Read Ebook: Robinson Crusoe Jr. by Optic Oliver

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Ebook has 156 lines and 8636 words, and 4 pages

Release date: November 11, 2023

Original publication: Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1862

The Riverdale Books.

ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR.

A STORY FOR LITTLE FOLKS.

BY OLIVER OPTIC,

BOSTON: LEE AND SHEPARD,

Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1862, by WILLIAM T. ADAMS, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.

ELECTROTYPED AT THE BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY.

ROBINSON CRUSOE, JR.

Robert Gray was a Riverdale boy, and a very smart one too. Very likely most of my readers will think he was altogether too smart for his years, when they have read the story I have to tell about him.

Robert was generally a very good boy, but, like a great many persons who are older and ought to be wiser than he was, he would sometimes get very queer notions into his head, which made him act very strangely.

He was born on the Fourth of July, which may be the reason why he was so smart, though I do not think it was. He could make boxes and carts, windmills and water-wheels, and ever so many other things.

Behind his father's house there was a little brook, flowing into the river. In this stream Robert had built a dam, and put up a water-wheel, which kept turning day and night till a freshet came and swept it into the river.

His father was a carpenter, and Robert spent a great part of his leisure hours in the shop, inventing or constructing queer machines, of which no one but himself knew the use; and I am not sure that he always knew himself.

On his birthday, when Robert was eleven years old, his oldest brother, who lived in Boston, sent him a copy of Robinson Crusoe as a birthday present. Almost every child reads this book, and I suppose there is not another book in the world which children like to read so well as this.

It is the story of a man who was wrecked on an island, far away from the main land, and on which no human being lived. The book tells how Robinson Crusoe lived on the island, what he had to eat, and how he obtained it; how he built a boat, and could not get it into the water, and then built another, and did get it into the water; about his dog and goats, his cat and his parrots, and his Man Friday.

The poor man lived alone for a long time, and most of us would think he could not have been very happy, away from his country and friends, with no one to speak to but his cat and goats, and his Man Friday, and none of them could understand him.

Robert Gray didn't think so. He read the book through in two or three days after he received it, and thought Robinson Crusoe must have had a nice time of it with his cat and his goats, and his Man Friday.

He was even silly enough to wish himself on a lonely island, away from his father and mother. He thought he should be happy there in building his house, and roaming over his island in search of food, and in sailing on the sea, fishing, and hunting for shell fish.

Then he read the book through again, and the more he read the more he thought Crusoe was a great man, and the more he wished to be like him, and to live on an island far away from other people.

"Have you read Robinson Crusoe?" said Robert Gray to Frank Lee, as they were walking home from school one day.

"Yes, three times," replied Frank; and his eyes sparkled as he thought of the pleasure which the book had afforded him.

"Well, I've read it twice, and I think it is a first-rate book."

"So do I; and I mean to read it again some time."

"How should you like to live like Robinson Crusoe, all alone on an island by yourself?" asked Robert, very gravely.

"Well, I don't know as I should like it overmuch. I should want some of Jenny's doughnuts and apple pies."

"Pooh! who cares for them?" said Robert, with a sneer.

"I do, for one."

"Well, I don't. I would just as lief have oysters and cocoanuts, fish and grapes, and such things."

"Without any butter, or sugar, or molasses?"

"I could get along without them."

"Then there would be great storms, and you would get wet and be cold."

"I wouldn't mind that."

"Suppose you should be sick--have the measles, the hooping-cough, or the scarlet fever? Who would take care of you then?"

"I would take care of myself."

"Perhaps you could; but I think you would wish your mother was on the island with you in that case," said Frank, with a laugh.

"I don't believe I should; at any rate, I should like to try it."

"It is all very pretty to read about, but I don't believe I should like to try it. What would you do, Robert, when the Indians came to the island?"

"I would do just as Robinson Crusoe did. I would shoot as many of them as I could. I would catch one of them, and make him be my Man Friday."

"Suppose they should happen to shoot you instead; and then broil you for their supper? Don't you think you would 'make a dainty dish to set before the king'?"

"I am certain that I could get along just as well as Robinson Crusoe did."

"Perhaps not; every one don't get out of a scrape as easily as Robinson Crusoe did. I know one thing--I shall not go on any desolate island to live as long as I can help it."

"I think I should have a first-rate time on one," said Robert, as he turned down the street which led to his father's house.

The next week the long summer vacation began, and Robert read Robinson Crusoe through again from beginning to end. He spent almost all his time in thinking about the man alone on the island; and I dare say he very often dreamed about the goats, the cat, the parrot, and Man Friday.

He used to lie for hours together under the great elm tree behind the house fancying what a famous Crusoe he would make; and wishing he could be cast away upon a lonely island, and there live in a cave, with a cat and a parrot.

It was certainly very silly of him to spend the greater part of his time in dreaming about such things, when he ought to have been thankful for his comfortable and pleasant home, and the company of his parents, and his brothers and sisters, and for all the good things which God had given him.

Robert Gray wanted to be a Robinson Crusoe, and he actually went so far as to form a plan by which he could live on an island, sleep in a cave, and have no companions but a dog and an old cat.

Of course he did not tell any body about this famous plan, for fear his friends might find it out, and prevent him from becoming a Crusoe. But he went to work, and got every thing ready as fast as he could. He was a smart boy, as I have said before, and his plan was very well laid for a child.

He meant to be Robinson Crusoe, Jr., but he was not quite willing to go upon the island without any tools to work with, or any thing to eat, after he arrived. I think, if he could, he would have made sure of most of the comforts of life.

Mr. Gray's shop was only a short distance from the river. The little brook in which Robert placed his water-wheel, widened into a pretty large stream near the shop. Here Mr. Crusoe, Jr., intended to build a raft, which should bear him to the lonely island.

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