learned to climb while on board the
ship. He quickly laid down his hunting bag and clambered up the smooth
stem of the high tree, a palm. He picked off a nut and threw it down and
then several more, and climbed down again.

But the nuts were very hard. How should he open them? He had brought
along his sharp stone with which he had stripped off the inner bark.
With this he forced off the thick outer shell. But now came the hard nut
within, and how hard it was! Striking it was of no use.

Then he threw a great stone on the nut. The shell was crushed and a
snow-white kernel lay before him. It tasted like almond. With
astonishment Robinson saw in the middle of the nut a large empty space
which must have been filled with fluid as the inside was wet. He wished
that he had the juice to drink, for he was very thirsty. With this in
view, he examined another and riper nut, and the outside came off more
easily. But how could he break it and at the same time save the juice?
He studied the hull of the cocoanut on all sides. At the ends were three
little hollows. He attempted first to bore in with his fingers, but he
could not. "Hold!" he cried. "Maybe I can cut them there with the point
of my stone knife." This was done without trouble and out of the hole
flowed the sweet, white juice.

Robinson put a couple of nuts in his hunting bag, and also the shells
from the broken nuts. "Now," he thought, "I shall no longer have to
drink from my hand." With this thought he went on his way.

As Robinson came to a rock in his path, out jumped what Robinson took to
be a rabbit. He ran after him to catch him, but the rabbit was much the
swifter. So Robinson hastened home, but before he reached it the stars
were shining with their lustrous light. Tired Robinson stretched his
limbs on his bed of grass and leaves and slept soundly.

XIV

ROBINSON AS A HUNTER

All the time Robinson was confined to the cave he kept thinking about
the rabbit he had seen and how he might catch one. Finally, he
determined to make a spear. He broke down a thin, young sapling,
stripped off its branches and in one end fastened a sharp stone. He then
went to bed, for he wanted to be up early for his first hunting trip on
the morrow.

With his hunting sack and spear, Robinson began to creep very, very
cautiously through the underbrush. But he did not go far before he saw a
lot of rabbits feeding peacefully on the soft leaves and grass. He drew
back and thre