OBINSON CRUSOE wasthe
youngest son of his parents.

His father wasa man of some
wealth, able to give his son a good
home, and to send him to school.
It was his wish that his son should
become a lawyer, but the boy’s head
began very early to be filled with
thoughts of travel, and nothing
would satisfy him but to go to sea,
His father gave him wise and
earnest counsel against it, and fora
time his advice prevailed; but in
: the end the boy’s desire to roam
led him to set his father’s wishes at naught. One day,

 

being at Hull, a seaport town of England, he met a school-
fellow who was about to sail in his father’s ship, and was
urged by him to go with him. In an evil hour he yielded,
and without asking God’s blessing or his father’s, he went
on board.

One day, when they had been out about two weeks, a
great storm came up, and the ship struck a rock near a
strange coast. The crew launched a boat, and sought to
escape in it, but the waves soon overturned it, and all were
separated in the sea. Robinson Crusoe was carried by a
wave toward the shore, and at length thrown upon the
land senseless.

When he recovered he began to look about to see if any
of his comrades had escaped, but he could see no sign of
any of them.

Night coming on, he climbed into a thick, bushy tree to
sleep, not knowing but that there might be ravenous

beasts there. When he awoke next morning, the sea was calm,
and he could see the ship about a mile from the shore ; and when
the tide ebbed he swam out to her. He found that all the pro-
visions were dry, and being very hunery, filled his pockets with
biscuit, anl ate as he went about other things ; for he saw that he
must lose no time in vetting ashore all that he could from the ship.
First, he threw overboard several] spare yards and spars. Then he
went down the ship’s side and tied them together, and laying a few

   
 

The Baldwin Library