Somewhere To Live in The World

Hello friends, somewhere to live is a kids story book. In this story book a man who live alone, he said “In this world where we lived for a better life”.The man’s favorite hobby is hunting. The whole story is mention below.

My next work was to look for somewhere to live, and a place to keep my possessions safe. About mile from me a hill rose up, high above the other hills around. I took a gun and some powder, and after much hard work and difficulty, reached the top. I looked around and saw that I was on an island, with no other land to be seen, except some rocks that lay a great way off, and two smaller islands some miles to the west.

I could see no houses or people on the island. I saw many birds, but could not tell which were good to eat. Returning, I shot a great bird. At the sound of the shot, thousands of birds rose up, crying into the air. I believe it was the first gun that had been fired there since the world began. But the meat of the bird was not good to eat.

I returned to my raft and started to bring my load on shore. This took the rest of that day. Night fell, and I wondered where to sleep. Not knowing what wild animals there were on the island, I took the chests, planks and boards, and made a kind of shelter. Here I spent a quiet night.

I now began to think about the other useful things still on the ship, especially the ropes and sail. I was determined to make another trip on board, for I knew the next storm must break the ship in pieces. So, I decided to swim to the ship again and get anything that I could possibly find useful.

I got on to the ship as before, thanks to the hanging rope, and prepared a second raft. After my experience with the first, I loaded the second, less heavily, but still brought away some very useful things. In the workmen’s stores I found several bags of nails, together with some axes and other tools, and above all, a stone to sharpen them.

I fastened these together, also more weapons and bullets. As well as these, I took all the men’s clothes I could find, and a spare sail, a hammock, and some bedding, I loaded my second raft with all these, and brought everything safely on shore.

I was worried during my absence from the land, in case animals took my food. However, I found no sign of any visitor, except that a wild cat was sitting upon one of my chests. When I came towards it, the cat looked at me as if wanting to know me better. I pointed my gun at it, but it did not understand about guns. Then I threw it some bread. The cat smelt it, ate it and looked for more. When I did not provide this, the cat went off.

When my second load was on shore, I went to work on a little tent, which I made with an old sail and some poles which I cut. Into this tent I brought everything that would be spoilt, either by rain or sun. Then I piled all the empty chests and containers round my tent, so as to defend it against all enemies.

Next, I stopped up my tent door with boards and a chest. I spared one of the beds upon the ground, and went to bed for the first time, with my gun by my side. I slept very well for I had worked hard the whole day.

I now had a large store of supplies, but while the ship was still there, I thought I should get every- thing out of it that I could. So, every day at low tide I brought away something: ropes, string, sailcloth, bread and rum, sugar and flour.

In thirteen days, I visited the ship eleven times and brought away the ship piece by piece. But when I was preparing to go on to the ship, the twelfth time, the wind began to rise. However, I went on at low tide and found a cupboard with drawers. Here I found razors and some good knives and forks: also, some money in gold and silver.

I smiled at the sight of this money, worth nothing to me. On second thought I took it away putting it with the other things in a piece of sailcloth.

I thought of making another raft, but soon the wind s blowing hard, in the wrong direction. I realized it was a waste of time making a raft with the wind against me.

must leave before the tide turned, if I wanted to reach the shore. So, I swam to the shore with my parcel.

I got home safely to my little tent, and lay with all my wealth about me. It blew very hard all night, and in the morning, there was no ship to be seen. I was glad I had got so many things out of it; then I put it out of my mind, and began to think about some- where to live.

I had soon found that my tent was in an unsuitable place, as it was on low ground near the sea. I wanted a higher, healthier place, and soon found a little flat space on the side of a hill, with a good view of the sea. The hill above was like the side of a house, so nothing could come at me from above. On the side of the hill was a little place like the entrance to a cave.

Here, just in front of this place, I decided to put my tent. The flat piece of ground was not more than a hundred yards broad, and about twice as long. It was sheltered almost all day from the heat of the sun.

Before I set up my tent, I drew a half circle in front of the place. In this half circle, I stuck two lines of strong poles, driving them down very firmly. Then I fastened the poles together with rope from the ship. Soon my fence was so strong that neither man nor animal could get through it or over it. It cost me much time and work to cut the poles in the woods, bring them to the place and drive them into the earth.

My entry was not by a door, but by a short ladder. When I was in, I lifted the ladder over the fence after me, and so I was completely fenced in, safe from the entire world. I slept well that night. I found out later that there was no need for all these fences, as there was no danger.

With great difficulty I carried all my goods inside my fence; and made a large tent to keep the rain off. I also set up the hammock; it had belonged to the second officer of the ship, and was a very good one.

I began to dig into the rock behind me, bringing out through my tent all the earth and stones I dug out. I put these inside the fence; and I dug a cave just behind my tent, to add to my little house.

All this took many days and much work. In the middle a storm of rain came, with thunder. Oh, my powder! I thought, and my heart sank. I feared the storm would spoil my powder. On this depended not only my defense, but also my food. Happily, it was safe in my tent, but I decided to take no chances. After the storm ended, I set to work making bags and boxes to separate the powder. I kept it in little parcels hoping that whatever happened, it would not all catch fire or spoil. I finished this in two weeks, dividing my 240 pounds of powder into a no danger from hundred small parcels. I expected the barrel that had been wet so I put it in my new cave; I called this my kitchen. I hid the rest in holes among the rocks. No water could get in, and I marked each place with care.

While busy on this, I still went out at least once a day with my gun. The first time I went out I discovered goats. They were very difficult to get close to; but I watched them and took note of their behavior. Soon I learned how to shoot at them from above, and so supply myself with meat.

Now that I had somewhere to live, I wanted a place to make a fire, and wood to burn. How I did this and how I enlarged my cave still more, I shall tell presently. But first, I must give some idea of my feelings about being upon the island.

I felt sure that it was by an act of God that I had been washed up on the island; and that it was His wish for me to end my life there. At first, I found it hard to be thankful for such a life. Then I remembered my companions. They had died beneath the waves, and I asked God to forgive me. I thought how lucky I was to be so well provided for. What could I have done without a gun, ammunition and tools, clothes and bedding, ropes and sailcloth? In- deed, I had a lot to be thankful for.

After about ten or twelve days, I realized I would lose count of time if I did not do something about it. I cut a great cross in a large post, and wrote: ‘I came on shore here on 30 September, 1659.’ I cut a mark on the post with my knife each day. Every seventh mark was longer than the others, and every first day of every month. So, I kept count of the days.

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Among the many things which I brought out of the ship were pens, ink and paper, also a Bible and some books on seamanship. We also had on the ship a dog and two cats. I had carried the cats to the raft, and the dog had jumped out of the ship and swam to the shore with me. He was always a good friend, and I only wished that he could talk While my paper and ink lasted, I kept a good record of my life on the island. After the ink ran out, I had to stop, for I could discover no way of making it. This made me realize that I was short of things, of which ink was only one. I had nothing to dig with and nothing to make clothes with.

The shortage of tools made everything slow and difficult. Nearly a year passed before I finished my fence. The posts were as heavy as I could lift and took a long time to cut and prepare, and even longer to bring home. I had nothing to drive them into the earth; so I used a heavy iron bar from the ship. But it was slow work.

Did it matter how long I took, since I had all the time in the world and nothing else to take up my time? It seemed that every difficulty had some- thing about it to comfort me. I had so much to be thankful for, that I was determined to make the best of my situation.

I set to work to enlarge my cave. The rock was loose and sandy, and easy to work. Soon I began to try and make some useful things; with a chair and blew I would be able to write and eat more comfortably.

I had never used a tool in my life, but by hard work I found that I could do most things. But it was often heartbreakingly slow. If I wanted a board, I had to cut down a tree, put it on edge, and cut it flat on both sides with an axe, until it was as thin as a plank. I could only make one plank out of a whole tree, and it took a long time, but I had plenty of both trees and time.

First, I made myself a table and chair out of the short pieces of board from the ship. Then I made large shelves about a foot and a half wide, and fastened them to the wall at the side of the cave, to keep all my tools, nails and other things on. Then I knocked pieces of wood into the wall of the rock, for my guns, and other things that would hang up. My cave began to look quite organized, with a place for everything, and everything in its place. It was a great pleasure to me, too, to see all my things in order, and to see how many useful things I had around.