, strong thong out of cocoa and other
fibre that he was now acquainted with. The birds thus caught he fastened
on broken branches of trees which he stuck into the earth in different
parts of his field. The birds heeded the warning and visited his corn
field no more that season.

At the end of the season he gathered or husked his corn and after it was
thoroughly dry he shelled it from the cob with his hands. He used his
baskets in which to carry his husked ears from the field to his cave and
in which to store it when shelled. He found that the ears were larger
and better filled and plumper than when the plants grew wild. He
selected the largest and best filled ears for his seed the next time. In
this way his new crop of corn was always better in kind and yielded more
than the old one.

At first he grew two crops a year, but by experimenting he found out
about how much he needed for his own use and planted once a year enough
to give him a liberal supply.

He observed that the wild rice grew in swampy lands, so that he did not
make the mistake of trying to raise it upon the upland where the corn
grew best. He saw at once that the planting of rice on low, marshy or
wet land was beyond his present strength and tools. "Some time in the
future," he thought, "I may try it."

Robinson also found wild grapes in abundance. These he dried by hanging
them on the branches of trees. He thus had a store of raisins for each
rainy season.

XXX

ROBINSON AS POTTER

Robinson was now anxious to cook his food, to boil his rice and
vegetables and bake bread, but he could do nothing without cooking
vessels. He had tried to use cocoanut shells, but these were too small
and there was no way to keep them from falling over and spilling the
contents. He determined to try to make some clay vessels. He knew where
he could get a kind of clay that had the appearance of making good ware.
It was fine grained and without lumps or pebbles. He was much perplexed
to mould the clay into right shapes. He tried taking a lump and shaping
it into a vessel with his hands. He tried many times, but each time the
clay broke and he was forced to try some other way. He recalled how he
had made his basket out of strands of twisted grass and wondered whether
he could not make his pots in the same way.

He spun the clay out into a long rope and began to coil it around a
small basket forming the layers together with his hands. This was easy,
but he did n