hen I came to have corn: for, first, I had no yeast: as to
that part there was no supplying the want, so I did not concern myself
much about it; but for an oven I was indeed puzzled. At length I found
out an expedient for that also, which was this; I made some earthen
vessels, very broad, but not deep, that is to say, about two feet
diameter, and not above nine inches deep: these I burned in the fire, as
I had done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, I
made a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square
tiles, of my own making and burning also; but I should not call
them square.

When the fire-wood was burned into embers, or live coals, I drew them
forward upon the hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there let them
lie till the hearth was very hot; then sweeping away all the embers, I
set down my loaf, or loaves, and covering them with the earthen pot,
drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in and add to
the heat; and thus, as well as in the best oven in the world, I baked my
barley-loaves, and became, in a little time, a good pastry-cook into the
bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice; but
made no pies, as I had nothing to put into them except the flesh of
fowls or goats.

It need not be wondered at, if all these things took me up most part of
the third year of my abode here; for, it is to be observed, in the
intervals of these things, I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage:
I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I could,
and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to rub
it out; for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash
it with.

And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to build
my barns bigger: I wanted a place to lay it up in; for the increase of
the corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twenty
bushels, and of rice as much, or more, insomuch that now I resolved to
begin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while:
I resolved also to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole
year, and to sow but once a year.

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were
much more than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow just the
same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a
quantity would fully provide me with bread, &c.

All the while these