p so as to keep the basket from unraveling. At last he hit upon the
plan of fastening two stout rods, one outside, the other inside, the
basket. These he sewed firmly, over and over, to the basket with a kind
of fibre from a plant he had discovered that looked almost to be what he
had heard called the century plant in the parks at home.

On attempting his next basket, he thought long how he might improve and
save time. He must hasten, or the now almost daily rains would destroy
his ripened wild corn and rice.

"If I could use coils of that long grass I saw growing in the marsh
beside the rice," he thought, "I could make twice the progress." He
gathered an armful, twisted it into cables about an inch thick and wove
it into his frame of upright rods instead of the horizontal layer of
willow canes. This answered his purpose just as well and rendered the
making of large baskets the work of a few hours. He found, however, that
the willow rods or osiers were not pliant enough to work well in
fastening his coils of grass cables together. He tried several things
and at last succeeded best when he used the long thread-like fibre of
the century-like plant. He had, however, to make a stout framework of
rods. He would first coil his grass rope into this frame and then sew it
together with twine or thread made from this fibre.

[Illustration: ROBINSON'S BASKETS]

He afterwards tried making smaller and finer baskets out of the fibre
that he had discovered, which could be easily had from the thick-leaved
plant he thought he had seen at home. He first used long, tough, fine
roots he had seen when digging up the tree at the mouth of his cave.
Afterwards he discovered some tall, tough reeds growing near by. He laid
in a supply of these. He found that when he wanted to use them, a good
soaking in water made them as pliable and tough as when first cut.

The making of the baskets and storing up grains made it possible for
Robinson to become a farmer and thus make himself independent. This
thought was a great relief to him.

XXIX

ROBINSON BECOMES A FARMER

Robinson had now been on the island long enough to know how the seasons
changed. He found that there were two kinds of weather there, wet
weather and dry weather. There were two wet seasons in each year and two
dry ones. During the wet seasons, which lasted nearly three months,
Robinson had to remain pretty closely at home, and could not gather
grain, for the plants were