Three Men in a Boat

Compromise decided on.-Montmorency, first impressions of.-Fears lest he is too g

the maps, and

up to Chertsey, and George, who would not be able to get away from the City till the afternoon (George goes to sleep at a

amp out" or

ut. We said it would be so wild

wing children, the birds have ceased their song, and only the moorhen's plaintive cry and the harsh croak

guard of the light, and pass, with noiseless, unseen feet, above the waving river-grass, and through the sighing rushes; and Night, upon he

pauses of our talk, the river, playing round the boat, prattles strange old tales and secrets, sings low the old child's song that it has sung so many thousand years-will sing so many thousand years to come, before its voice gr

f sweet, and do not care or want to speak-till we laugh, and, rising, knock the ashes from our burnt-out pipes, and say "Good-night," and, lulled by the lapping water and the rustling trees, we fall asleep beneath the great, still stars, and dream that the world is young again-young and sweet as she used to be ere the centuries of fret and care had furrowed her fair face, ere her children's sins and fo

is s

t when it

nable. Harris never "weeps, he knows not why." If Harris's eyes fill with tears, you can bet

t night by the sea-sho

the waving waters; or sad spirits, chanting dirges for white cor

me. I know a place round the corner here, where you can get a drop of th

g brilliant in the drinking line. I believe that if you met Harris up in Pa

d a nice place round the corner here, where

g out, his practical view of the matter came as a very t

d all the things are damp. You find a place on the banks that is not quite so puddly as oth

own all the time. It is difficult enough to fix a tent in dry weather: in wet, the task becomes herculean. Instead of helping you, it seems to yo

re you up to?

to?" he retorts;

got it all wrong, you

he yells back; "l

wishing that you could get at him; and you giv

ou think about the whole business, and, at the same time, he starts round in the same direction to come and explain his views to you. And you follow each other round and round

re! what did

n his sleeve, and has been cursing away to himself steadily for the last ten minutes, wants

things. It is hopeless attempting to make a wood fire, so

ainwater, the beefsteak-pie is exceedingly rich in it, and the jam, and the

ve a bottle of the stuff that cheers and inebriates, if taken in proper quantity,

som. You wake up and grasp the idea that something terrible really has happened. Your first impression is that the end of the world has come; and then you think that this cannot be, and that it is t

cally, hitting out right and left with arms and legs, and yelling lustily the while, and at last something gives way, and you find your head in the fresh air. Two feet off,

he says, recognising

rubbing your eyes

down, I think," he s

and the ground beneath you heaves and rocks, and the muff

my head,

an unnecessarily aggressive mood-he being under the evid

evere colds in the night; you also feel very quarrelsome, and you swe

; and hotel it, and inn it, and pub. it, like respectable f

y you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason withheld from mankind, in the shape of a small fox-terrier. There is a sort of Oh-what-a-wicked-world-this

sed to sit down and look at him, as he sat on the rug and looked up at me, and think: "Oh, that dog wil

by an irate female, who called me a murderer; and had been summoned by the man next door but one for having a ferocious dog at large, that had kept him pinned up in his own tool-shed, afraid to venture his nose outside the door for over t

hem out to march round the slums to fight other disreputable dogs, is Montmorency's idea of "life;" and so,

take with us; and this we had begun to argue, when Harris said he'd had enough oratory for one night, and proposed that we should go

hat a little whisky, warm, with a slice of lemon, would do my complaint good, the debate was, by