elp me make my tools as
well as cook my food. I can now cook my corn and rice."

XXVIII

ROBINSON MAKES BASKETS

Robinson still continued anxious about his food supply when he could no
longer gather it fresh from the fields and forest. Corn had again become
ripe. He had found in a wet, marshy place some wild rice-plants loaded
with ripened grain. As he now had fire he only had to have some way of
storing up grains and he would not lack for food. He knew that grain
stored away must be kept dry and that he must especially provide against
dampness in his cave or in his bower.

If he only had some baskets. These would be just the thing. But how was
he to get them? Robinson had never given a thought to either material or
the method of making them. He, however, was gradually acquiring skill
and confidence in himself. So far he had managed to meet all his wants.
He had invented tools and made his own clothes and shelter, and, "Now,"
said he to himself, "I will solve the new problem. I must first study
the materials that I have at hand." He remembered the splint market
baskets in which his father took vegetables home from the store. He
recalled how the thin splints were woven.

"They went over and under," he said. "That is simple enough if I had the
splints." He set himself diligently to work to find a plant whose bark
or split branches could be used for splints. He tried to peel off the
rough outer bark of several trees in order to examine the inner layers
of soft fibrous material. He found several trees that gave promise of
furnishing abundance of long, thin strips, but the labor of removing the
bark with his rude imperfect tools was so great that he resolved that he
would have to find some other kind of material.

"Why need the strips be flat?" he thought. "I believe I could weave them
in the same way if I used the long, thin, tough willow rods I saw
growing by the brookside, when I was returning from my journey."

He found on trial that the weaving went very well, but that he must have
strong, thick rods or ribs running up and down to give strength and form
to his basket. He worked hard, but it was slow work. It was three days
before his first basket was done. He made many mistakes and was obliged
many times to undo what he had accomplished in order to correct some
error. And at last when he had woven the basket as large as he thought
was suitable for his purpose, he did not know how to stop or finish the
to