I must wait here?" said he sorrowfully. Then the thought came to him:
"You will not be able to keep track of the days unless you write it
down."




XI

ROBINSON'S CALENDAR


The matter of keeping track of time puzzled Robinson very much. It
was getting more difficult every day to keep it in his memory. He must
write down the days as they slip by, but where and how? He had neither
pen, ink, nor paper. Should he mark every day with a colored stone
on the smooth side of the huge rock wall within whose clefts he had
dug out his cave? But the rain would wash off the record and then he
would lose all his bearings. Then he thought of the beach, but there
the wind and waves would soon also erase it.

He thought a long time. "I must find something," he said to himself
on which to keep a record. "I must also know when Sunday is. I must
rest one day in the week. Yes, I must find something," he said, "on
which to write." And finally he found it. He chose two trees standing
near each other and then sought for a small sharp stone, which he could
make still sharper by striking it on another. When he had got this
pen ready he cut into the bark of one tree:

_Shipwreck, Sunday, 10th of September, 1875._