done the other, and laid them by; and when I wanted to bake, I made
a great fire upon my hearth, which I had paved with some square tiles of
my own baking and burning also; but I should not call them square.

When the firewood was burned pretty much into embers or live coals, I
drew them forward upon this hearth, so as to cover it all over, and there
I let them lie till the hearth was very hot. Then sweeping away all the
embers, I set down my loaf or loaves, and whelming down the earthen pot
upon them, drew the embers all round the outside of the pot, to keep in
and add to the heat; and thus as well as in the best oven in the world, I
baked my barley-loaves, and became in little time a good pastrycook into
the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice;
but I made no pies, neither had I anything to put into them supposing I
had, except the flesh either of fowls or goats.

It need not be wondered at if all these things took me up most part of
the third year of my abode here; for it is to be observed that in the
intervals of these things I had my new harvest and husbandry to manage;
for I reaped my corn in its season, and carried it home as well as I
could, and laid it up in the ear, in my large baskets, till I had time to
rub it out, for I had no floor to thrash it on, or instrument to thrash
it with.

And now, indeed, my stock of corn increasing, I really wanted to build my
barns bigger; I wanted a place to lay it up in, for the increase of the
corn now yielded me so much, that I had of the barley about twenty
bushels, and of the rice as much or more; insomuch that now I resolved to
begin to use it freely; for my bread had been quite gone a great while;
also I resolved to see what quantity would be sufficient for me a whole
year, and to sow but once a year.

Upon the whole, I found that the forty bushels of barley and rice were
much more than I could consume in a year; so I resolved to sow just the
same quantity every year that I sowed the last, in hopes that such a
quantity would fully provide me with bread, &c.

All the while these things were doing, you may be sure my thoughts ran
many times upon the prospect of land which I had seen from the other side
of the island; and I was not without secret wishes that I were on shore
there, fancying that, seeing the mainland, and an inhabited country, I
might find some way or other to convey myself further, and perhaps at
last find some means of es