ROBINSON CRUSOE.

few days before, and about a month after, to my great
amazement, something began to look very green and flour-
ishing; and when I came to view it more nicely every day
as it grew, I found about ten or twelve ears of green barley
appearing in the very same shape and make as that in
England.

I can scarce express the agitations of my mind at this
sight. Hitherto I had looked upon the actions of this life
only as the events of blind chance. But now the appear-
ance of this barley, flourishing in a barren soil, and my ig-
norance in not conceiving how it should come there, made
me conclude that miracles were not yet ceased; nay, I even
thought that God had appointed it to grow there without
any seed, purely for my sustenance in this miserable and
desolate island. And, indeed, such great effect this had
upon me, that it often made me melt into tears, through a
grateful sense of God’s mercies; and the greater still was
my thankfulness, when I perceived about this little field of
barley some rice-stalks, also, wonderfully flourishing.

While thus pleased in mind, I concluded there must be
more corn in the island, and therefore made a diligent
search among the rocks; but not being able to find any, on
a sudden it came into my mind how I had shaken the
husks of corn out of the bag, and then my admiration
ceased, with my gratitude to the Divine Being, as thinking

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