day of the week, and be unable to distinguish one from
the other, and not know which was the Lord's day.

I remembered back carefully to the reckoning of time kept in the longboat
by Captain Nicholl; and carefully, again and again, to make sure beyond
any shadow of uncertainty, I went over the tale of the days and nights I
had spent on the island. Then, by seven stones outside my hut, I kept my
weekly calendar. In one place on the oar I cut a small notch for each
week, and in another place on the oar I notched the months, being duly
careful indeed, to reckon in the additional days to each month over and
beyond the four weeks.

Thus I was enabled to pay due regard to the Sabbath. As the only mode of
worship I could adopt, I carved a short hymn, appropriate to my
situation, on the oar, which I never failed to chant on the Sabbath. God,
in His all-mercy, had not forgotten me; nor did I, in those eight years,
fail at all proper times to remember God.

It was astonishing the work required, under such circumstances, to supply
one's simple needs of food and shelter. Indeed, I was rarely idle, that
first year. The hut, itself a mere lair of rocks, nevertheless took six
weeks of my time. The tardy curing and the endless scraping of the
sealskins, so as to make them soft and pliable for garments, occupied my
spare moments for months and months.

Then there was the matter of my water supply. After any heavy gale, the
flying spray salted my saved rainwater, so that at times I was grievously
put to live through till fresh rains fell unaccompanied by high winds.
Aware that a continual dropping will wear a stone, I selected a large
stone, fine and tight of texture and, by means of smaller stones, I
proceeded to pound it hollow. In five weeks of most arduous toil I
managed thus to make a jar which I estimated to hold a gallon and a half.
Later, I similarly made a four-gallon jar. It took me nine weeks. Other
small ones I also made from time to time. One, that would have contained
eight gallons, developed a flaw when I had worked seven weeks on it.

But it was not until my fourth year on the island, when I had become
reconciled to the possibility that I might continue to live there for the
term of my natural life, that I created my masterpiece. It took me eight
months, but it was tight, and it held upwards of thirty gallons. These
stone vessels were a great gratification to me--so much so, that at times
I forgot my hu