Robinson Crusoe's House
No doubt you have heard of Robinson Crusoe, who, after being shipwrecked, was cast ashore on a lonely island where he lived alone for several years. In this chapter he tells us how he built his house upon the island.
I found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, whose front towards this little plain was a rock as steep as a house-side. So no savage creatures, men or beasts, if any were in the island, could come upon me from the top.
On the side of this rock there was a hollow place worn a little way in, like the 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 decided to pitch my tent. This plain lay like a green before my door, and at the end it went down every way to the low grounds by the sea-side. It was on the northwest side of the hill, so that I was sheltered from the heat every day till the sun came near the setting.
Before I set up my tent, I drew a half-circle before the hollow place. In this half-circle I pitched two rows of strong stakes, driving them into the ground till they stood very firm. The end of each stake stood out of the ground about five feet and a half, and was sharpened at the top.
Then I took the pieces of cable which I had cut in the ship, and laid them in rows one upon another between these two rows of stakes, up to the top. I placed other stakes on the inside, leaning against them, like a spur to a post. This fence was so strong that neither man nor beast could get into it or over it.
Into this fence, or fortress, I carried all my food, gunpowder and stores. I made a large tent and into it I brought everything that would spoil by the rains.
Having thus enclosed all my goods, I built up the entrance of the fence, which till now I had left open, and so passed in and out by a ladder. When I was in, I lifted the ladder over after me, thus I was completely fenced in and so I slept safely in the night.
When I had done this, I began to cut a way into the rock; and thus I made a cave just behind my tent, which served me like a cellar or kitchen, to my house. It cost me much labor and many days before all these things were perfectly finished.
Now I began to make such things as I found I most wanted. I made a table and a chair out of the short pieces of boards that I brought on my raft from the ship. I made large shelves all along one side of my cave, to lay all my tools, nails and ironwork. I knocked pieces into the wall of the rock, to hang my guns and all things that would hang up.
I brought out of the ship, in the voyages which I made to it, several things of less value, but not less useful to me. I got pens, ink and paper; three or four compasses, three good Bibles and other books which I carefully stored away.
We had in the ship a dog and two cats. I carried both the cats with me as for the dog; he jumped out of the ship of himself and swam on shore to me the day after I went there with my first cargo.
He was a trusty servant to me many years. I went without anything that he could not fetch me, nor did I lack company while he was with me. I only wanted to have him talk to me, but that he would not do.
I did, after some trouble, catch a young parrot and I brought it home, but it was some years before I could make him speak. However, at last I taught him to call me by my name.
How like a king I dined all alone, attended by my servants! There was my Majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island. Poll, as if he had been my favorite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand as a mark of special favor.
