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Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe

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Chapter Five: Learning to live alone

I still needed a lot of things.

'Well,' I said, 'I'm going to have to make them.'

So, every day, I worked.

First of all, I wanted to make my cave bigger.

I carried out stone from the cave, and after many days' hard work I had a large cave in the side of the hill.

Then I needed a table and a chair, and that was my next job.

I had to work on them for a long time.

I also wanted to make places to put all my food, and all my tools and guns.

But every time I wanted a piece of wood, I had to cutdown a tree.

It was long, slow, difficult work, and during the next months I learnt to be very clever with my tools.

There was no hurry.

I had all the time in the world.

I also went out every day, and I always had my gun with me.

Sometimes I killed a wild animal, and then I had meat to eat.

But when it got dark, I had to go to bed because I had no light.

I couldn't read or write because I couldn't see.

For a long time, I didn't know what to do.

But in the end, I learnt how to use the fat of dead animals to make a light.

The weather on my island was usually very hot, and there were often storms and heavy rain.

The next June, it rained all the time, and I couldn't go out very often.

I was also ill for some weeks, but slowly, I got better.

When I was stronger, I began to go out again.

The first time I killed a wild animal, and the second time I caught a big turtle.

I was on the island for ten months before I visited other parts of it.

During those months I worked hard on my cave and my house and my fence.

Now I was ready to find out more about the rest of the island.

First, I walked along the side of a little river.

There, I found open ground without trees.

Later, I came to more trees with many different fruits.

I decided to take a lot of the fruit, and to put it to dry in the sun for a time.

Then I could keep it for many months.

That night, I went to sleep in a tree for the second time.

And the next day, I went on with my journey. 

Soon, I came to an opening in the hills in front of me. 

Everything was green and there were flowers everywhere. 

There were also a lot of different birds and animals. 

I saw that my house was on the worst side of the island.

But I didn't want to move from there.

It was my home now.

I stayed away for three days, and then I came home.

But I often went back to the other, greener side of the island.

And so my life went on.

Every month I learnt to do or to make something new.

But I had troubles and accidents too.

Once there was a terrible storm with very heavy rain.

The roof of my cave fell in, and nearly killed me!

I had to build it up again with many pieces of wood.

I had a lot of food now.

I cooked it over a fire or dried it in the sun.

So I always had meat during the rainy months when I could not go out with a gun.

I learnt to make pots to keep my food in.

But I wanted very much to make a harder, stronger pot - a pot that would not break in a fire.

I tried many times, but I could not do it.

Then one day I was lucky.

I made some new pots and put them in a very hot fire.

They changed color, but did not break.

I left them there for many hours, and when they were cold again, I found that they were hard and strong. 

That night, I was very happy. 

I had hot water for the first time on the island. 

By then, I also had my own bread. 

That was luck too.

One day I found a little bag.

We used it on the ship, to keep the chickens' food in.

There was still some of the food in the bag, and I dropped some of it onto the ground.

A month later I saw something bright green there, and after six months I had a very small field of corn.

I was very excited.

Perhaps now I could make my own bread!

It was easy to say, but not so easy to do.

It is a lot of work to make bread from corn.

Many people eat bread, but how many people can take corn from a field and make bread out of it without help?

I had to learn and to make many new things, and it was a year before I cooked and ate my first bread.

During all this time, I never stopped thinking about escape.

When I traveled across to the other side of the island, I could see the other islands, and I said to myself, 'Perhaps I can get there with a boat. Perhaps I can get back to England one day.'

So I decided to make myself a boat.

I cut down a big tree, and then began to make a long hole in it.

It was hard work, but about six months later, I had a very fine canoe.

Next, I had to get it down to the sea.

How stupid I was!

Why didn't I think before I began work?

Of course, the canoe was too heavy.

I couldn't move it!

I pulled and pushed and tried everything, but it didn't move.

I was very unhappy for a long time after that.

That happened in my fourth year on the island.

In my sixth year I did make myself a smaller canoe, but I did not try to escape in it.

The boat was too small for a long journey, and I did not want to die at sea.

The island was my home now, not my prison, and I was just happy to be alive.

A year or two later, I made myself a second canoe on the other side of the island.

I also built myself a second house there, and so I had two homes.

My life was still busy from morning to night.

There were always things to do or to make.

I learnt to make new clothes for myself from the skins of dead animals.

They looked very strange, it is true, but they kept me dry in the rain.

I kept food and tools at both my houses, and also wild goats.

There were many goats on the island, and I made fields with high fences to keep them in.

They learnt to take food from me, and soon I had goat's milk to drink every day.

I also worked hard in my cornfields.

And so many years went by.

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