He had been working now pretty industriously all the morning, first at searching after a piece of wood, then in cutting down the pole, then in searching among the drift-wood, and finally at the boat.  He felt, at length, hungry; and as he could not yet decide upon what was to be done next, he determined to satisfy his desires, and kill the time by taking his dinner.  The repast was a frugal one, consisting as before, of biscuit, which were washed down by cold water; but Tom did not complain.  The presence of food of any sort was a cause for thankfulness to one in his position, and it was with a feeling of this sort, in spite of his general depression of spirits, that he ate his meal.

After this he felt much more refreshed, and began to consider what he had better do next.  Of course, the centre of interest to him was the boat, and he could not give up that hope of escape without a struggle.  As long as there was a hope of making his way from the island by means of that, so long might he keep up his heart; but if the damage that had been done should prove irreparable, how would he be able to endure his situation?  Whatever it was, it would be best to know the worst once for all.  Perhaps he might stop the leak.  He had material around which seemed to be the right sort of thing to stop a leak with.  He had the piece of sail, which could be cut up into small pieces, and used to stop the leak.  If he had possessed a hatchet and some nails, he would have made an effort to repair the fracture in the planks of the boat; but as he had nothing of that sort, he tried to devise some method by which the water might be kept out.  As he thought, there gradually grew up in his mind the rude outline of a plan which promised something, and seemed to him to be certainly worth trying.  At any rate, he thought, it will serve to give me an occupation; and any occupation, even if it proves to be of no practical value, is better than sitting here doing nothing at all.

Having something to do once more quickened Tom’s energies anew, and starting to his feet, he prepared to put his plan into execution.  First of all, in order to carry out that plan, it was necessary for him to get a number of blocks and boards of different sizes.  These, he knew, could easily be found among the driftwood on the beach.  Over there he hurried, and after a moderate search he succeeded, at length, in finding bits of wood that seemed suited to the purpose which he had in view.  With these he came back to the boat; but as there was a large number of them, he had to make several journeys before the whole collection was brought over.