*CHAPTER V.*
_*Strange Surroundings; Building a House*_*.*
My next sensation was that of the sun shining in my face when I awoke inthe morning. At first, as I looked out from beneath my shelter I couldscarcely comprehend where I was or how I came there; but the events ofthe day before soon returned to me. For a few minutes I lay still,looking around upon my beautiful surroundings. What a perfect paradiseit was, and how overjoyed I should be were I here under differentcircumstances.
There was a gentle breeze stirring, just enough to move the featheryleaves of the palms and to slightly bend the tall grass; and though Icould not see any of them, I heard birds giving forth discordant notesin the forest around.
But I must stir myself, for there was much to do. My house must befinished, I must devise some articles for personal use, and the problemof my future sustenance must be solved, for I could not long continue towork and subsist entirely upon cocoanuts and oranges, although theywould answer well enough for the present.
So I sprang up and going directly to the stream I bathed my face andhands. Having no towel and seeing no substitute for one, I sat down anddried myself in the sun.
Cracking another cocoanut in the same manner as I did the day before andgathering some oranges, I sat down with my back against the palm treeand proceeded with my frugal breakfast. As I had neglected to providemyself with a meal ere I retired the night before, I was very hungry andmy appetite was not satisfied until I had eaten nearly a dozen oranges,beside the cocoanut. Using a half shell of the cocoanut as a cup, Itook a long drink of water from the stream and turned again toward myembryo dwelling.
I thought it best to construct the walls first in order to provideagainst the possible attacks of wild animals, and knowing this to be thefirst part of the dry season which, in the latitude in which I judgedmyself to be, lasts from the middle of November until May, there was noimmediate necessity for providing shelter from rain.
The necessity of devising some plan for keeping an accurate account ofeach day as it passed, now occurred to me, and as I walked back to thepool for another supply of bamboos, I revolved the question in my mind.The record which I proposed to keep must be indestructible, and in somecompact, portable form so that I could easily take it with me in theevent of sudden departure from my habitation. One of the halves of thecocoanut shells which caught my eye as I passed the spot where I hadpartaken of breakfast, gave me an idea which I at once adopted.
Then and there I put the plan into execution. It was this: I resolved touse only the halves of the cocoanut shells that contained the naturalholes through which the shoots of the germinating nut emerge from theshell. The meat was removed from the half shell, leaving the two holesthrough it.
At the close of each day, as near sunset as possible, I would cut a deepnotch in the edge of the shell, and each shell should have as manynotches as there were days in the month. On the completion of the monthI would carve with my knife the name of the month and year; and in thisway I hoped to preserve a correct record of the time. As each month wasfinished I proposed to pass a cord through one of the holes; and for thepurpose I at once braided a strong cord from the fibres of the cocoanutcloth from which I had constructed my head gear.
I remembered, accurately the day of the wreck, and as I had been onshore one day, I out the first notch, and engraved on the shell:"December 18th, 18--."
As I marked upon my calendar I wondered how many shells I should haveupon my string ere I was rescued from my lonely position. "Perhaps," Ithought, "I may never see any other place." But I resolved not toharbor gloomy thoughts; and tying a large hard knot in one end of thecord, I strung the shell upon it, inserting it from the outside.Succeeding shells strung upon the cord would fit into one another like anest of bowls. Thus I would have a complete record, and a practicallyimperishable one.
As I knew the day of the week on which I had commenced my lone life, Iresolved, for each Sunday, to bore a hole instead of cutting a notch,for I intended to observe the Sabbath by abstaining from work.
Continuing my way to the pool, I set to work cutting bamboos. Iselected only those measuring about two inches in diameter, and beforethe sun reached the zenith I had thirty of them cut and trimmed, readyto drag to my house.
I found it hot work, and I threw myself down to rest. For the firsttime I caught sight of the birds that had been making such a babel ofdiscordant sounds all the morning. Several of them were flying aboutnear the opposite side of the pool, and I at once recognized them asparrots.
"What a consolation it would be," I thought, "if I could capture one andteach it to talk. It certainly would prove far better than nocompanion."
Having landed the bamboos at the house, I set about cutting them intolengths corresponding to the height of the corner posts. These I setinto the ground at regular intervals, in line with the posts, lashingthe upper ends to the horizontal poles resting in the forks, and to thepoles across the other two sides, using for the purpose a long, supplevine which I found growing in plenty in the edge of the woods, twistingaround the trunks of the trees.