16. I now proceeded to choose a healthy, convenient, and pleasant spot for my home. I had chiefly to consider three things: First, air; second, shelter from the heat; third, safety from wild creatures, whether men or beasts; fourth, a view of the sea, that if God sent any ship in sight I might not lose any chance of deliverance. In the course of my search I found a little plain on the side of a rising hill, with a hollow like the entrance to a cave. Here I resolved to pitch my tent.
(He afterward found a broad, grassy prairie on the other side of the island, where he wished he had made his home. On the slope above grew grapes, lemons, citrons, melons, and other kinds of fruit.)
17. Aft er ten or twelve days it came into my thoughts that I should lose my reckoning for want of pen and ink; but to prevent this I cut with my knife upon a large post in capital letters the following words: “I came on shore here on the 30th of September, 1659.” On the sides of this post I cut every day a notch; and thus I kept my calendar, or weekly, monthly, and yearly reckoning of time.
(He afterward found pen, ink, and paper in the ship; but the record on the post was more lasting than anything he could have written on paper. However, when he got his pen and ink he wrote out a daily journal, giving the history of his life almost to the hour and minute. Thus he tells us that the shocks of earthquake were eight minutes apart, and that he spent eighteen days widening his cave.)
18. I made a strong fence of stakes about my tent that no animal could tear down, and dug a cave in the side of the hill, where I stored my powder and other valuables. Every day I went out with my gun on this scene of silent life. I could only listen to the birds, and hear the wind among the trees. I came out, however, to shoot goats for food. I found that as I came down from the hills into the valleys, the wild goats did not see me; but if they caught sight of me, as they did if I went toward them from below, they would turn tail and run so fast I could capture nothing.
Questions and Notes. Are all words in -ceed spelled with a double e? What two other common words besides proceed have we already studied? What sound has ea in healthy? in pleasant? in please? How do you remember that i comes before e in chief? What sound has ai in air? Do you spell 14 and 40 with ou as you do fourth? What other word pronounced like sea? Note the three words, lose, loose, and loss; what is the difference in meaning? Why does chance end with a silent e? change? What other classes of words take a silent e where we should not expect it? What other word pronounced like course? What does it mean? How do you spell the word for the tool with which a carpenter smooths boards? Mention five other words with a silent t before ch, as in pitch. To remember the order of letters in prairie, notice that there is an i next to the r on either side. What other letters represent the vowel sound heard in grew? What two peculiarities in the spelling of thoughts? Mention another word in which ou has the same sound as in thought. How is this sound regularly represented? What other word pronounced like capital? (Answer. Capitol. The chief government building is called the capitol; the city in which the seat of government is located is called the capital, just as the large letters are called capitals.) What sound has ui in fruit? What other two sounds have we had for ui? Would you expect a double consonant in melons and lemons, or are these words spelled regularly? What is peculiar about the spelling of calendar? What other word like it, and what does it mean? What other word spelled like minute, but pronounced differently? What sound has u in this word? What other word pronounced like scene? Is t silent in listen? in often? Why is y not changed to i or ie in valleys? What other plural is made in the same way? Write sentences in which the following words shall be correctly used: are, forth, see (two meanings), cent, cite, coarse, rate, ate, tare, seen, here, site, tale. In what two ways may wind be pronounced, and what is the difference in meaning?
IX.
19. I soon found that I lacked needles, pins, and thread, and especially linen. Yet I made clothes and sewed up the seams with tough stripe of goatskin. I afterward got handkerchiefs and shirts from another wreck. However, for want of tools my work went on heavily; yet I managed to make a chair, a table, and several large shelves. For a long time I was in want of a wagon or carriage of some kind. At last I hewed out a wheel of wood and made a wheelbarrow.
20. I worked as steadily as I could for the rain, for this was the rainy season. I may say I was always busy. I raised a turf wall close outside my double fence, and felt sure if any people came on shore they would not see anything like a dwelling. I also made my rounds in the woods every day. As I have already said, I found plenty of wild goats. I also found a kind of wild pigeon, which builds, not as wood pigeons do, in trees, but in holes of the rocks. The young ones were very good meat.
Questions and Notes. What sound has ea in thread? What is peculiar in the spelling of liven? What is peculiar in the spelling of handkerchiefs? wrecks? What rule applied to the formation of the word heavily? What sound has ai in chair? Is the i or the a silent in carriage? (Look this up in the dictionary.) What sound has u in busy? What other word with the same sound for u? Is there any word besides people in which eo has the sound of e long? In what other compounds besides also does all drop one l? What sound has ai in said? Does it have this sound in any other word? What sound has eo in pigeon? ui in builds? What other word pronounced like hole? How do you remember ei in their?