Three Men in a Boat

HE SMALL BOY. - THE PEOPLE GATHERROUND US. - WE DRIVE OFF IN GREAT STYLE, AND ARRIVE AT WATERLOO. -INNOCENCE

pets that woke me

he

ly nine o'clock, sir?""Nine o

yhole. "I thought you was a-oversleeping your

han't get on the water till after twelve. I wonder you take the troubleto get up at all.""Um," I replied, "lucky for you that I do. If I hadn't woke you, you'dha

first time since our bei

w what time he should wake us- on his back, wi

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

ch he would have to accountfor hereafter, passing away from him, unused. He might have been upstuffing himself with eg

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

r?" he observ

hat!" he shrieked, jumping out of bed into the bath; "Who the thunderput

mine 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 wantedthe shaving

e s

inly rather rough on the City, but what cared we for humansuffering? A

come and see him off, and they were whiling away the time by fightingon the

rris

e started with acouple of chops, saying that he would

han usually ghastly thing in weather that may be),"occasional local thunder-storms, east wind, with general depression overthe Midland Counties (London and Channe

terday or a the day before, andprecisely the

y ruined one late autumn byour paying attentio

up our picnic, and stop indoors all day,waiting for the rain. - And people would pass the house, going of

to get, and came backand stirred the fire, and got our books, and arranged our specimens ofseaweed and cockle shells. By twelve o'clock, with the s

he afternoon, you'll fin

one o'clock, the landlady would come in to ask if w

ign ofrain, we tried to cheer ourselves up with the idea that it would comedown all at once, just as the people had started for home, and were outof the re

flimsy things,and go out, and, half-an-hour after we had started, it would commence torain hard, and a bitterly cold wind would spr

her. I never canunderstand it. The barometer is us

ith rain outside, and had been all day; and I couldn'tquite make matters out. I tapped the barometer, and it jumped up andpointed to "very dry." The Boots stop

couldn't go any further. Ittried its best, but the instrument was built so that it couldn't prophesyfine weather any harder than it did without breaking itself. Itevidently wanted to go on, and prognosticate drought, and water famine,and sunstroke, and sim

ut a poem which was printed over thetop of the oracle, about"Long foretold, long last;Short notice, soon past.

, the long straight ones. Inever can make head

ou know. It rises or falls for rain and fine,with much or less wind, and one end is "Nly" and

-level, and reduce it to Fahrenheit,a

ing about it beforehand. Theprophet we like is the old man who, on the particularly gloomy-lookingmorning of som

e wish him good-morning, and start off;"wonderful how these old fellows can tell!"And we feel an affection for that

an that prophesies us bad weather, on the contrary

d'ye think?" we shout,

it's settled down for the day

nt proves correct, we come back feeling still more angry againsthim, and wi

rbance, passingin an oblique line over Southern Europe," and "pressure increasing," tovery much upset us: and so, finding that he co

ew things left on the table,carted out our lu

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

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

it is Biggs's latest. I was told that, atthe time of the Great Coram Street murder, it was promptly concluded byour 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 towhich he was subjected by No. 19, when he called there

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

boy passed on the opposite side of

ther side ofthe step. Then the young gentleman from the boot-shop stopped, andjoined Biggs's boy; w

arve, are they? " said the

y;"they're a-going to find Stanley."By this time, quite a small crowd had collected, and people were askingeach other what was the matter. One party (the young and giddy portionof the crowd) held that

ute,and hang about, and get in your way), and packing ourselves and ourbelongings into it, and shooting out a couple of Montmorency's frien

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

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

oingto Kingston. He said he couldn't say for certain of course, but that herather thought he was. Anyhow, if he wasn't the 11.5 for Kingston, hesaid he was pretty confident he was the 9.32 for Virginia W

quietly and go toKingston.""Well, I don't know, gents," replied the noble fellow, "but I supposeSOME train's got to

really theExeter mail, and that they had spent hours at Wat

low bridge, and to it wewended our way, and round

l right, sir?

tiller-lines, and Montmorency, unhappy and deeply suspicious, in theprow