Three Men in a Boat

orge's blazer.-A day with the fashion-plate young lady.-Mrs. Thomas's tomb.-The man who loves not grav

ass through, as we were the only boat, and it is a big lock. I don't think I ever remember to have seen Moulsey Lo

, and many-coloured parasols, and silken rugs, and cloaks, and streaming ribbons, and dainty whites; when looking down into the lock from the quay, you migh

Hampton Church, is dotted and decked with yellow, and blue, and orange, and white, and red, and pink. All the inhabitants of Hampton and Moulsey dress themselves up in boating costume, and come and mouch round the lock with their dogs, and flirt, and smoke, and watch the boats

little red in my things-red and black. You know my hair is a sort of golden brown, rather a pretty shade I've been told, and a dark red matches it beautifully; and then I always th

can be no question about it. I want him to take to blue as a background, with white or cream for relief; but, there! the less taste a person has in dress, the more obstinate he

m what colour he called it, and he said he didn't know. He didn't think there was a name for the colour. The man had told him it was an Oriental design. George put it on, and asked us what we thought of it. Harris said that, as an object to hang over a flower-bed in

regard to it, is that we are afraid

l if all ladies would understand, ought to be a costume that can be worn in a boat, and not merely under a glass-case. It utterly spoils an excursion if you have folk in the boat who

t gloves. But they were dressed for a photographic studio, not for a river picnic. They were the "boating costum

the forefinger of her glove, and showed the result to the other, and they both sighed, and sat down, with the air of early Christian martyrs trying to make themselves comfortable up against the s

to drop them into again each time. (Bow said, after a while, that he did not feel himself a sufficiently accomplished oarsman to pull with me, but that he would sit still, if I would al

hem, they visibly shrank and shuddered. It was a noble sight to see them suffering thus in silence, but it unnerved me a

man they had got now was a jolly, light-hearted, thick-headed sort of a chap, with about as much sensitiveness in him as there might be in a Newfoundland puppy. You might look daggers at him for an hour and he would not notice it, and it would not trouble him if he did.

e;" and offer them his hand

in reply, and covertly draw rugs and coats over themselves

their handkerchiefs on the ground and sat on those, bolt upright. Somebody, in walking about with a plate of beef-steak pie, tripped up over a root, and sent the pie flying. None of it went over them, fortunately, but the accident

ow to them, cheerily, after it was all o

n they grasped the idea, they said they

You lie down on your-I mean you lean over the bank,

was afraid that they hadn't got

ght," said he light-he

hat that sort of thing was half the fun of

se-headed as we thought? or was he-no, impossible! the

at Hampton Church, to go

s. Thomas?

ris. "She's a lady that's got a

to a village or town, is to rush off to the churchyard, and enjoy the graves; but it is a recreation that I always deny myself. I take no interest in creeping round di

re exciting inscriptions, and by my lack of enthusiasm for the local family

ness from the sweet, restful scene-the grey old church with its clustering ivy and its quaint carved wooden porch, the white lane winding down the hil

I didn't want to be sinful and wicked any more. I would come and live here, and never do any more wrong

ndoned way all unconscious of what I, far away in that peaceful village, was doing for them; but I did it, and I wished that I could let them know that I had done it, be

I'm a-coming. It's all right,

ross the churchyard towards me, carrying a huge bunch o

nt dignity, but he still adva

I'm a little lame. I ain't as sp

miserable ol

replied. "My missis never see you till

eave me before I get over

med su

t to see the t

tiful and noble thoughts, and I want to stop like it, because it feels nice and good. Don't you come fooling about, making me mad, chivying away

eyes, and looked hard at me. I seemed human

s

in these parts? Yo

I don't. You wo

to see the tombs-graves-folks

untry-side; and my grandfather's vault at Bow is capable of accommodating eight visitors, while my great-aunt Susan has a brick grave in Finchley Churchyard, with a headstone with a coffee-pot sort of thing in bas-relief upon it, and a six-i

that had been said by some to be probably part of the remains of the figure of a man, and

rate, and, in broken-

come and see the

he fired his last shot. He dre

ee those. Oh, do come and see the skulls! You are a young man out for

d, and as I sped I he

e skulls; come back

g Mrs. Thomas's grave made him crazy. He said he had looked forward to seeing Mrs. Thomas's grave from the first mome

George to fool about all day, and leave us to lug this lumbering old top-heavy barge up and down the river by ourselves to meet him? Why cou

he there, and what's the good of their banks? They take your money, and then, when you draw a cheque, they send it back smeared all over with 'No effects,' 'Refer to drawer.' What's the good of that? That's the sort of trick they served me twice last week. I'm not goi

then he went on about the river, and what was the good of the

head when he gets like this. Then he pu

r, and a gallon-jar of water in the nose of the boat, and that t

d them, ginger-beer, raspberry syrup, &c., &c. He said they all produced dyspepsi

ying to steer at the same time, from a topsy-turvy point of view, he pulled the wrong line, and sent the boat into the bank, and the shock upset him, and he dived down right into the hamper, and stood there on his head, holding on