The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old FavoritesTappan, Eva March
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The Children's Hour, v 5. Stories From Seven Old Favorites
Tappan, Eva March
Children's stories; Literature -- Adaptations
When we had done this we came back to our castle, and there I fell to
work for my man Friday; and, first of all, I gave him a pair of linen
drawers, which I had out of the poor gunner's chest I mentioned, and
which I found in the wreck; and which, with a little alteration,
fitted him very well. Then I made him a jerkin of goat-skin, as well
as my skill would allow, and I was now grown a tolerable good tailor;
and I gave him a cap, which I had made of a hare-skin, very convenient
and fashionable enough; and thus he was clothed for the present
tolerably well, and was mighty well pleased to see himself almost as
well clothed as his master. It is true he went awkwardly in these
things at first; wearing the drawers was very awkward to him, and the
sleeves of the waistcoat galled his shoulders, and the inside of his
arms; but a little easing them where he complained they hurt him, and
using himself to them, at length he took to them very well.
The next day after I came home to my hutch with him, I began to
consider where I should lodge him. And that I might do well for him,
and yet be perfectly easy myself, I made a little tent for him in the
vacant place between my two fortifications, in the inside of the last
and in the outside of the first; and as there was a door or entrance
there into my cave, I made a formal framed door-case, and a door to it
of boards, and set it up in the passage, a little within the entrance;
and causing the door to open on the inside, I barred it up in the
night, taking in my ladders too; so that Friday could no way come at
me in the inside of my innermost wall without making so much noise in
getting over that it must needs waken me; for my first wall had now a
complete roof over it of long poles, covering all my tent, and leaning
up to the side of the hill, which was again laid cross with smaller
sticks instead of laths, and then thatched over a great thickness with
the rice-straw, which was strong, like reeds; and at the hole or place
which was left to go in or out by the ladder, I had placed a kind of
trap-door, which, if it had been attempted on the outside, would not
have opened at all, but would have fallen down, and made a great
noise; and as to weapons, I took them all into my side every night.
But I needed none of all this precaution; for never man had a more
faithful, loving, sincere servant than Friday was to me; without
passions, sullenness, or designs, perfectly obliged and engaged; his
very affections were tied to me, like those of a child to a father;
and I dare say he would have sacrificed his life for the saving mine,
upon any occasion whatsoever. The many testimonies he gave me of this
put it out of doubt, and soon convinced me that I needed to use no
precautions as to my safety on his account.
HOMEWARD BOUND
_By Daniel Defoe_
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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