ught, most likely, from home, and which bore the old-fashioned
inscription, "Alexander Selkirk, this is my one." It was needful to make
for himself a bed, for hitherto he had slept on the beach, so that at
the first moment of opening his eyes he might begin his watch over the
sea: now he must sleep in his hut.

This bed he determined to make of the skins of goats, for he had begun
to hunt the wild goats for food, having by this time wearied of his diet
of fish. At first he was able only to overtake and capture the young
kids, for he had no gun, no bow and arrow with which to kill them at a
distance; then as exercise and practice increased his strength, he found
himself able to pursue and take the largest and swiftest goats, and
having killed them, to carry them on his shoulders to his hut. But as
goat's flesh, his principal food, could only be obtained by him while he
remained in full strength and vigor, he determined to provide a store in
case of illness or accident, and so, catching several young kids, he
slightly lamed them, so that they could move but slowly, and then
trained them to feed around his hut, and these gentle creatures, who
soon learned to know him, brought some sense of companionship to the
lonely man.

His life began now to have its regular duties and interests. In the
morning when he rose, he sang one of the old Scotch psalms, after the
practice which he had been taught from childhood, and then read aloud a
chapter of the Bible, and prayed long and fervently.

Then he betook himself to light a fire by rubbing together two dry
sticks till a flame was produced, and this fire he fed from time to time
with branches and logs from the woods. He had also, his food to obtain
and to cook--goat's flesh or cray-fish, which he boiled in his large
sauce-pan; and to gather the tender tops of the cabbage-palm or other
vegetables, for bread. These necessary employments finished, he would
take his Bible, and, sitting in the door of his hut, or on the beach,
would study it for hours, finding new truths and deeper meaning in the
blessed words familiar to him from his childhood. Or he would choose one
of his books on navigation, and study with a care which he had never
before thought it worth while to give, hoping in this way to be a better
sailor, and be able to take higher rank in the service, if it should
please God to restore him once more to the duties and work of life. In
this regular, peaceful, and religious lif