The Solitary of Juan Fernandez, or the Real Robinson Crusoe by Joseph Xavier Saintine
page 76 of 144 (52%)
page 76 of 144 (52%)
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himself sufficient game; what matters it! he lives on his provisions:
he is forcibly detained within; but has he not now good cheer, good company, and occupation, during his leisure hours? It is now that he completes his furniture. His table and his seats finished, he undertakes to provide for another want, equally indispensable. Worn out by the weather, and by service, his garments are becoming ragged. He must shield himself from the humidity of the air; where shall he procure materials? Has he not the choice between seal-skins and goat-skins? He gives the preference to the latter, as more pliable, and behold him a tailor, cutting with the point of his knife; as for thread, it is furnished by the fragment of the sail; and two days afterwards, he finds himself flaming in a new suit. To describe the delirious stupefaction of Marimonda, when she perceives her master under this strange costume, would be a thing impossible. She finds him almost like herself, clad like her, in a hairy suit. Never tired of looking at him, of examining him curiously, she leaps, she gambols around him, now rolling at his feet, and uttering little cries of joy, now suspended over his head, at the top of the central pillar, and turning her wild and restless eyes. When she has thus inspected him from head to foot, she runs and crouches in a corner, with her face towards the wall, as if to reflect; then, whirling about, returns towards him, picks up on the way the garment he has just laid aside, looking alternately at this and at the other, very anxious to know which of the two really made a part of the person. |
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