A HANDFUL.

Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 17, 21 January 1926, Page 9

A HANDFUL.

I .. ROBINSON CBXJSOE AS BOY. THIRTY YEARS' EXILE. It was in Largo, the little fishing village on the Fifeshire coast, now a popular holiday resort, that "Robinson Crusoe" first beheld the day. Alexander Selkirk was hardly the amiable gentleman, however, most of us fancied in the days of our turbulent kidhood. The visitor to Largo is not Ion? in ascertaining that the prototype of Defoe 'a immortal "hero was a "pretty I handful" as a youngster. There was no living with him at home, he teased the life out of a half-wit of a brother, and ] made himself so objectionable to those, around him that he had to be taken inj hand by the worthy elders of the parish. ; It was the desire of Selkirk senior! that his son should follow his footsteps j in the matter of a calling:. Alexander, j however, had no use for the shoe-making business: the one thing in the world for j which Mr. Alec, thirsted was a sail. Four Years and Four Months. The fir3t time the ne'er-do-well ran 1 away from home he was away only for i a limited time. It was on a subsequent occasion that he cleared off on the vovagre that was to make his name a household one for all time. According to I Defoe. Crusoe was on his desert island thirty years: the prototype of that j worthy was only cut of humanity's reach | for four years and four months; as a i matter of fact, he was marooned. When, after many strange adventures, | the wanderer at last returned to Largo, j it was Sunday morning, and his people j were at kirk. Never backward at coming j forward, in he went to church, where i he took a seat close to his mother. That' individual had long given up her | wandering boy as lost for good, and so great was the scene she caused on once' more beholding him, that it quite broke up the service. The effect, produced on Alexander j Selkirk by his sojourn on the island was; Ito render him singularly reserved, \ ! peculiarly averse to conversation, i Almost invariably alone he used to spend' the days fishing in Largo Bay, behind his people's cottage a little arbor,! in which he frequently passed the night.' One day while in Keil'3 Den "Crusoe" I obtained a peep of a damsel engaged in herding her father's cows. To the 1 witcheries of this fair maid—Sophie! Bruce by name—the returned wanderer lost his heart, and soon afterwards the two became one. Where Did He Go? At last, one fine day. Largo woke up to discover that Selkirk had decamped. It was ascertained afterwards that Sophie Bruce died a few years later, Selkirk taking unto himself another -pouse; but what eventually became ofj the real Robinson Crusoe remains a I mystery unto this day. The cot where | this celebratM character lived is no lop.iier in existence, but into the front I wall of the building which at present : occupies the site a fine monument; has been let, at the baae of which is an j appropriate inscription relating the adventurer's story. Thf holiday- maker is never weary of; visiting the various spots in the village' ! associated with Crusoe's name. Xear ■ the harbour one can see the roi-ks where; he was almost drowned in boyhood: ai stone is pointed out to which h.; used! to moor his shallop.