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5 Learning to live alone |
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I still needed a lot of things. |
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' Well,' I said,' I' m going to have to make them. |
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' So, every day, I worked. |
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First of all, I wanted to make my cave bigger. |
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I carried out stone from the cave, and after many days' hard work |
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I had a large cave in the side of the hill. |
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Then I needed a table and a chair, and that was my next job. |
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I had to work on them for a long time. |
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I also wanted to make places to put all my food, and all my tools and guns. |
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But every time I wanted a piece of wood, I had to cut down a tree. |
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It was long, slow, difficult work, |
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And during the next months I learnt to be very clever with my tools. |
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There was no hurry. I had all the time in the world. |
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I also went out every day, and I always had my gun with me. |
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Sometimes I killed a wild animal, and then I had meat to eat. |
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But when it got dark, I had to go to bed because I had no light. |
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I couldn' t read or write because I couldn' t see. |
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For a long time, I didn' t know what to do. |
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But in the end, I learnt how to use the fat of dead animals to make a light. |
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The weather on my island was usually very hot, |
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And there were often storms and heavy rain. |
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The next June, it rained all the time, and I couldn' t go out very often. |
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I was also ill for some weeks, but slowly, I got better. |
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When I was stronger, I began to go out again. |
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The first time I killed a wild animal, and the second time I caught a big turtle. |
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I was on the island for ten months before I visited other parts of it. |
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During those months I worked hard on my cave and my house and my fence. |
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Now I was ready to find out more about the rest of the island. |
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First, I walked along the side of a little river. |
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There, I found open ground without trees. |
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Later, I came to more trees with many different fruits. |
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I decided to take a lot of the fruit, and to put it to dry in the sun for a time. |
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Then I could keep it for many months. |
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That night I went to sleep in a tree for the second time, |
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And the next day I went on with my journey. |
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Soon I came to an opening in the hills. |
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In front of me, everything was green, and there were flowers everywhere. |
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There were also a lot of different birds and animals. |
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I saw that my house was on the worst side of the island. |
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But I didn' t want to move from there. It was my home now. |
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I stayed away for three days, and then I came home. |
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But I often went back to the other, greener side of the island. |
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And so my life went on. Every month I learnt to do or to make something new. |
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But I had troubles and accidents too. |
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Once there was a terrible storm with very heavy rain. |
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The roof of my cave fell in, and nearly killed me! |
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I had to build it up again with many pieces of wood. |
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I had a lot of food now. I cooked it over a fire or dried it in the sun. |
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So I always had meat during the rainy months when I could not go out with a gun. |
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I learnt to make pots to keep my food in. |
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But I wanted very much to make a harder, stronger pot |
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A pot that would not break in a fire. I tried many times, but I could not do it. |
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Then one day I was lucky. I made some new pots and put them in a very hot fire. |
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They changed colour, but did not break. |
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I left them there for many hours, and when they were cold again, |
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I found that they were hard and strong. That night I was very happy. |
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I had hot water for the first time on the island. |
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By then, I also had my own bread. That was luck, too. |
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One day I found a little bag. We used it on the ship, to keep the chickens' food in. |
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There was still some of the food in the bag, |
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And I dropped some of it onto the ground. |
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A month later I saw something bright green there, |
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And after six months I had a very small field of corn. |
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I was very excited. Perhaps now I could make my own bread! |
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It was easy to say, but not so easy to do. |
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It is a lot of work to make bread from corn. |
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Many people eat bread, but how many people can take corn from a field |
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And make bread out of it without help? |
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I had to learn and to make many new things, |
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And it was a year before I cooked and ate my first bread. |
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During all this time I never stopped thinking about escape. |
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When I travelled across to the other side of the island, |
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I could see the other islands, and I said to myself, |
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' Perhaps I can get there with a boat. Perhaps I can get back to England one day.' |
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So I decided to make myself a boat. |
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I cut down a big tree, and then began to make a long hole in it. |
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It was hard work, but about six months later, I had a very fine canoe. |
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Next, I had to get it down to the sea. How stupid I was! |
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Why didn' t I think before I began work? |
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Of course, the canoe was too heavy. I couldn' t move it! |
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I pulled and pushed and tried everything, but it didn' t move. |
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I was very unhappy for a long time after that. |
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That happened in my fourth year on the island. |
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In my sixth year I did make myself a smaller canoe, but I did not try to escape in it. |
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The boat was too small for a long journey, and I did not want to die at sea. |
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The island was my home now, not my prison, and I was just happy to be alive. |
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A year or two later, I made myself a second canoe on the other side of the island. |
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I also built myself a second house there, and so I had two homes. |
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My life was still busy from morning to night. |
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There were always things to do or to make. |
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I learnt to make new clothes for myself from the skins of dead animals. |
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They looked very strange, it is true, but they kept me dry in the rain. |
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I kept food and tools at both my houses, and also wild goats. |
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There were many goats on the island, |
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And I made fields with high fences to keep them in. |
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They learnt to take food from me, and soon I had goat' s milk to drink every day. |
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I also worked hard in my cornfields. And so many years went by. |