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4 A new life on an island |
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When day came, the sea was quiet again. |
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I looked for our ship and, to my surprise, it was still there and still in one piece. |
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' I think I can swim to it,' I said to myself. |
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So I walked down to the sea and before long, |
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I was at the ship and was swimming round it. But how could I get on to it? |
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In the end, I got in through a hole in the side, but it wasn' t easy. |
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There was a lot of water in the ship, |
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But the sand under the sea was still holding the ship in one place. |
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The back of the ship was high out of the water, |
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And I was very tnankful for this because all the ship' s food was there. |
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I was very hungry so I began to eat something at once. |
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Then I decided to take some of it back to the shore with me. |
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But how could I get it there? |
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I looked around the ship, and after a few minutes, |
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I found some long pieces of wood. I tied them together with rope. |
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Then I got the things that I wanted from the ship. |
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There was a big box of food rice, and salted meat, and hard ship' s bread. |
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I also took many strong knives and other tools, |
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the ship' s sails and ropes, paper, pens, books, and seven guns. |
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Now I needed a little sail from the ship, and then I was ready. |
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Slowly and carefully, I went back to the shore. |
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It was difficult to stop my things from falling into the sea, |
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But in the end I got everything on to the shore. |
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Now I needed somewhere to keep my things. |
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There were some hills around me, |
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So I decided to build myself a little house on one of them. |
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I walked to the top of the highest hill and looked down, I was very unhappy, |
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Because I saw then that I was on an island. |
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There were two smaller islands a few miles away, |
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And after that, only the sea. Just the sea, for mile after mile after mile. |
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After a time, I found a little cave in the side of a hill. |
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In front of it, there was a good place to make a home. |
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So, I used the ship' s sails, rope, and pieces of wood, |
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And after a lot of hard work I had a very fine tent. |
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The cave at the back of my tent was a good place to keep my food, |
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And so I called it my' kitchen'. That night, I went to sleep in my new home. |
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The next day I thought about the possible dangers on the island. |
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Were there wild animals, and perhaps wild people too, on my island? |
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I didn' t know, but I was very afraid. So I decided to build a very strong fence. |
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I cut down young trees and put them in the ground, |
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In a halfcircle around the front of my tent. |
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I used many of the ship' s ropes too, |
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And in the end my fence was as strong as a stone wall. |
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Nobody could get over it, through it, or round it. |
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Making tents and building fences is hard work. |
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I needed many tools to help me. |
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So I decided to go back to the ship again, and get some more things. |
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I went back twelve times, |
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But soon after my twelfth visit there was another terrible storm. |
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The next morning, when I looked out to sea, there was no ship. |
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When I saw that, I was very unhappy. |
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' Why am I alive, and why are all my friends dead?' I asked myself. |
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' What will happen to me now, alone on this island without friends? |
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How can I ever escape from it?' |
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Then I told myself that I was lucky lucky to be alive, |
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Lucky to have food and tools, lucky to be young and strong. |
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But I knew that my island was somewhere off the coast of South America. |
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Ships did not often come down this coast, and I said to myself, |
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' I' m going to be on this island for a long time.' |
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So, on a long piece of wood, I cut these words: |
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I CAME HERE ON 30TH SEPTEMBER 1659 After that, |
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I decided to make a cut for each day. |