could not give up that hope of escape without a struggle.
As long as there was a hope of making his way from the island by means
of that, so long might he keep up his heart; but if the damage that had
been done should prove irreparable, how would he be able to endure his
situation? Whatever it was, it would be best to know the worst once
for all. Perhaps he might stop the leak. He had material around which
seemed to be the right sort of thing to stop a leak with. He had the
piece of sail, which could be cut up into small pieces, and used to
stop the leak. If he had possessed a hatchet and some nails, he would
have made an effort to repair the fracture in the planks of the boat;
but as he had nothing of that sort, he tried to devise some method by
which the water might be kept out. As he thought, there gradually grew
up in his mind the rude outline of a plan which promised something, and
seemed to him to be certainly worth trying. At any rate, he thought,
it will serve to give me an occupation; and any occupation, even if it
proves to be of no practical value, is better than sitting here doing
nothing at all.

Having something to do once more quickened Tom's energies anew, and
starting to his feet, he prepared to put his plan into execution. First
of all, in order to carry out that plan, it was necessary for him to
get a number of blocks and boards of different sizes. These, he knew,
could easily be found among the driftwood on the beach. Over there he
hurried, and after a moderate search he succeeded, at length, in
finding bits of wood that seemed suited to the purpose which he had in
view. With these he came back to the boat; but as there was a large
number of them, he had to make several journeys before the whole
collection was brought over.

Then he took his pole, and, putting a block under it, used it as a
lever to raise up the boat. By dexterous management he succeeded in
doing this, and at the same time he ran a board underneath the bow of
the boat as it was slightly raised. This manoeuvre he repeated several
times, each time raising his lever higher, by means of a higher
fulcrum, and thus constantly raising the bow of the boat; while after
each elevation the bow was secured in its new position by running an
additional board underneath it, over the other preceding boards. By
carefully and perseveringly pursuing this course, he at length
succeeded in raising the bow of the boat about a foot in the air