boat in which he and the others had tried to
come ashore when their ship struck on the sand-bank, and which had
been flung far up on the beach by the sea, and he worked for weeks
trying to repair her and to get her into the water. But it was all of
no use; he could not move her.

Then, he thought, "I'll cut down a tree, and make a new boat." This he
fancied would be easy, for he had heard how the Indians make canoes by
felling a tree and burning out the inside. "If they can do it, then
surely I can do it even better," he thought. So he looked about, and
chose a huge tree which stood about a hundred yards from the water,
and with great labor in about three weeks he had cut it down.

Four months Robinson worked at this boat, thinking all the time of
what he would do when he reached the far distant land, and much
pleased with himself for the beautiful boat he was making. Day after
day he trimmed and shaped it, and very proud he was when it was
finished and lay there on the ground, big enough to carry twenty men.

Then he started to get her into the water. But that was quite another
thing. By no means in his power could he move her an inch, try as he
might. She was far too big. Then he began to dig a canal from the sea
to the boat; but before he had got much of that work done, he saw
clearly that there was so much earth to dig away, that, without some
one to help him, it must take years and years before he could get the
water to the boat. So he gave it up, and left her to lie and rot in
the sun and the rain--a great grief to him.

IV

ROBINSON BUILDS A SECOND BOAT, IN WHICH HE IS SWEPT OUT TO SEA

By the time that Robinson had been four years on the island, all his
clothes had become very ragged, and he had hardly anything that could
be called a hat. Clothes he must have, for he could not go naked
without getting his skin blistered by the hot sun, and he was afraid
of getting a sunstroke if he went about without a hat.

Now he had kept all the skins of the goats, and other animals, such as
hares and foxes, that he had shot; and from these, after many
failures, at last he made a hat and coat of goatskin, and a pair of
short trousers, all with the hair outside, so as to shoot off the wet
when it rained. The hat was very tall, and came to a sharp peak on
top, and it had a flap which hung down the back of his neck. Robinson
also, with much trouble, made of the skins an umbrella which he could
open and shut; and