushes, the whitethroats, and even that very shy bird the goldfinch, had their nests and bred up their young ones in great abundance, all about this little spot, constantly the play-place of six children; and one of the latter had its nest, and brought up its young ones, in a raspberry

Reluctancy, unwillingness.

2 Humane, of a kindly disposition.

bush, within two yards of a walk, and at the time that we were gathering the ripe raspberries.

2. We give dogs, and justly, great credit for sagacity and memory; but the following two most curious instances, which I should not venture to state, if there were not so many witnesses to the facts, in my neighbours at Botley, as well as in my own family, will show that birds are not, in this respect, inferior to the canine race. All country people know that the skylark is a very shy bird; that its abode is the open fields; that it settles on the ground only; that it seeks safety in the wideness of space; that it avoids enclosures, and is never seen in gardens. A part of our ground was a grass-plat of about forty rods, or a quarter of an acre, which, one year, was left to be mowed for hay. A pair of larks, coming out of the fields into the middle of a pretty populous village, chose to make their nest in the middle of this little spot, and at not more than about thirty-five yards from one of the doors of the house, in which there were about twelve persons living, and six of those children, who had constant access to all parts of the ground. There we saw the cock rising up and singing, then taking his turn upon the eggs; and by-and-by, we observed him cease to sing, and saw them both constantly engaged in bringing food to the young ones.

I

3. But the time came for mowing the grass. waited a good many days for the brood to get away; but at last I determined on the day; and if the larks were there still, to leave a patch of grass 1 Sagacity, wisdom.

2 Canine race, the race of dogs.

standing round them. In order not to keep them in dread longer than necessary, I brought three able mowers, who would cut the whole in about an hour; and as the plat was nearly circular, set them to mow round, beginning at the outside. And now for sagacity indeed! The moment the men began to whet their scythes, the two old larks began to flutter over the nest, and to make a great clamour. When the men began to mow, they flew round and round, stooping so low, when near the men, as almost to touch their bodies, making a great chattering at the same time; but before the men had got round with the second swarth, they flew to the nest, and away they went, young ones and all, across the river, at the foot of the ground, and settled in the long grass in my neighbour's orchard.

4. The other instance relates to a house-marten. It is well known that these birds build their nests under eaves of inhabited houses, and sometimes under those of door porches; but we had one that built its nest in the house, and upon the top of a common door-case the door of which opened into a room out of the main passage into the house. Perceiving the marten had begun to build its nest here, we kept the front-door open in the daytime; but were obliged to fasten it at night. It went on, had eggs, young ones, and the young ones flew. I used to open the door in the morning early, and then the birds carried on their affairs till night. The next year the marten came again, and had another brood in the same place. It found its old nest; and having repaired it, and put it in order, went on again in the former way; and it would, I dare say, have continued to come to the end