Page 30 - An American Robinson Crusoe

end and then he was ready for the grinding. After cleaning his mortar and pestle carefully he placed some corn
in the hollow and soon had some fine yellow meal or flour without any grit or sand in it.

His next care was to separate the coarse outer husk or covering of the kernel from the finer parts that make the
meal. He had no sieve. His net was too coarse. It let both bran and meal go through. "I must make a net or
cloth fine enough to sift or bolt my flour," said he. Such was now his skill in spinning and weaving that this
was not hard to do. He had soon woven in his loom a piece of fine netting which allowed the meal to shake
through, but held back the coarse bran or outer husk of the kernel. Out of the dry corn that he had stored up he
now made quite a quantity of flour. This he kept tightly covered in a large earthen pot or jar that he had made
for this purpose. "I must keep all my food clean and protect it from the ants and other insects as well as dust
and damp," he thought.

His preparations were now nearly made. He had already his stove of flat stones. On this he could set his pots
to boil water, cook rice, and meat, but it would not do for baking a loaf of bread of any thickness. He must
have an oven or enclosed place into which he could put the loaf to bake it. By the use of flat stones he soon
rebuilt his stove so as to have an oven that did fine service. Now it was mixing the dough that claimed his
attention. He had of course no yeast to make raised or light bread. He poured goats' milk on the flour and
kneaded it into a thick dough. He did not forget to add salt. He placed his loaf in a shallow earthen pan he had
made for this purpose. After the fire had heated the stones of his oven through, he put in his loaf and soon was
enjoying a meal of corn bread and meat stew.

Robinson soon tried to make cocoa from the beans of the cocoa palm that grew in the island. This with good
rich goats' milk in it he thought the best drink in the world. He often thought of making sugar from the sugar
cane plant he had discovered in the island. But the labor of squeezing out the juice was too great. He could
think of no way to do this without the help of horses or oxen.

X XX II

ROBINSON AS FISHERMAN

Robinson was now eager to use his fire and cooking vessels. He had noticed with hungry eyes fine large fish
in the creek near his cave. But he had never taken the trouble to catch any. "What is the use?" he thought. "I
cannot eat them raw." It was different now and he began to devise ways of making a catch. How he longed for
a fish-hook, such as he had so often used when loitering along the Hudson River! "But a fish-hook is not to be
thought of," he said to himself, "unless I can make one of bone." He went down to the brook and searched
long for a fish-bone that he might make use of for this purpose. He found nothing.

"I must try something else," he thought. He remembered the nets he used to see along the Hudson and
wondered if he could not make a small one to pull through the water and thus catch the fish.

He had now a better source of fibre for weaving and for spinning into lines and ropes. He had discovered this
when he was trying to find a good strong thread or yarn with which to bind the coils of his grass-made baskets
together. He obtained fibre in great abundance from the century-like plant. He found if he broke off the long
leaves of this plant and allowed them to decay there remained a long, tough fibrous substance out of which
strong cords could be twisted or yarn made for weaving a coarse cloth or netting.

Out of this he spun yarn thread to make a net about three or four feet by two feet. He fastened cords to four
corners of this, tied them to a long pole, and was now prepared to test his plan for catching fish.

The brook he found was too shallow for him to catch fish in this way. At the sight of him and his net, they
scurried away to deep water. Neither could he succeed in the shallow water along the shore. "I must wade out
as far as I can," he said to himself, "and draw the net through the water."