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XXI
HOW ROBINSON LAYS UP A STORE OF FOOD
Now for the food. Could Robinson preserve the meat? He had often heard
his mother tell about preserving meat in salt. He had even eaten salt
meat, pickled meat. But where could he get salt?
One day when the wind blew hard the water was driven upon the shore
and filled a little hollow. After a few days the ground glistened
white as snow where the water had been. Was it snow? Robinson took
it in his hands and put it in his mouth. It was salt. The sun had
evaporated the water in the hollow--had vaporized it--and the air had
drunk it up. What was left behind? Salt. Now he could get salt as long
as he needed it.
He took cocoanut shells and strewed salt in them. Then he cut the
rabbit meat in thin strips, rubbed them with salt, and laid them one
on the other in the salt in the shells. He covered it over with a
layer of salt. He put over each shell the half of a larger one and
weighted it down with stones. After a period of fourteen days he found
the meat quite red. It had pickled.
But he did not stop here. He gathered and stored in his cellar
cocoanuts and corn in such quantities that he would be supplied for
a whole winter. It seemed best to catch a number of rabbits, build
a house for them and keep them. Then he could kill one occasionally
and have fresh meat. Then it came to him that goats would be much better,
for they would give milk. He determined immediately to have a herd
of goats. He made a string or lasso out of cocoa fibre.
Then he went out, slipped up quietly to a herd of goats and threw the
lasso over one. But the lasso slipped from the horns and the goat ran
away. The next day he had better luck. He threw the lasso, drew it
tight and the goat was captured. He brought it home. He rejoiced when
he saw that it gave milk. He was happy when he got his first cocoanut
shell full of sweet rich milk. His goat herd grew. He soon had five
goats. He had no more room in his yard. He could not provide food
enough. He must let them out. He must make another hedge around his
yard so that the goats could get food and yet be kept from going away.
He got stakes from the woods and gathered them before his cave. He
sharpened them and began to drive them in the earth. But it rained
more and more each day. He was wet through as he worked. He had
finally to stop work, for the rain was too heavy.
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Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis
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