Excerpt from "Three Men in a Boat"

So I have temporarily put aside the Bhagavad Gita and am rereading Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog!) by Jerome K. Jerome. It is about three friends going on a boat trip on the Thames in 1889 (or trying to). I contend it is one of the best comic novels ever written. And if you have even the slightest interest in that time period and haven't read it--why on earth not?

Because I can't help it, here is a section that had me absolutely rolling on the floor when my parents read it to me when I was ten or so. J. (the narrator), George, and Harris are trying to pack supplies for the trip. (Montmorency is the dog.)

Harris said that we should be wanting to start in less than twelve hours’ time, and thought that he and George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat down, and they had a go.

They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently intending to show me how to do it. I made no comment; I only waited. When George is hanged, Harris will be the worst packer in this world; and I looked at the piles of plates and cups, and kettles, and bottles and jars, and pies, and stoves, and cakes, and tomatoes, &c., and felt that the thing would soon become exciting.

It did. They started with breaking a cup. That was the first thing they did. They did that just to show you what they COULD do, and to get you interested.

( Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it )

ETA: This mysteriously posted before I'd finished editing it and then THE SITE WENT DOWN FOR AN HOUR. I CANNOT EXPRESS TO YOU MY FRUSTRATION.

(no subject)

WAAAAAAAAAANT