He meant to be Robinson Crusoe, Jr., but he was not quite willing to go upon the island without any tools to work with, or any thing to eat, after he arrived. I think, if he could, he would have made sure of most of the comforts of life.
Mr. Gray’s shop was only a short distance from the river. The little brook in which Robert placed his water-wheel, widened into a pretty large stream near the shop. Here Mr. Crusoe, Jr., intended to build a raft, which should bear him to the lonely island.
Near the middle of the great pond, which my young friends will find described in The Young Voyagers, there was a small island, which Robert had chosen for his future home, and where he was to be “monarch of all he surveyed.”
After Frank Lee’s unfortunate cruise down the river, Robert had some doubts about being able to reach the island. But these did not prevent him from trying to carry out his plan. He might, perhaps, get wrecked, as Joe Birch had been; but if he did, it would be so much the more like Robinson Crusoe,—only a rock, with the water knee deep upon it, was not a very good place to be “monarch of all he surveyed.”
Robert’s father and mother had gone to visit his uncle in the State of New York, and were to be absent two weeks. This seemed like a good time for his great enterprise, as his oldest sister was the only person at home besides himself, and she was too busy to watch him very closely.
He worked away on his raft for two days before he finished it, for he did not mean to go to sea, as he called it to himself, in such a shabby craft as that in which Joe had been wrecked. He had tools from the shop, a hammer, and plenty of nails, and he made the raft very strong and safe.
It was raised above the water, so that the top was dry when he stood upon it; and to make it more secure, he put a little fence all round it, to prevent him from slipping off if the craft should strike upon a rock.
Then he made two oars with which he could move and steer the raft. He also nailed a box upon the platform, upon which he could sit. When this queer ark was done, he pushed it out into the stream, and made a trial trip as far as the river, and rowed it back to the place from which he started.
From the barn he took two horse-blankets, for his bed on the island, and placed them on the raft. He got a tin cup and a kettle from the house, as well as several other things which he thought he might need. A small hatchet and some nails from the shop completed his outfit. All these articles were secured on the raft, just before dark, and the next morning he intended to start for the island.
Robert was so tired after the hard work he had done upon the raft, that he slept like a rock all night, and did not wake up till his sister called him to breakfast. He had intended to start very early in the morning, but this part of his plan had failed.