y
for the grinding. After cleaning his mortar and pestle carefully he
placed some corn in the hollow and soon had some fine yellow meal or
flour without any grit or sand in it.

His next care was to separate the coarse outer husk or covering of the
kernel from the finer parts that make the meal. He had no sieve. His
net was too coarse. It let both bran and meal go through. "I must make a
net or cloth fine enough to sift or bolt my flour," said he. Such was
now his skill in spinning and weaving that this was not hard to do. He
had soon woven in his loom a piece of fine netting which allowed the
meal to shake through, but held back the coarse bran or outer husk of
the kernel. Out of the dry corn that he had stored up he now made quite
a quantity of flour. This he kept tightly covered in a large earthen pot
or jar that he had made for this purpose. "I must keep all my food clean
and protect it from the ants and other insects as well as dust and
damp," he thought.

His preparations were now nearly made. He had already his stove of flat
stones. On this he could set his pots to boil water, cook rice, and
meat, but it would not do for baking a loaf of bread of any thickness.
He must have an oven or enclosed place into which he could put the loaf
to bake it. By the use of flat stones he soon rebuilt his stove so as to
have an oven that did fine service. Now it was mixing the dough that
claimed his attention. He had of course no yeast to make raised or light
bread. He poured goats' milk on the flour and kneaded it into a thick
dough. He did not forget to add salt. He placed his loaf in a shallow
earthen pan he had made for this purpose. After the fire had heated the
stones of his oven through, he put in his loaf and soon was enjoying a
meal of corn bread and meat stew.

Robinson soon tried to make cocoa from the beans of the cocoa palm that
grew in the island. This with good rich goats' milk in it he thought the
best drink in the world. He often thought of making sugar from the sugar
cane plant he had discovered in the island. But the labor of squeezing
out the juice was too great. He could think of no way to do this without
the help of horses or oxen.

XXXII

ROBINSON AS FISHERMAN

Robinson was now eager to use his fire and cooking vessels. He had
noticed with hungry eyes fine large fish in the creek near his cave. But
he had never taken the trouble to catch any. "What is the use?" he
thought. "I cannot eat them