branches which were turned up a little at one end and like a sled
runner. To these he tied twelve cross-pieces with bark. To the foremost
he tied a strong rope made from cocoa fiber. He then had something that
looked much like a sled on which to draw his thistle-like brush to his
cave. But for one day he had done enough. The transplanting of the
thistles was hard work. His spade broke and he had to make a new one. In
the afternoon he broke his spade again. And as he made his third one, he
made up his mind that it was no use trying to dig with such a weak tool
in the hard ground. It would only break again.

"If I only had a pick." But he had none. He found a thick, hard, sharp
stone. With it he picked up the hard earth, but had to bend almost
double in using it. "At home," he thought, "they have handles to picks."
The handle was put through a hole in the iron. He turned the matter
over and over in his mind, how he might put a hole through the stone.
But he found no means. He searched out a branch with a crotch at one
end. He tied the stone to this with strong cocoa fiber and bark. How his
eye glistened as he looked at the new tool! Now he began to work. He
first loosened up the earth with his pick, then he dug it out with his
spade and planted in a high thistle. Many days he had to work, but
finally one evening the hedge was ready. He had a row in a semi-circle
in front of his cave. He counted the marks on his calendar tree. The day
on which he had begun to make his hedge he had especially marked out.
He had worked fourteen days.

[Illustration: ROBINSON'S TOOLS]

He had completed his hedge with the exception of a small hole that must
serve for a door. But the door must not be seen from without.

As Robinson thought, it came to him that there was still place for two
thistles on the outside. He could easily get in, but the entrance was
difficult to find from the outside.

Robinson looked on his hedge from without. It was not yet thick enough.
For this reason he planted small thistles between the larger ones. With
the digging them out and transplanting them he was a whole week longer.

Finally, the hedge and the yard were ready. Now Robinson could rest
without fear and sleep in his cave, and could have his goat near him all
the time. It delighted him greatly. It ran after him continually like a
dog. When he came back from an absence, it bleated for joy and ran to
meet him as soon as he got inside the hedge. Robinson