" He must now actually plan
to put some of these ideas into effect. He first went over the ground
and found that to dig a trench from the water to the boat, so that
the water would come to the boat, he would have to dig it twenty feet
deep. "I can never do this," he said, "with my poor tools."
He next tried his rolling plan. But he had been so anxious to have
a large boat that he had overlooked everything else. Try as hard as
he might he could not stir his boat from the spot. After many trials
with the longest levers he could handle, the boat still stuck fast.
It would not budge an inch. He at last gave it up. "It will lie here,"
he thought, "to remind me how foolish it is to attempt to do anything
without first having thought it out carefully."
There was nothing to do but to choose another tree trunk. This time
he selected a much smaller one, and one that lay at the top of the
little slope or incline from the bank of the creek. After another weary
six months of work he had his second boat ready for launching. With
a good stout lever he gave it a start, when it rolled quickly down
into the water. Robinson again wept for joy. Of all his projects this
had cost him the most work and pains and at last to see his plans
successful filled him with delight.
The next problem was how to make it go. He had no certain knowledge
how far it was around the island, but he knew it was farther than he
wanted to row or paddle his boat.
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