is journey; for now,
thought I, I shall have several convenient family utensils; so spent the
next day or two in scooping my gourds and cleaning away the pulp. When I
had done this, finding the rinds to be very weak and yielding, I made
a good fire, and setting them round it at a moderate distance to dry,
I went about something else without doors: but, alas! my hopes were ill
founded; for coming home to turn my gourds and see how dry they were, I
found them all warped and turned into a variety of uncouth shapes. This
put me to a stand; but, however, I recovered some pieces of them for
use, as the bottom parts of most of them, after paring away the sides,
would hold something, though they by no means answered my first purpose.

Well, thought I, what if I have lost my gourds, I have gained
experience. I will dry them next time with the guts in, and having
stiffened their rinds in their proper dimensions, then try to cleanse
them. So next morning (for I was very eager at it) I set out with my
cart for another load; and having handed them over the bridge, got safe
with them to the grotto. These by proper management proved exceedingly
valuable to me, answering, in one way or other, the several uses of
plates, bottles, pans, and divers other vessels.

I now got a large quantity of the vegetable ram's-horn, and filled a
great many of the gourds with the treacle it yielded; I also boiled and
dried a large parcel of my cheeses, and hung them up for use, for I had
now for some time made all my bread of the latter, scraping and bruising
the flour, and mixing it with my treacle and water; and this indeed made
such a sweet and nourishing bread, that I could even have lived wholly
upon it; but I afterwards very much improved it by putting the milky
juice of the ram's-horn, unboiled, to my flour in a small quantity, and
then baking it on the hearth, covered over with embers. This detracted
nothing from the sweetness and mellowness of my bread, but made it much
lighter than the treacle alone would have done.

Finding there was no fear of starving, but so far from it, that from
day to day I found out something new to add to my repast, either in
substantials or by way of dessert, I set me down very well contented
with my condition. I had nothing to do but to lay up store against
sickness and the dark weather, which last I expected would soon be upon
me, as the days were now exceeding short. Indeed, though I had now been
here six months