OF ROBINSON CRUSOE. 119

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I built me a little kind of a bower, and surrounded it, at a distance,
with a strong fence, being a double hedge, as high as I could reach,
well staked, and filled between with brushwood; and here I lay very
secure, sometimes two or three nights together, always going over it
with a ladder, as before; so that I fancied now I had my country
house, and my sea-coast house ; and this work took me up the begin-
ning of August.

[ had but newly finished my fence, and began to enjoy my labour,
when the rains came on, and made me stick close to my first habita-
tion; for, though I had made me a tent like the other, with a piece of
sail, and spread it very well, yet I had not the shelter of a hill to keep
me from storms, nor a cave behind me to retreat into when the rains
were extraordinary.

About the beginning of August, as I said, I had finished my bower,
and began to enjoy myself. The 8d of August I found the grapes 1
had hung up were perfectly dried, and, indeed, were excellent good
raisins of the sun; so I began to take them down from the trees, and
it was very happy that I did so, for the rains which followed would
have spoiled them, and I had lost the best part of my winter food; for
I had above two hundred large bunches of them. No sooner had I
taken them all down, and carried most of them home to my cave, but
it began to rain; and from thence, which was the 14th of August, it
rained more or less every day till the middle of October, and some-
times so violently that I could not stir out of my cave for several days.

In this season I was much surprised with the increase of my family:
I had been concerned for the loss of one of my cats, who ran away
from me, or, as I thought, had been dead; and I heard no more tale
or tidings of her, till, to my astonishment, she came home, about the
end of August, with three kittens. This was the more strange to me,
because, though I had killed a wild cat, as I called it, with my gun,
yet I thought it was a quite different kind from our European cats ;
yes the young cats were the same kind of house breed like the ol
one; and both my cats being femsles, I thought it very strange: but
from these three cats, I afterwards came to be so pestered with cats,
that I-vas forced to kill them like vermin, or wild beasts, and to drive
them from my house as much as possible.

From the 14th of August to the 26th, incessant rain, so that I could
not stir, and was now very careful not to be much wet. In this con-
finement I began to be straitened for food; but venturing out twice, I
one day killed a goat; and the last day, which was the 26th, found a
very large tortoise, which was a treat to me, and my food was regu-—
lated thus: I ate a bunch of raisins for my ee, a piece of the.

 

 

 
 

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