Three Men in a Boat

small boy.-The people gather round us.-We drive off in great style, and arrive at Waterloo.-Innocence of

ets that woke me

sa

t it's nearly ni

t?" I cried,

ough the keyhole. "I thought you

s, and told

u wanted to g

swered; "why did

etorted. "Now we shan't get on the water till after t

I do. If I hadn't woke you, you'd hav

from George. It reminded us, for the first time since our being called, of his existence. There he lay-the man

am up, maddens me. It seems to me so shocking to see the precious hours of a man's life-the

he would have to account for hereafter, passing away from him, unused. He might have been up stuffing himself with egg

ed to save him, and, in this noble resolve, our own dispute was forgotten. We flew across and slung

" he observed

chunk!" roared Harris.

t of bed into the bath; "Who th

have been a fool n

ine will be the death of me, I know), and we had to go downstairs, and fish them out of the bag. And when we had done that George wanted the shaving ta

s

How can I go into

cared we for human suffering? As Harris said, in his

me and see him off, and they were whiling away the time by fighting on the do

is s

started with a couple of chops, saying that he would t

esied "rain, cold, wet to fine" (whatever more than usually ghastly thing in weather that may be), "occasional loc

weather-forecast" fraud is about the most aggravating. It "forecasts" precisely what happene

s, with thunderstorms, may be expected to-day," it would say on Monday, and so we would give up our picnic, and stop indoors all day, waiting for the ra

ng out at them through the windo

arranged our specimens of seaweed and cockle shells. By twelve o'clock, with the sun pouring into the room, the heat

'll find," we said to each other. "Oh,

come in to ask if we weren't going

knowing chuckle, "not we. We

it would come down all at once, just as the people had started for home, and were out of the reach of any shelter, and that t

imsy things, and go out, and, half-an-hour after we had started, it would commence to rain hard, and a bitterly cold wind would spri

r. I never can understand it. The barometer is use

th rain outside, and had been all day; and I couldn't quite make matters out. I tapped the barometer, and it jumped up and pointed to "very dry." The Boots stop

heat," until it was stopped by the peg, and couldn't go any further. It tried its best, but the instrument was built so that it couldn't prophesy fine weather any harder than it did without breaking itself. It evi

rent, and the lower part of the town was unde

rolonged spell of grand weather some time, and read out

retold,

tice, so

er. I expect that machine must have b

-day; but you can't always get there as early as ten, you know. It rises or falls for rain and fine, with much or less wind, and one end is "Nly" and the other "Ely" (what's Ely

ng about it beforehand. The prophet we like is the old man who, on the particularly gloomy-looking morning of so

clear up all right. It will

m good-morning, and start off; "wonde

at all lessened by the circumstances of its not c

e feel, "he d

eather, on the contrary, we entertai

'ye think?" we shout,

's settled down for the day,"

t proves correct, we come back feeling still more angry against him, and wi

ance, passing in an oblique line over Southern Europe," and "pressure increasing," to very much upset us: and so, finding that he co

things left on the table, carted out our lug

d some four or five overcoats and macintoshes, and a few umbrellas, and then there was a melon by itself in a bag, because it was too bulky to go in anywhere, and

t, though why we should be, I can't see. No cab came by, but the stre

t is Biggs's latest. I was told that, at the time of the Great Coram Street murder, it was promptly concluded by our street that Biggs's boy (for that period) was at the bottom of it, and had he not been able, in reply to the severe cross-examination to which he was subjected by No. 19, when he called there f

orency, and the things, he eased up and stared. Harris and I frowned at him. This might have wounded a more sensitive nature, but Biggs's boys are not, as a rule, touchy. He

y passed on the opposite side of t

floor o' 42'

n the young gentleman from the boot-shop stopped, and joined Biggs's boy; while the emp

rve, are they?" said the g

ou," retorted "The Blue Posts," "if you was a

Atlantic," struck in Biggs's boy;

g and giddy portion of the crowd) held that it was a wedding, and pointed out Harris as the bridegroom; while the elder and

e, and hang about, and get in your way), and packing ourselves and our belongings into it, and shooting out a couple of Montmorency's friend

or where a train when it does start is going to, or anything about it. The porter who took our things thought it would go from number two platform, while another porter, w

een it at number three platform. We went to number three platform, but the authorities there said that they rather thought that train was the Sou

g to Kingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that he rather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, he said he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia Wat

"what you are, or where you're going. You know t

ellow, "but I suppose some train's got to go to

on by the London and

ally the Exeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Wate

w bridge, and to it we wended our way, and round

right, sir?"

ller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in the prow,