pastry-cook into the bargain; for I made myself several cakes and puddings of the rice, but made no pies, as I had nothing to put into them except the flesh of fowls or goats.

It need not be wondered at if all these tasks took up the most part of the third year of my abode here; for in the intervals of time, I had my new harvest to manage; I reaped my corn in its season, carried it home as well as I could, and laid it up in my large baskets.

By this time my clothes had begun to decay mightily. As to linen, I had had none for a great while, except some checkered shirts which I found in the chests of the other seamen, and which I carefully preserved. I also saved the skins of all the animals that I killed, and found them very useful. The first thing I made of these was a great cap for my head, with the hair on the outside, to shoot off the rain. After this I made a suit of clothes wholly of the skins, that is to say, a waistcoat, and breeches open at the knees, and both loose; for I wanted them to keep me cool rather than warm. They were wretchedly made; for if I was a bad carpenter, I was a worse tailor. But they were such as I made very good shift with.

After this, I spent a deal of time and pains to make me an umbrella, for I was in great want of one to protect me from the rains and the heats. I took a world of pains at it, but at last made one that answered, and covered it with skins, the hair upward, so that it cast off the rain and kept off the

sun.

Thus I lived mighty comfortable for ten years, my mind being entirely resigned to the will of God, and throwing myself wholly upon His providence.

Meantime, my ammunition growing low, I set myself to trap and snare the wild goats, to see whether I could not catch some of them alive. I dug several large pits in the earth, in places where I had observed the goats used to feed. Over these pits I placed hurdles of my own making, with a great weight upon them, and several times I put ears of barley

and dry rice. Going one morning to see my traps, I found in one of them a large old he-goat, and in one of the others three kids.

I knew not what to do with the old goat. He was so fierce I durst not go into the pit to bring him away alive, which was what I wanted. I could have killed him, but that would not have answered my end; so I let him out, and he ran away, as if he had been frightened out of his wits.

Then I went to the three kids and, taking them one by one, I tied them together with strings and with some difficulty brought them home. It was a good while before they would feed; but throwing them some sweet corn, it tempted them, and they began to be tame.

In about a year and a half I had a flock of about twelve goats, kids and all: and in two years more, I had three-andforty, besides several which I killed for food. After that I enclosed five pieces of ground in which to feed the goats, with little pens to drive them into to take them as I wanted, and with gates out of one piece of ground into another.

But this was not all; for now I not only had goat's flesh to feed on when I pleased, but milk as well; a thing which, in the beginning, I did not so much as think of. After a great many failures, I also made both butter and cheese.

It would have made a stoic smile to see me and my little family sit down to dinner. There was my majesty, the prince and lord of the whole island. I had the lives of all my subjects at my absolute command. Then to see how like a king I dined, too, all alone, attended by my servants.

Poll, as if he had been my favorite, was the only person permitted to talk to me. My dog, now grown very old, sat always at my right hand; and two cats, one on one side of the table and one on the other, expecting now and then a bit from my hand as a mark of special favor. With this attendance, and in this plentiful manner, I lived. Neither could I be said to lack anything but society; and of that, some time after this, I was likely to have too much.

9. The mortar for stamping or heating corn was made of:

a. iron.

b. stone.

c. wood.

10. Crusoe captured the goats so that he might have a constant sup

ply of:

a. fleece.

b. company.

c. food.

Look over the selection again to see if your words are right; give yourself ten points for each correct answer. score?

What is your

2. PETE OF THE STEEL-MILLS

HERSCHEL S. HALL

How would this story serve for a motion-picture play? As you read, select one passage on which to prepare a description of the action as it would appear if thrown on the screen. Read this passage a second time.

It was a black and dirty street down which I made my way that November morning at half-past five. There was no paving, no sidewalk, no lights. Rain had been falling for days, and I waded through seas of mud and sloshed through lakes of water. There were men in front of me and men behind me, all plodding along through the mire, just as I was plodding along, their tin lunch-pails rattling as mine was rattling. Some of us were going to work, some of us were going to look for work- the steel-mills lay somewhere in the darkness ahead of us.

We who were not so fortunate as to possess a magical piece of brass, the showing of which would cause the steel-mills' gate to swing open, waited outside in the street. It was cold out there. A north wind, blowing straight in from the lake, whipped our faces and hands and penetrated our none-tooheavy clothing.

"I wish I had a job in there!" said a shivering man at my side. "You got a job?" he asked, glancing at my pail. I told him I had been promised work and had been ordered to report.

"You're lucky to get a job." He began to kick his muddy shoes against the fence and to blow upon his hands. “Winter's comin'," he sighed.

A whistle blew, a gate swung open, and a mob of men poured out into the street the night shift going off duty. Their faces looked haggard and deathly pale in the sickly glare of the pale blue arcs above us.

"Night-work's no good," said the small man at my side. "But you got to do it if you're goin' to work in the mills."

A man with a Turkish towel thrown about his neck came out of the gate and looked critically at the job hunters. He came up to me. "What's your name?" he demanded. told him. "Come on!" he grunted.

We stopped before the uniformed guard, who wrote my name on a card, punched the card, and gave it to me. "Come on!" again grunted the man with the towel. I followed my guide into the yard, over railroad tracks, past great piles of scrap-iron and pig metal, through clouds of steam and smoke, and into a long, black building where engines whistled, bells clanged, and electric cranes rumbled and rattled overhead.

Through a long, hot tunnel down which I saw red arms of flame reaching, we made our way. We came to an iron stairway, climbed it, and stepped out upon a steel floor into the open hearth. Scattered here and there, I saw groups of men at work in front of big, house-like furnaces out of whose mouths white tongues of flame were leaping. The men worked naked to the waist, or stripped to overalls and undershirt, and, watching them, I began to wonder if I had chosen wisely in seeking and accepting employment in this inferno.

"Put yer pail there. Hang yer coat there. Sit down there. I'll tell the boss ye're here." And the man with the towel went away.

I watched a man who worked at one of the doors of the furnace nearest me. He had thrust a bar of iron through the peep-hole and was jabbing and prying at some object inside. Every ounce of his strength he was putting into his efforts. I could hear him grunt as he pulled and pushed, and I saw the perspiration dripping from his face and naked arms. He withdrew the bar the end that had been inside the door and came out as white and as pliable as a hank of taffy dropped it to the floor. He shouted some command to an invisible person, and the door rose slowly and quietly, disclosing a great, snow-white cavern in whose depths bubbled and boiled a lake of steel.

With a quick movement of his hand the workman dropped