Английский язык с Робинзоном Крузо/Robinson Crusoe Written Anew for Children

grindstone in such a way that I could turn it with my foot (умудрился прицепить

веревку к ручке точильного камня так, что я мог вертеть его ногой).

My tools were soon sharp, and I kept them so (инструменты вскоре были

острыми, и я держал их такими = поддерживал в таком состоянии).

sword [so:d] sickle [sikl] scythe [saið]

I WORK UNDER MANY DIFFICULTIES

MY barley ripened and was ready to be harvested. I had neither scythe nor sickle

to cut it down.

But you will member that I had two old swords which I had found in the ship.

With one of the swords I cut off the heads of the barley and dropped them into a big

basket I had made. I carried these heads into my cave and thrashed out the grain with my

hands.

When all my harvesting was done, I measured the grain. I had two bushels of rice

and two bushels and a half of barley.

This pleased me very much. I felt now that I should soon be able to raise grain

enough for food.

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Have you ever thought how many things are necessary for the making of your

bread?

You have nothing to do but eat the bread after others have made it. But I had to

sow, to reap, to thrash, to grind, to sift, to mix, and to bake.

To do all these I needed many tools.

I had no plow to turn up the ground. I had no spade nor shovel with which to dig

it. But with great labor I made me a wooden spade, which was better than nothing.

After the ground was turned up, I sowed the seed by scattering it with my hands.

But it must be covered so it would grow, and I had no harrow. I cut down the branch of a

tree, and dragged it over the field. This, I think, was the way that people in old times

harrowed their ground.

The third thing to be done was to build a fence around my field. After that came

the reaping, the curing, the carrying home, the thrashing, the parting of the grain from the

chaff, the grinding.

I needed a mill to do the grinding. I needed a sieve to sift the flour. I needed yeast

and salt to mix with the dough. I needed an oven to bake it.

I had to do without the most of these things. And this made my work very slow

and hard.

I was very lucky in having saved so many tools from the wreck, and for this I was

indeed thankful. What a hard case I would have been in if I had saved nothing at all!

From time to time, as I felt the need of things I made a number of tools that

served me very well. They were not such tools as you would buy at the store, but what

did it matter?

I have already told you about the shovel which I made from a piece of hard wood.

Next to the shovel I needed a pickax most of all.

Among the many things that I had saved from the wreck, I found an old crowbar.

This I heated in the fire until it was almost white hot.

I then found that I could bend it quite easily. Little by little I shaped it until I had

made quite a good pickax of it. Of course, it was heavy and not at all pretty. But who

would look for beauty in a pickax?

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I at first felt the need of some light baskets in which to carry my fruit and grain.

So I began to study how baskets are made.

It was not until I had searched almost every nook on the island that I found some

long slender twigs that would bend to make wicker ware. Then I [73] spent many an hour

learning how to weave these twigs together and shape them into the form of a basket.

In the end, however, I was able to make as good baskets as were ever bought in

the market.

I had quite a goodly number of edge tools. Among these there were three large

axes and a great store of hatchets; for you will remember that we carried hatchets to trade

with the savages. I had also many knives.

But all these became very dull with use. I had saved a grindstone from the wreck,

but I could not turn it and grind my tools at the same time.

I studied hard to overcome this difficulty. At last, I managed to fasten a string to

the crank of the grindstone in such a way that I could turn it with my foot.

My tools were soon sharp, and I kept them so.

I BECOME A POTTER (становлюсь гончаром)

WHEN it came to making bread (когда предстояло делать хлеб), I found that I

needed several vessels (несколько сосудов). In fact, I needed them in many ways (на

деле, они нужны были мне по многим причинам).

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It would be hard to make wooden vessels (было бы тяжело делать деревянные

сосуды). Of course it was out of the question to make vessels of iron or any other metal

(конечно, не стояло вопроса = было совершенно невозможно сделать сосуды из

железа или любого другого металла). But why might I not make some earthen vessels

(но почему не мог я сделать несколько глиняных сосудов)?

If I could find some good clay (если бы я смог найти хорошую глину), I felt