CHAPTER 18 – FOOT
Chapter 18
It is eleven years after my first day on the island. One day, I see that I don’t have much gunpowder. It starts to worry me. I need gunpowder if I want to hunt animals.
My first goat is very old. I want meat but I don’t have the heart to kill her. One day, she dies a natural death.
With less and less gunpowder, I have to find another way how to get meat.
I decide to make a trap. I am not successful at the beginning. But then I catch three young goats. They are one male and two females. I take them home with me.
I keep the goats inside a small area. I make a fence around the area. But the area is too small for three goats. So I make a fence for them around a bigger area.
It takes me three months to build this fence. But the area is very nice. There is a lot of grass and water for them.
After some time, the young goats are very calm. Soon they eat from my hand.
In two years, I have twelve goats inside my fence. And in three years, I have more than twenty goats.
I have a lot of milk and meat thanks to this. I experiment a little, and after some time I am able to make cheese and butter.
My table is full now and I have a lot of animals around me. I have my old dog, goats and my parrot. The only thing which I still miss is somebody for a conversation.
One day, I go to the part of the sea where the strong current is. On the way there, I think about how strange I look.
I have a big hat, a short jacket and short trousers. They are all made from animal skin. I don’t have socks or shoes but I put some goat skins around my feet. I have two belts. One belt is for the gun and knife, and one belt for the gunpowder.
I also carry a basket on my back and an umbrella above my head. My beard is very long. I see that after eleven years on the island I don’t look like an Englishman. I am a different person.
One day, I am walking on the beach. I am going to check my canoe. Then I see something surprising. I see a mark of a human foot on the sand.
I look around but I see nobody. I am scared. I run back to my house. I am so scared that it is difficult to sleep at night.
Then, I think, “Maybe it is all only my imagination. Or maybe it is the mark of my own foot and it is stupid to be scared.”
After this thought, I feel better. I leave my house. And I go look at the mark again.
WORDS FROM CHAPTER 18
