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AN AMERICAN
ROBINSON CRUSOE
FOR AMERICAN BOYS AND GIRLS

THE ADAPTATION, WITH ADDITIONAL INCIDENTS

BY

SAMUEL B. ALLISON, Ph.D.

ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS, CHICAGO, ILL.


EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY
BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO SAN FRANCISCO

COPYRIGHT, 1918

BY

EDUCATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY




CONTENTS



I Robinson with His Parents                                        7

II Robinson as an Apprentice                                      10

III Robinson's Departure                                          13

IV Robinson Far from Home                                         17

V The Shipwreck                                                   19

VI Robinson Saved                                                 21

VII The First Night on Land                                       23

VIII Robinson on an Island                                        28

IX Robinson's Shelter                                             30

X Robinson Makes a Hat                                            34

XI Robinson's Calendar                                            38

XII Robinson Makes a Hunting Bag                                  41

XIII Robinson Explores the Island                                 44

XIV Robinson as a Hunter                                          48

XV Robinson's Shoes and Parasol                                   51

XVI Getting Fire                                                  53

XVII Robinson Makes Some Furniture                                55

XVIII Robinson Becomes a Shepherd                                 57

XIX Robinson Builds a Home for His Goats                          60

XX Robinson Gets Ready for Winter                                 64

XXI How Robinson Lays up a Store of Food                          67

XXII Robinson's Diary                                             70

XXIII Robinson is Sick                                            74

XXIV Robinson's Bower                                             77

XXV Robinson Again Explores His Island                            81

XXVI Robinson and His Birds                                       84

XXVII Robinson Gets Fire                                          89

XXVIII Robinson Makes Baskets                                     93

XXIX Robinson Becomes a Farmer                                    98

XXX Robinson as Potter                                           104

XXXI Robinson as Baker                                           108

XXXII Robinson as Fisherman                                      112

XXXIII Robinson Builds a Boat                                    116

XXXIV Robinson as a Sailor                                       120

XXXV A Discovery                                                 127

XXXVI The Landing of the Savages                                 133

XXXVII Robinson as Teacher                                       139

XXXVIII Another Shipwreck                                        144

XXXIX Saving Things from the Ship                                149

XL The Return of the Savages                                     155

XLI Deliverance at Last                                          162

XLII Robinson at Home                                            167




PREFATORY NOTE


"An American Robinson Crusoe" is the outcome of many years of experience
with the story in the early grades of elementary schools. It was written
to be used as a content in giving a knowledge of the beginning and
development of human progress. The aim is not just to furnish an
interesting narrative, but one that is true to the course of human
development and the scientific and geographical facts of the island on
which Robinson is supposed to have lived.

The excuse for departing so widely from the original story is to be
found in the use which was desired to be made of it. The story here
presented is simply the free adaptation of the original narrative to the
demand for a specific kind of content in a form which would be
interesting to the children.

The teacher is and should be justified in using with entire freedom any
material accessible for the ends of instruction.

The text as here given has been published with an introduction and
suggestive treatments as a Teacher's Manual for Primary Grades--"The
Teacher's Robinson Crusoe." Explicit directions and ample suggestions
are made for the use of the story as material for instruction in all the
language arts, drawing, social history, and the manual arts.

Published by the Educational Publishing Company.




    AN AMERICAN
    ROBINSON CRUSOE




I

ROBINSON WITH HIS PARENTS


There once lived in the city of New York, a boy by the name of Robinson
Crusoe. He had a pleasant home. His father and mother were kind to him
and sent him to school. They hoped that he would study hard and grow up
to be a wise and useful man, but he loved rather to run idle about the
street than to go to school. He was fond of playing along the River
Hudson, for he there saw the great ships come and go. They were as big
as houses. He watched them load and unload their cargoes and hundreds of
people get off and on. His father had told him that the ships came from
far distant lands, where lived many large animals and black men. His
father told him too, that in these faraway countries the nuts on the
trees grew to be as large as one's head and that the tree were as high
as church steeples.

When Robinson saw the ships put out to sea he would watch them till they
would disappear below the horizon far out in the ocean, and think, "Oh,
if I could only go with them far away to see those strange countries!"
Thus he would linger along the great river and wish he might find an
opportunity of making a voyage. Often it would be dark before he would
get home. When he came into the house his mother would meet him and say
in a gentle voice, "Why, Robinson, how late you are in getting home! You
have been to the river again."

[Illustration: ROBINSON WATCHING THE SHIPS]

Then Robinson would hang his head and feel deeply ashamed, and when his
father, who was a merchant, came home from the store, his mother would
tell him that Robinson had again been truant.

This would grieve his father deeply and he would go to the boy's bedside
and talk earnestly with him. "Why do you do so?" he would say. "How
often have I told you to go to school every day?" This would for a time
win Robinson back to school, but by the next week it had been forgotten
and he would again be loitering along the river in spite of his father's
remonstrances.




II

ROBINSON AS AN APPRENTICE


In this way one year after another slipped by. Robinson was not more
diligent. He was now almost sixteen years old and had not learned
anything. Then came his birthday. In the afternoon his father called him
into his room. Robinson opened the door softly. There sat his father
with a sad face. He looked up and said, "Well, Robinson, all your
schoolmates have long been busy trying to learn something, so that they
may be able to earn their own living. Paul will be a baker, Robert a
butcher, Martin is learning to be a carpenter, Herman a tailor, Otto a
blacksmith, Fritz is going to high school, because he is going to be a
teacher. Now, you are still doing nothing. This will not do. From this
time on I wish you to think of becoming a merchant. In the morning you
will go with me to the store and begin work. If you are attentive and
skillful, when the time comes you can take up my business and carry it
on. But if you remain careless and continue to idle about, no one will
ever want you and you must starve because you will never be able to earn
a living."

So the next morning Robinson went to the store and began work. He
wrapped up sugar and coffee, he weighed out rice and beans. He sold meal
and salt, and when the dray wagon pulled up at the store, loaded with
new goods, he sprang out quickly and helped to unload it. He carried in
sacks of flour and chests of tea, and rolled in barrels of coffee and
molasses. He also worked some at the desk. He looked into the account
books and saw in neat writing, "Goods received" and "Goods sold." He
noticed how his father wrote letters and reckoned up his accounts. He
even took his pen in hand and put the addresses on the letters and
packages as well as he could.

But soon he was back in his careless habits. He was no longer attentive
to business. He wrapped up salt instead of sugar. He put false weights
on the scales. He gave some too much and others too little. His hands,
only, were in the business, his mind was far away on the ocean with the
ships. When he helped unload the wagons, he would often let the chests
and casks drop, so that they were broken and their contents would run
out on the ground. For he was always thinking, "Where have these casks
come from and how beautiful it must be there!" And many times packages
came back because Robinson had written the name of the place or the
country wrong. For when he was writing the address, he was always
thinking, "You will be laid upon a wagon and will then go into the
ship." One day he had to write a letter to a man far over the sea. He
could stand it no longer. His father had gone out. He threw down the
pen, picked up his hat and ran out to the Hudson to see the ships, and
from that time on he spent more time loitering along the river than he
did in the store.




III

ROBINSON'S DEPARTURE


Robinson's father soon noticed that his son was no longer attending to
his work, and one morning sent for him to come to his office. When
Robinson came in his father arose from his chair and looked him long and
earnestly in the face. Then he said, "I am very sorry, Robinson, that
you seem determined to continue your evil ways. If you do not do better
you will grow up to be a beggar or worse." Robinson cast his eyes down
and said, "I do not want to be a merchant, I would rather sail in a ship
around the world." His father answered, "If you do not know anything you
cannot be of use on a ship, and no one will want you. In a strange land
you cannot live without working. If you run away from your parents you
will come to be sorry for it." Robinson wept, for he saw that his father
was right, and he promised to obey.

After two or three weeks, Robinson went to his mother and said,
"Mother, won't you go to father and tell him that if he will only let me
take one voyage and it proves to be unpleasant, I will come back to the
store and work hard?" But the mother cried. With tears in her eyes, she
said: "Robinson, your brothers are both dead. You are the only child
left to us and if you go away, we shall be entirely alone. How easy it
would be to be drowned in the sea, or torn to pieces by wild animals
away there in a foreign country. Both your father and myself are getting
along in years and who will take care of us when we are sick? Do not
cause us the grief we must suffer if you go away so far amid so many
dangers. I cannot bear to have you speak of it again."

Robinson did not speak of it again, but he did not forget it. He was
nineteen years old. It was one day in August that Robinson stood at the
wharf looking longingly after the departing ships. As he stood there,
someone touched him on the shoulder. It was a ship captain's son. He
pointed to a long ship and said, "My father sails to-day in that ship
for Africa and takes me with him."

"Oh, if I could only go with you!" cried Robinson.

"Do come along," cried his comrade.

"But I have no money," said Robinson.

"That doesn't make any difference," returned the captain's son. "We will
take you anyway."

Robinson, without thinking for a moment, gave his friend his hand and
promised to go with him.

So without saying "Good-bye" to his parents, Robinson went immediately
on board the ship with his friend. This happened on the 10th of August.

[Illustration: ROBINSON AND THE CAPTAIN'S SON]




IV

ROBINSON FAR FROM HOME

ROBINSON'S VOYAGE


Once on board, Robinson watched the preparations for departure. At
command the sailors clambered up into the rigging and loosened the
sails. Then the captain from his bridge called out, "Hoist the anchor!"
Then the great iron hooks that held the ship fast were lifted up, a
cannon sounded a final farewell. Robinson stood on the deck. He saw the
great city shimmer in the sunshine before him. Very fast now the land
was being left behind. It was not long until all that could be seen of
his native city was the tops of the highest towers. Then all faded