Learn English Through Story ★ Subtitles ✦ Three Men In A Boat ( intermediate level )

[Music] two one we decide to go on holiday there were four of us George and William Samuel Harris and myself and Montmorency we were sitting in my room and we were smoking and talking about how bad we were ill I mean of course we were all feeling in poor health and we were getting quite worried about it Harris said that he felt really bad sometimes and he did not know what he was doing and then George said that he felt bad too and that he did not know what he was doing either with me it was my heart I knew it was my heart because I had read something in a magazine about the symptoms of a bad heart I had all of them it is a most extraordinary thing but every time I read about an illness I realized that I have it too and that my symptoms are very bad in fact my health has always been a worry I remember one day I had a little health problem and I went to the British Museum library to read about it I took the book off the library shelf and I began to read after some time I turned over the page and I began to read about another illness I don't remember the name of the illness but I know it was something really terrible I read about half a page and then I knew that I have that disease too i sat there for a time cold with horror slowly I began to turn over more pages to a disease which was worse than the last one I began to read about it and as I expected I had that disease too then I began to get really interested in myself so I went back to the beginning of the book I started with the letter A and I read from A to Z I found that there was only one disease which I did not have this made me a little unhappy why didn't I have that disease too when I walked into that reading room I was a happy healthy young man when I left I was a very sick man close to death but I was talking about my heart nobody understood how ill I really was I had this bad heart when I was a boy it was with me all the time I knew that it was my heart because I had all the symptoms of a bad heart the main symptom was that I did not want to work of course nobody understood that the problem was my heart doctors were not so clever then they just thought that I was lazy why you lazy boy you they used to say get up and do some work for once in your life they did not understand that I was ill and they did not give me medicine for this illness they hit me on the side of the head it is very strange but those blows on my head often made the illness go away for a time sometimes just one blow made the sickness disappear and made me want to start work immediately anyway that evening George and William Harris and I sat there for half an hour and described our illnesses to each other I explained to George and William Harris how I felt when I got up in the morning William Harris told us how he felt when he went to bed then George stood in front of the fire and with great feeling he showed us how he felt in the night George always thinks he is ill but really there is never anything the matter with him you know at that moment mrs. poppets my housekeeper knocked on the door she wanted to know if we were ready to have supper we smiled sadly at each other and then we said that perhaps we should try to eat something Harris said that a little food helped to prevent illness so mrs. poppets brought the supper in we sat down at the table and for half an hour we managed to play with some steak and chips and with a large cake that mrs. poppets had made when we had made ourselves eat something we filled our glasses and we lit our pipes then we began to talk about our health again we were not quite sure what was the matter with us however we were all quite certain of one thing we had been doing too much work we need a rest Harris said a wrist and the change George added I agreed with George and I said that perhaps we could go to the country we could find a nice quiet place and we could sit in the warm Summer Sun we could go somewhere peaceful far away from other people Harris said that he thought that would be awful he added that he had been to a place like that once everyone went to bed at 8 o'clock and he had to walk for an hour to buy cigarettes and a newspaper no Harris said if you want to rest from the change then the see is best I said that this was a terrible idea a seed trip is fine if you are going for a month or two but not for a week I know what it is like you start out on Monday and you think that you are going to enjoy yourself you wave goodbye happily to your friends you walk up and down on the ship like Captain Cook Sir Francis Drake or Christopher Columbus on Tuesday you wish that you had not come on Wednesday Thursday and Friday you wish that you were dead on Saturday you are able to drink something you begin to smile a little that the kind people who ask you how you are on Sunday you start to walk again and you eat a little and on Monday morning as you stand and wait to get off the ship you begin to enjoy yourself I remember that a friend of mine once took a short sea trip from London to Liverpool for his health he bought a return ticket but when he got to Liverpool he sold it and he came back by train so I was against the sea trip and not for myself you understand I am never seasick but I was afraid for George George said he would be fine in fact he said he would quite like it but he thought that Harris and I would both be ill Harris said he was never seasick in fact he had often tried to be ill but he had not succeeded it is very strange but when you are land you never meet anybody who has ever been seasick so George said well let's go up the river then he added we'll have fresh air on the river the hard work on the boat will make us hungry so we'll enjoy our food we'll sleep well too Harris replied well you never have any trouble sleeping anyway in fact you're always going to sleep but in the end Harris agreed that it was a good idea I thought that it was a good idea to the only one who did not like the idea was Montmorency it's different for me his face said you like it but I don't there's nothing for me to do I don't smoke I don't like looking at the trees and the flowers and when I'm asleep you'll play about with the boat and I'll fall over the side Montmorency is idea of a good time is to collect together all the most awful dogs he can find and then go round the town looking for other awful dogs to fight but we were 3 to 1 so we decided to go anyway chapter 2 we start to make plans we pulled out the maps and we discussed plans we decided to start on the following Saturday Harris and I would go down to Kingston in the morning and take the boat up to Chertsey but George could not leave the city until the afternoon George goes to sleep as a bank from 10 o'clock until 4 o'clock from Monday to Friday on Saturday they wake him up and put him out onto the street at 2 o'clock so George was going to meet us at Chertsey the next question was where to sleep at night George and I did not want to sleep in hotels at night we wanted to sleep outside how beautiful we said in the country by the river with the birds the flowers and the trees all around us I can imagine it easily at the end of the day night comes and the world is peaceful and calm our little boat moves silently into some quiet little corner on the river there we put up our tent and we cook and eat our simple supper then we fill our pipes and we sit and talk quietly sometimes we stop for a moment or two and we listen to the water as it plays gently against the boat the silver moon shines down on us and our heads are full of beautiful thoughts we sit in silence for a time we do not want to speak then we laugh quietly put away our pipes say goodnight and go to bed the peaceful sound of the water against the boat sends us to sleep and we dream we dream that the world is young again and what about when it rains Harris said he was right when it rains you do not enjoy living in tents I thought about it again it is evening you are very wet there is a lot of water in the boat and everything in it is wet too you find a place on the riverbank which is not as wet as other places you get out of the boat pull out the tent and two of you tried to put it up because it is wet it is very heavy and then it falls on top of you you cannot get it off your head and you get angry all the time it is raining heavily it is difficult to put up a tent in good weather in wet weather it is almost impossible the other man does not help you he starts to play about you get your side of the tent up and begin to tie the ropes to the ground just then he pulls the tent from his side and he destroys all your hard work here what do you think you're doing you call out what are you doing you mean he answers angrily don't pull it you've got it all wrong you stupid man you cry no I haven't he shouts let your side go I tell you you're wrong you scream and you wish you could get to him to hit him you pull your side of the tent hard and pull out all the ropes on his side ah the stupid fool you hear him say to himself and then suddenly he gives a violent pull and your side comes out too slowly you start to go round to his side to tell him what you think of him at the same time he begins to come round the other way to tell you what he feels and you follow each other round and round and you shout at each other until the tent falls down and there you are you stand and look at each other across the tent at the same time you both call out there you are what did I tell you meanwhile the third man has been trying to get the water out of the boot the water has run up his arms and he is wet and angry suddenly he wants to know what you are doing and why the tent is not up yet when at last the tent is up you carry the things out of the boat Supper is mostly rain water rain water bread rain water soup happily you have something strong to drink this brings back your interest in life until it is time to go to bed there you dream that a very large animal has suddenly sat down on you you wake up and you understand that something terrible has happened at first you think that the world has ended then you think that this cannot be true so it must be thieves or murderers and fire no help comes and all you know is that thousands of people are kicking you and you cannot breathe somebody else is in trouble - you can hear his cries they are coming from under your bed you decide to fight and you hit out left and right with your arms and your legs you are shouting all the time at last you find your head in the fresh air near you you see a half dressed murderer he is waiting to kill you you are just going to start fighting him when you see that is his gym at the same moment he sees that it is you oh it's you is it he says yes you answer what's happened the tent was blown down I think he says where's Bill then you both shout for Bill the ground underneath you moves and the voice says garrote off my head the next day you have no voices because you have all caught colds and all there you argue with each other in angry whispers we therefore decided that we would sleep out in tents on fine nights and in hotels when it rained Montmorency was very pleased about this he does not like peace and quiet he prefers noise but he looks so good so well-behaved when old ladies and gentlemen look at him tears come into their eyes when he first came to live with me I thought this dog will not be with me long he is too good for this world but by the end of the year he had killed 12 chickens which I had to pay for I had pulled him out of a hundred and fourteen street fights a woman had brought me a dead cat and have called me a murderer then I changed my ideas about Montmorency we had decided where to sleep so now we had to discuss what to take with us we began to argue about this so we agreed that we had done enough for one night Chapter three we decide what to take the following evening we discussed what we wanted to take with us Harris said now get me a piece of paper J and write everything down George you get a pencil and I'll make the list that's Harris he tells everybody what to do and they do all the work I remember that my uncle Podger was like Harris everybody in the house had to help when uncle Podger to the job when they bought a picture once aren't paja asked now where shall we put this oh I'll do it don't worry about it I'll do it all myself he said and then he took off his coat to begin he sent one of the girls out to buy some nails and then he sent one of the boys to tell her how big the nails ought to be now bill you go and get my hammer he shouted and bring me a ruler Tom and Jim I need a ladder and a kitchen chair too Maria you stay here to hold the light and Tom come here you can give me the picture then he lifted the picture up and he dropped it he tried to catch the glass and he cut himself he looked for something to put round his finger and he could not find anything so he danced round the house and he shouted at everybody half an hour later the finger had been tied up they had bought new glass and everything was ready uncle Podger tried again everybody stood round him they were all ready to help two people held the chair third helped him to get on it 1/4 gave him a nail and a fifth passed him the hammer he took the nail he dropped it there he said sadly now the nails gone so everybody got down on the ground to look for it at last we found the nail but then he lost the hammer where's that hammer what did I do with the hammer there are several of you there and you don't know where the hammer is we found the hammer for him but then he lost the place on the wall where he was going to put the picture so each one of us had to get up on the chair and look for the place and each one of us thought that it was a different place then uncle Podger tried again himself this time he fell off the chair onto the piano his head and his body hit the piano at the same time the music was beautiful but uncle bages words were not aunt Maria was not pleased she said that she did not want the children to listen to those terrible words she added calmly the next time that you are going to put a picture on the wall please tell me then I can arrange to go and spend a week with my mother uncle Podger got up and tried again and at midnight the picture was on the wall it was not very straight and everyone was very tired and unhappy uncle Podger looked at the picture proudly and said you see it was only a little job Harris is like that so I told him that George would write down the list and I would do the work he could get the pencil in the paper the first list was too long so we started again now George said we don't want to take a tenth we can put a cover over the boat at night it will be like a little house lovely and warm and comfortable it's much easier than a tent then we made a list of all the clothes we needed George told us that he knew all about this kind of thing and we believed him we discovered later that this was not true next we talked about the food first breakfast George began we need eggs cold meat tea bread and butter of course and for dinner we can take cold chicken legs the martyrs told meat fruit cakes chocolate we can drink water then he added and we can take a bottle of whisky too for when we are sick you know we did not wish to talk about being sick but later we were glad we had taken the whisky so we made our list and it was a long one Chapter four we pack the next day which was Friday we collected all these things together in the evening we met 2pac we got a big suitcase for the clothes there were two large baskets with lids for the food and for the pans and things to cook with we moved the table over to the window then we put everything in the middle of the floor after we had done that we sat there and we looked at it I said that I would pack I think that I am very good at packing it is one of the things that I do best so I told the others that I would organize it they agreed to this idea too quickly that was rather strange George lit his pipe and sat back in the armchair Harris put his feet on the table and lit a cigarette this was not of course what I had expected when I said that I would organize it I meant that I would tell them what to do then I would sit and watch them do it however I said nothing and I started to pack the clothes it took much longer than I had expected but in the end it was finished i sat on the suitcase and closed it George and Harris watched me with great interest aren't you going to put the boots in Harris asked I looked round and saw the boots why did Harris wait until I have closed the suitcase George laughed quietly I opened the suitcase and I put the boots in it was not easy and just as I was going to close the suitcase again an awful idea came to me had I packed my toothbrush of course I had to look for it and of course I could not find it I had to take everything out again I found George's toothbrush I found has his toothbrush but I could not find mine in the end I found it inside a boot I packed everything again when I had finished George asked if the soap was in the suitcase I said I did not care about the soap I threw down the lid of the suitcase and I closed it again then I found my cigarettes were inside it I finished the suitcase at five past ten and the food was still not packed Harris said we have to start the holiday in 12 hours peps George and I had better do the rest of the packing I agreed and I sat down they began quite happily I said nothing I only waited I looked at all the plates and cups and bottles and tomatoes and cakes etc I felt that it was soon going to get exciting it did they started by breaking a cup that was just to show you what they could do and to get you interested then Harris packed a pan on top of a tomato and well they had to pick out the tomato with a teaspoon and then it was George's turn and he stepped on the butter I did not say anything but I got up and went over to the table and watched them this annoyed them more than anything and he made them worried and excited they stepped on things and they put things behind them and then they could not find them and they wanted them they pats off things at the bottom of the basket and then put heavy things on top of them then it got worse after George got the butter off his shoe they tried to put it in the teapot at first they could not get it in then when they did get it in they decided that the teapot was the wrong place but they could not get the butter out again however in the end they did manage to get it out and they put it down on a chair Harris sat on it and when he stood up the butter stuck to his trousers then they looked for the butter all over the room in the end George got behind Harris and he saw it where it is he cried where Harris asked and he turned round quickly Stearns threw George shouted when they got the butter off Harris they panted in the teapot again Montmorency was in all this of course he sat down on things just when George and Harris were going to pack them he put his leg into the sugar he ran away with the teaspoons he pretended that the oranges were rats and he got into the food basket and killed three of them the packing was completed at 10:00 to 1:00 in the morning and we all went to bed George said what time should I wait you do Harris said 7:00 I said 6:00 in the end we said wake us at half past 6:00 George chapter 5 we start our holiday it was mrs. poppets who woke me the next morning she said do you know that it's nearly knowing a clock sir what I cried and I jumped out of bed I woke Harrison told him he said I thought you told us to get up at 6:00 I did I answered well why didn't you wake me then he asked now we won't be on the water until after twelve o'clock then we remembered we looked at George he was still asleep now it makes me very angry when I see another man asleep and I am awake we decided to wake George we ran across the room and we pull the bedclothes off him Harris hit him with a shoe and I shouted in his ear he woke up what he began get up you fat lazy thing Harris shouted it's a quarter to ten then we began to get ready and we remembered that we had packed the toothbrushes so we had to go downstairs to get them out of the suitcase finally we were ready and Harris said we need a good breakfast inside us today while we were eating George got the newspaper and read us interesting pieces from it pieces about people who had been killed on the river and interesting reports about the weather the weather report for that day said rain cold wet define some thunder and an east wind but weather reports make me angry anyway they always tell you what the weather was like yesterday or the day before it is never today's weather it is always wrong I remember that one autumn I went on holiday on that holiday the weather reports in the newspaper were always wrong on Monday it said heavy rain with thunder so we did not go out that day all day people passed our house they were all going out happy and smiling the Sun was shining and there were no clouds in the sky aha we said as we watched them they'll be very wet when they come back though and we laughed then we sat down by the fire and read our books at 12 o'clock the room was too hot and the Sun was still shining well it will rain this afternoon then we told ourselves the rain never came the next morning we read that it was going to be sunny and very hot so we dressed in light clothes and we went out half an hour later it began to rain hard and a very cold wind blew up and this went on all day we came home with coals and we went to bed but on the morning of our holiday it was bright and sunny and George could not make us unhappy so he went to work Harris and I finished the rest of the breakfast then we carried all our luggage into the road we tried to get a taxi usually taxis come along every three minutes in fact there are usually too many taxes however that morning we waited 20 minutes for a taxi a crowd of interested people collected to watch us I think it was because we had so much luggage there was a big suitcase a small bag two baskets several blankets some fruit in a brown paper bag some pans Salaam Braille ah's and four or five coats and raincoats after a very long time a taxi arrived and stopped for us we packed our things into it kicked two of Montmorency's friends out of the taxi and started on our holiday the crowd of people waved goodbye to us Chapter six on the river at Kingston our boat was waiting for us Harris and I put all our things into it and we moved off along the River Thames Montmorency er was at the front of the boat we traveled along the river without any accidents well there was only one little accident and that was when the boat hit the riverbank and Harris fell over backwards when we came to Hampton Court Palace Harris asked me if I had ever been in the maze there he told me a story about it he went into the maze once to show a friend the way he had studied a map of the maze and so he knew it was very easy to get out of it again Harris said to his friend we'll just go in and walk around for 10 minutes and then we'll come out and get some lunch it's easy you see you just keep taking the first turning to the right soon after they have gone in they met some people these people said that they had been there for three-quarters of an hour they said they wanted to get out Harris said follow me I'm going out myself in about 10 minutes the people all said that Harris was very kind and they began to follow him as they were going along they collected other people who wanted to get out in the end all the people in the maze were following Harris there were about 20 of them some of them had thought that they were never going to see their friends and their families again one woman was carrying a baby she held on to Harris's arm because she did not want to lose him Harris continued to turn to the right but it seemed to be a long way at last Harris's friend said to him this must be a very big maze one of the biggest in Europe Harris answered yes it must be his friend continued because we've walked about three kilometers already Harris began to think that it was rather strange but he went on after some time they came to a piece of cake on the ground Harris his friend said that they had passed the piece of cake earlier Harris replied now impossible the woman with the baby said no I took it from the baby and I threw it there myself it was just before we met you in fact I wish I never had met you she added iris got angry then and he took out his map he showed it to the people but one man said a maps no good when you don't know where you are so then Harris said that the best thing was to go back to the entrance and start again everybody agreed and they all turned and followed Harris the other way after ten minutes they found themselves in the center of the maze Harris was paid to pretend that he wanted to be in the center but the crowd looked dangerous so Harris decided to say that it was an accident anyway now they knew where they were on the map and it looked easy so they all started off again for the third time and three minutes later they were back in the center again after that every time they tried again they arrived back in the center Harris took out his map again but this made the crowd angry they told him what to do with his map Harris felt that the crowd was not very grateful to him then they all started to shout and in the end the keeper came he climbed up a ladder and he called to them wait there I'll come and get you but he was a young keeper and he was new to the job so when he got into the maze he could not find them then he got lost from time to time they saw him as he ran past on the other side of the hedge he shouted wait there I'm coming then five minutes later he appeared again in the same place he asked them why they had moved they had to wait for one of the old keepers to come back from lunch and let them out Harris said that it was a fine maze and we agreed that we would try to get George into it on the way back Chapter seven Harris gets angry Harris told me about the maze as we were passing through mozi lock our boat was the only one in the lock that day usually it is very busy on Sundays when the weather is fine there are boats everywhere everybody comes down to the river they wear brightly colored clothes and the river is full of color yellow and blue and orange and green and white and red and pink at Hampton Harris wanted to get out and have a look at the church there but I refused to stop I have never liked visiting churches but Harris loves them he said I've looked forward to visiting Hampton Church ever since we decided to make this trip he added I only came on the trip because I thought we were going there I reminded him about George I said we've got to get the boat up to Shepperton by five o'clock to meet him then Harris got angry with George why does George have to play around all day why has he left us with this big heavy boat to tow up and down the river why couldn't George come and do some work why didn't he take a day's holiday and come down with us the bank ha what good is he at the bank he stopped for a moment and then he continued I never see him doing any work there he sits behind a bit of gas all day and he pretends to do something what's the good of a man behind a bit of glass I have to work why can't judge work what does he do at the bank what good our banks anyway they take all your money and then when you write out a cheque they send it back they say you've spent all your money what's the good of that if George was here we could go to see that church anyway I don't believe he's at the bank he's playing about somewhere that's what he's doing and we've got to do all the work I'm going to get out and have a drink I told him that there were no pubs nearby and then he started shouting about the river what good is there river we'll all die of thirst no pubs it's better to let Harris go on shouting when he gets angry then he gets tired and he's quiet afterwards I reminded him that we had water in the boat then he started shouting about water he said drinks like that made people ill however he said that he must drink something he climbed onto the seat and he bent down to get the bottle out of the basket it was at the bottom and he had to bend down lower and lower at the same time he was trying to steer the boat and he pulled the wrong rope the boat turned sharply and bumped into the bank of the river and Harris fell into the basket he stood there on his head and he held onto the side of the boat his legs were in the air he could not move in case he fell over he had to stay there until I could catch his legs and pull him back and that made him more angry we stopped under the trees by Kempton Park and we had lunch it is very pretty there on the grass by the river under the trees we had an excellent meal and Harris calmed down and began to enjoy himself again by half-past three we had reached Sunbury Locke then we went up to Walton which is quite an interesting place Julius Caesar stayed there with his soldiers Queen Elizabeth the first she was there too you could never get away from that woman she was everywhere next we came to Halliford and Shepperton there is an old church at Shepperton and I was worried in case Harris wanted to go and visit it I saw him looking towards it as we came near but I moved the boat quickly and Harris's cap fell into the water we had to get it back of course luckily he was very angry with me and so he forgot about his church as we came up to the lock at Weybridge we saw something brightly colored on one of the locked gates when we looked closer we saw that it was George Montmorency started to bark madly I shouted and Harris called out while they George waved his cap and yelled back to us the lock-keeper ran out because he thought someone had fallen in the water he seemed annoyed when he saw that no one had fallen in Chapter eight George starts work we decided that now George was there he was going to do some work he did not want to work of course I've had a bad day of the bank he explained Harris who is sometimes a little cruel said ah and now you're going to have a bad time on the river for a change a change is good for you come on get out of the boat and tow George could not refuse really but he did say a burps it would be better if I stayed in the boat and prepared the meal you two can tow the boat then he added it's very difficult to prepare a meal and you both look tired our only reply was to give him the rope so he started walking and he pulled the boat behind him sometimes people forget that they are towing a boat and later George told us a story about this George had once seen a man and a young lady who were walking by the side of the river they were pulling a rope behind them and they were talking to each other they did not notice that there was no boat on the end of the rope of course they probably had a boat on the end of the rope when they started out but it had disappeared the two young people were not worried about this they had their rope they did not seem to care that there was no boat George was going to call out to tell them about it but just then he had an idea he took hold of the rope and he tied it to his own boat then he and his three fat heavy friends sat in the back of their boat and lit their pipes and that young man and young woman towed George and his friends up to valo it was when they reached the lock that they looked back suddenly they understood that they had been telling the wrong boat George said I've never seen anyone look as sad as those two young people then the young man was a bit annoyed in fact he was probably going to say something angry to George and his friends but just then the young woman cried wildly oh Henry then whales aren't mary did they ever get the old lady back Harris asked George replied that he did not know but the most exciting thing of all is to let girls tow your boat let me tell you about it first of all you need three girls you always need three girls to tow a boat two of them hold the rope and the other one runs here and there and laughs all the time they usually begin by tying themselves up in the rope they get it round their legs and then they have to sit down to untie it next they get it round their necks when they finally get it right they always start by running they pull the boat much too fast after a few minutes they are tired and so they stop suddenly they all sit down on the grass and they start to laugh meanwhile your boat goes out into the middle of the river and it starts to turn round then they stand up and are surprised ere York they say that they are it's gone into the middle of the river after this they pull you along quite well for a time then one of them decides to stop for something else so the boat runs aground in shallow water near the riverbank you jump up and you push the boat off into deep water you shout to them don't stop yes what's the matter they shout back don't stop you cry loudly dance what don't stop go on go on go back in early and see what they want one of them says and Emily comes back and asks what is it is anything wrong no you shut it's all right but go on don't stop why not because we can't steer the boat if you stop why not you must keep the boat moving oh all right I'll tell them are we doing everything else small right oh yes very nicely but don't stop I see Oh give me my hat please it's over there you find her hat and you give it to her but then another girl comes she thinks she will have her hat too and then they take Mary's hat for her Mary does not want it so they bring it back then they want to comb it is about 20 minutes before they start again then at the next corner they see a cow you have to stop and leave the boat to chase the car away anyway this time it was George who told us on to Penton hook there we discussed the important question of where to spend the night we had decided to sleep on the boat therefore we could stay there or we could go on past Danes in there and we decided to continue to runnymede later we all wished we had stopped at Benton Hook chapter nine our first night on the boat after some time Harris and I began to think that Bell where Locke had disappeared perhaps someone has taken it away we said George had towed the boat as far as Staines and we had towed it from there it seemed to get heavier and heavier we began to think that we were right and that someone had moved the lock but finally at half-past seven we reached it and got through it by now we just wanted to eat and to go to bed so we stopped before he reached magna carta Island it was quite a pretty place and we tied our boat to a big tree we were looking forward to having something to eat then but George said no it's better to put the cover on the boat first before it gets too dark all our work will be finished then we'll be able to sit down and enjoy our meal none of us had realized that it would be so difficult to fix the cover there were five pieces of metal and you put these into special holes on the side of the boat the pieces of metal were half circles and when you had put them into the holes you just had to pull the cover over them we thought it would probably take about ten minutes we were wrong we took the pieces of metal and we began to drop them into their holes you would not expect this to be dangerous work but it was first of all the pieces of metal would not fit into their holes we had to jump on them and kick them and beat them and when we got one in we found that it was the wrong piece of metal for those holes so we had to take it out again at last we got them finished then we only had to put the cover on George took one end and he fastened it over the front of the boat Harris stood in the middle of the boat to take the cover from George I stayed at the back of the boat to take the end of the cover from Harris George did his job all right but it was new work to Harris and he did everything wrong I do not know how he did it and Harris himself could not explain it later after ten minutes of really hard work he was inside the cover he could not get out he fought the cover hard and knocked George over then George got angry and he began to fight too George could not get out of the cover either at the time I did not know anything about all this I did not understand what was happening anyway they had told Montmorency and me to stand and wait so Montmorency and I stood there and waited we could see that the cover was moving about quite violently however we thought that it was all necessary for the job we did nothing because they had told us to wait we also heard many bad words coming from under the cover Montmorency and I decided that this was because the job was very difficult we waited for some time but everything seemed to get worse finally George's head appeared over the side of the boat it said we can't breathe under here why don't you help us you great stupid thing so I went and helped them Harris's face was nearly black so I was just in it took another half an hour after that to fix the cover and then we started to prepare supper we needed some hot water to make tea so we put the water on the stove at the front of the boat and we went to the back we pretended that we were not interested in the water at all we wanted it to think that we did not care if it got hot or not we began to get the other things out that is the only way to get hot water on the river if the water knows that you are waiting for it it will never get hot you have to go away and begin your meal without it you must not look at it then you will soon hear it making a lot of noise because it wants to be made into tea it is also a good idea to talk very loudly to each other you must say that you do not want any tea that you do not need any tea and that you are not going to have any tea you get very near the water and you shout I don't want any tea do you George and George shouts back oh no I don't like tea will have milk this makes the water very angry and it gets hot very fast we did this and when everything else was ready the tea was ready too then we sat down to have supper we really wanted that supper we needed that supper and for 35 minutes nobody on the boat spoke after supper we sat and smile as each other we smiled at Montmorency too we loved everybody we sat back we lit our pipes and we began to talk George told us about something very funny that happened to his father once when he was young George's father was traveling with a friend one night they stopped at a little hotel they spent the evening there with some other young men after a very happy evening they went to bed it was late and by that time they had George's father and George's father's friend were feeling quite happy themselves anyway they were going to sleep in the same room but in different beds when they got into the room they dropped their light which went out so they had to undress and get into bed in the dark they thought they were getting into separate beds however because they could not see they both got into the same one one of them got in with his head at the top of the bed the other one got in on the other side of the bed he lay with his feet by the first one's head nobody spoke for a moment then George's father said Joe what's the matter Tom Joe replied from the other end of the bed why there's a man in my bed George's father said his feet are here next to me well that's very strange Tom Joe answered but there's a man in my bed - what are you going to do George's father asked well I'm going to throw him out Joe replied so am i George's father said bravely there was a short fight and then there were two heavy bangs on the floor after a moment or two a rather sad voice said I say Tom you how have you got on well to tell the truth my man's thrown me out my man's thrown me out too I say this isn't a very good hotel is it at the end of George's story Harris asked what was the name of the hotel of the Riverside George replied why ah it isn't the same hotel then Harris answered what do you mean George asked well it's strange Harris said but the same thing happened to my father once I've often heard him tell the story after that we went to bed but I slept very badly chapter 10 our first morning I woke up at six o'clock the next morning and I found that George was awake too we both tried to go to sleep again but we could not this was because we did not need to get up early we could sleep for another two or three hours but we both felt we would die if we tried to sleep for another five minutes George said that the same thing had happened to him a few months before he told me a story about it at that time George had rooms in the house of a lady called mrs. Gibbons one evening his watch stopped at a quarter past eight he did not realize this then when he went to bed he took off his watch and he did not look at it this happened in the winter so it was dark in the mornings anyway when George woke up he looked at his watch it was a quarter past eight good heavens George cried I have to be at the bank by nine o'clock and he threw down the watch and jumped out of bed he had a cold bath and he dressed then he ran and looked at his watch it had started to go again and it was twenty to nine George took his watch and ran downstairs the dining room was dark and silent there was no fire no breakfast George was very angry with mrs. G he decided to tell her this later in the evening then he caught hold of his coat his hat and his umbrella and ran to the front door it was locked George said that mrs. G was a lazy old woman then he unlocked the door and ran out into the street few hundred meters he ran as fast as he could but suddenly he noticed that there were not many people about he also noticed that the shops were not open it was a very dark and foggy morning however it seemed very strange that they had closed the shops because of the fog he had to go to work so why should other people stay in bed George could see only three people one of them was a policeman one was a man who was taking vegetables to the market and one was a taxi driver George looked at his watch it was five to nine for a moment he stood there without moving he wondered if he was dreaming he felt his wrist and bent down and felt his legs then with his watch in his hand he went up to the policeman what time is it please he asked the policeman what's the time the policeman repeated well listen just then George heard a clock one two three but that's only three times George said when it had finished well how many times do you want the policeman replied why nine of course George said and he held out his watch to the policeman do you know where you live the policeman asked George thought for a minute and then he told the policeman the address well I think you should go back there quietly the policeman continued and take your watch with you so George went back at he thought he would go to bed again however he did not like the idea of having to get up again later so he decided to go to sleep in the armchair but he could not get to sleep he tried to read but that was no good either finally he put on his coat again and he went out for a walk he felt very lonely and miserable he met policeman who looked at him strangely they followed him about he began to feel that he really had done something wrong he started to hide in dark corners whenever he saw a policeman of course then the policeman wanted to know what he was doing George said nothing I'm just going for a walk but they did not believe him in the end two policemen went back to the house with him they wanted to know if he really did live there they watched him go in with his key then they stood on the opposite side of the road and they watched the house when he got in he thought I'll like the farm then I'll make some breakfast but he made a lot of noise and he was afraid that mrs. Gibbons would wake up she would hear the noise and think that he was a burglar then she would open the window and shout help police the two policemen would come and arrest George and take him away so he stopped trying to prepare breakfast and he put on his coat then he sat in the armchair and he waited for mrs. givings she came down at half-past seven George said that since then he had never got up too early again when George had finished his story we decided to wake up Harris it was hard work in end we had to use quite a sharp piece of metal Harris sat up suddenly then Montmorency had been asleep on Harris's chest and he went flying across the boat after that we pulled up the cover and we put our heads over the side of the boat we looked down at the water the night before we had decided to get up early we would throw off the cover and we would jump into the water with shouts of happiness then we would enjoy a long swim but now that morning had come it did not seem to be a very good idea the water looked wet and cold the wind felt cold too well who's going to go in for a swim first Harris said finally nobody hurried to be the first one George put his head back inside the boat Montmorency barked with horror at the idea Harris said it would be difficult to climb back into the boat again from the water then he went back into the boat to look for his trousers I did not want to give up the idea absolutely I decided to go down to the edge of the river and then splash some water over myself so I went out onto the riverbank and I began to move carefully along the branch of a tree which was over the water it was very cold and I thought I would not splash water over myself after all I would go back into the boat and dress I turned and just then the stupid branch broke the next minute I was in the middle of the river with half a liter of the thames inside me good heavens old chaise gone in Harris said is it all right George called out lovely I replied why don't you come in but they did not want to when I got back to the boat I was very cold I wanted to put on my shirt as quickly as possible by accident I dropped it into the water this made me very angry but George started to laugh I can't see anything to laugh at I told George he just went on laughing in fact I never saw a man laugh so much in the end I became really angry with him I told him what I thought about him he laughed more loudly and then just as I was getting the shirt back out of the water I noticed that it was not my shirt so I began to laugh too I looked at George who was laughing so much then I looked at the wet shirt and I laughed more and more because I was laughing so much I dropped the shirt in the water again aren't you going to get it out George cried between his shouts of laughter at first I couldn't have answer him because I was laughing so much in the end I managed to say it isn't my shirt it's yours I have never seen a man's face change so quickly I tried to make him see that it was very funny but he did not agree with me after that it was time for breakfast and we decided to have eggs Harris said he would cook him he said he was very good at doing eggs people who had eaten his eggs never wanted any other food afterwards if they can't get my eggs they won't eat he said and they died so we gave him the pan and all the eggs which had not broken go on then we said begin her had some trouble when he tried to break the eggs he had trouble stopping them from getting onto his trousers and he had more trouble trying to stop them from going up his arms finally he managed to get about six of the eggs into the pan then he sat down and started to cook them it seemed to be very difficult work whenever he went near the pan he burnt himself then he dropped everything and danced about and waved his hands and shouted in fact every time George and I looked at him he was doing this at first we thought it was necessary to do this to cook the eggs once Montmorency went and looked into the pan but he burned himself then he started dancing and shouting - it was all very exciting and George and I were quite sorry when it finished chapter 11 hotels and tinned fruit after breakfast I was sitting by the river and thinking when George said perhaps when you've rested enough you could help to wash the plates and things so I cleaned the pan with some wood and grass and George's wet shirt then we started to move up the river again past old Windsor which is very pretty after that the river is not very interesting until you get to Bourbon E George and I were towing the boat then as we were passing Datchet George asked me if I remembered our first trip up the river on that trip we reached a cheat at 10 o'clock at night all we wanted to do was to eat and go to bed I replied yes I do remember it I remember it well in fact it will be some time before I forget it it was one Saturday in August there was George and Harris and me we were tired and hungry when we got to Dutch it we took after the boat the basket of food but two bags and the coats and things then we began to look for somewhere to stay we passed a very pretty little hotel but there were no roses round the door I wanted somewhere with roses round the door I do not know why anyway I said oh we don't want to go there let's look for a little hotel with roses round the door so he went on until we came to another hotel that was a very nice one too and it did have roses but Harris did not like the man who was standing by the front door Harris said that he did not look like a nice man and he was wearing ugly boots so we went on we walked for some time but we did not see any more hotels then we met a man and we decided to ask him excuse me do you know any nice little hotels near here we said well he said you're coming away from them go back and you'll come to the Black Horse we said oh we've been there and we didn't like it there were no roses round the door well then he said there's the Travelers Rest just beyond it have you tried that Harris replied that we did not want to go there we did not like the man who was staying there Harris did not like the color of his hair he did not like his boots either well I don't know what you're going to do then the man answered because they are the only two hotels here now other hotels Harris cried none the man replied what are we going to do now Harris asked then George spoke he said you too can ask someone to build you a hotel I'm going back to the Black Horse so we went back to the Black Horse good evening the man at the desk said oh good evening George answered we want three beds please I'm sorry sir the man replied but we haven't got three beds oh well it doesn't matter um to bed son two of us can sleep in one bed contraire George continued he looked at Harris and me Harris said oh yes he thought that George and I could sleep in one bed very easily I'm very sorry sir the man repeated we haven't got any beds we've already got three men in one bed we picked up our and we went over to the Travelers Rest it was a pretty little place I said I thought it was better than the other hotel Harris said it would be all right we would not look at the man with red hair and ugly boots the people at the Travelers Rest did not wait to hear what we wanted the lady of the desk said she had already sent away 14 people there was no room of any kind we asked her if she knew somewhere we could spend the night she said there was a little house along the road we did not wait we picked up the basket the bags and the coats and we ran along the road the people there laughed at us there were only three beds in the house and there were seven men there already someone said why don't you try the little shop next to the black horse so we went back along the road but there were no beds at the little shop however there was an old lady in the shop she said she had a friend who had some rooms she added that she would take us there the old woman walked very slowly and it took us 20 minutes to get to her friend's house during the walk she told us about all the pains she had in her back when we got there there were already some people in her friends rooms from there we went to number 27 number 27 was full they sent us to number 32 and number 32 was full then we went back along the road suddenly Harris sat down on the basket he said he was not going to move he added that it seemed to be nice and quiet there and he said that he would like to die there just then a little boy came past do you know any old people that we can frighten so that they will give us their beds we asked him no I doomed the boy answered but he added that his mother would give us a room and that was where we spent the night in two very short beds after that we were never quite so difficult about hotels on our present trip though nothing exciting happened we continued slowly on our way and we stopped for lunch near Monkey Island we decided to have cold meat for lunch then after that George brought out a tin of fruit we loved in fruit all three of us we looked at the picture on the tin we thought about the fruit we imagined the taste of it we smiled at each other and Harris got out a spoon then we looked for the tin opener we took everything out of the big basket we took everything out of the bags there was no tin opener we pulled up the boards at the bottom of the boot we put everything out on the grass by the river and we shook everything there was no tin opener then Harris tried to open the tin with a little knife and he cut himself badly George tried with some scissors the scissors flew up and nearly hit him in the eye I tried to make a hole in the tin with the sharp end of a piece of metal but I missed as a result I fell in the water and the tin flew away and broke a cup then we all got angry we took that tin and we put it on the grass by the river Harris went into a field and got a big sharp stone I got a long thick piece of wood George held the tin and Harris put the sharp end of his stone against the top of it I took the piece of wood and held it high in the air then I brought it down as hard as I could it was George's hat that saved his life that day he keeps that hat now on a winter evening when men are telling stories about the dangers they have known George brings out his hat he shows it to his friends then he tells the story again and he adds more details to it each time Harris was not hurt too badly after that I took the tin away I beat it until I was exhausted and miserable then Harris took it we beat it until it was long and thin we beat it until it was square we hit it with the wood until it was every shape there is but we could not make a hole in it then George tried and he knocked it into a shape which was strange and terrible and ugly it frightened him and he threw away the piece of wood then the three of us sat round that tin on the grass and we looked at it there was one big line across the top of the tin that looked back and mouth it seemed to be laughing at us and this made us very angry so Harris ran at it and picked it up he threw it as hard as he could into the middle of the river as it went down into the water we shouted awful things at it then we got into the boat and we left that place and did not stop until we reached Maidenhead we went through Maidenhead quickly but after that we travelled a lot more slowly we stopped for tea just before we got to cook him by the time we got through the lock it was evening it was a bit windy and someone had made a mistake because the wind was behind us that does not usually happen but that afternoon the wind actually helped us on our way and the boat moved quite fast there were no other people on the river except for three old men they were sitting in a boat and they were fishing as we got nearer we could see that they were old they were also quite serious because they were watching their fishing lines very carefully the Sun was going down and it through a red light across the water it was very beautiful and we felt that we were sailing into some strange land we did not sail into some strange land we went straight into that boat for the three old men in it at first we did not know what had happened but then from the words which rose on the evening air we understood that we were near people we also understood that those people were not happy we had knocked those three old men from their seats and they were all lying on the bottom of their boat they were trying to stand up and they were picking fish off themselves as they worked they shouted unkind things about us not just the usual things but special things about us and about our families Harris called out you ought to be pleased that something so exciting has happened to you he added that he was very unhappy to hear men of their age use those bad words but the three old men did not seem to agree with Harris at Malu we left the boat near the bridge and we went to spend the night in a hotel chapter 12 Montmorency and the cat on Monday morning we got up quite early and we went to swim before breakfast on the way back Montmorency behaved very stupidly the only thing that Montmorency and I disagree about is cats I like cats Montmorency does not when I meet a cat I say hello to it then I bend down and I stroke it gently behind the ears and along the side of its head the cat likes this it puts its tail up and it pushes itself against my legs and there is love and peace when Montmorency meets a cat everybody knows about it and a lot of bad words are used I do not really blame on Morenci usually I just hit him or throw stones at him because dogs are like that they hate cats but that morning Montmorency wished that he had not argued with a cat as we were coming back from the river a cat ran out from one of the houses and it began to walk across the road Montmorency saw the cat gave a shout of real happiness and ran after it it was a big black cat I have never seen a bigger cat it had lost half its tail and one of its ears but it looked calm and happy Montmorency ran at that cat as fast as he could but the cat did not hurry it seem to understand that its life was in danger it walked on quietly until the enemy was near it then it turned and sat down in the middle of the road it looked at Montmorency in a quiet way and it seemed to say yes you want me Montmorency is quite a brave dog but there was something in the way the cat looked at him it frightened him he stopped suddenly and he looked at the cat they did not speak of course but it was easy to imagine their conversation the cat can I do anything for you Montmorency no new things the cat do please tell me if there is something you want to ensure Montmorency who moves backwards down the road oh no not at all certainly I am afraid I've made a mistake I thought I knew you I'm sorry the cat not at all are you quite sure you don't want anything now Montmorency who continues to move back not at all Thanks not at all very kind of you good morning the cat good morning then the cat stood up and continued along the road Montmorency with his tail between his legs walked behind us he hoped that nobody would notice him now if you say cats de Montmorency he looks up at you and his eyes beg you no please after this we did our shopping went back to the boat and moved off along the river again how at Hambledon block we found that we had no water so we went to ask the lock-keeper for some George spoke for us he said oh please Allah could you give us a little water of course the old man replied just take what she want and leave the rest oh thank you very much George said and he looked round but where is it it's where it always he's my boy the lock-keeper answered it's behind you George looked round again I gone suit he said why where are your eyes the man said and he turned George towards the river Oh George cried but we can't drink the river you know now but you can drink some of it the old man replied that's what I've drunk for fifteen years we got some water from another house after we had got our water we went on towards Wargrave but before we got there we stopped for lunch we were sitting in a field near the river and we were just going to start eating Harris was preparing the food and George and I were waiting with our plates have you got a spoon Harris asked I need a spoon the basket was behind us and George and I both turned to get a spoon it took about five seconds when we looked back again Harris and the food had gone it was an open field and there were no trees there was nowhere to hide he had not fallen in the river because we were between him and the water George and I looked round then we looked at he Chava Harris had gone disappeared sadly we looked again of the place where Harris and the food had been and then to our horror we saw Harris's head and only his head in the grass the face was very red and very angry George was the first to speak say something he cried are you alive or dead where is the rest of you oh don't be so stupid Harris's head said it's your fault you made me sit there you did it to annoy me here take the food and from the middle of the grass the food appeared and then Harris came out dirty and wet Harris had not learned that he had been sitting on the edge of a hole the grass had hidden it then suddenly he had fallen backwards into it he said he had not known what was happening to him he thought at first that it was the end of the world Harris still believes that George and I planned it chapter 13 Harris and the Swans after lunch we moved on to Wargrave and ship lake and then to Sonning we got out of the boat there and we walked about for an hour or more it was too late then to go on past reading so we decided to go back to one of the ship lake islands we would spend the light there when we had tied the boat up by one of the islands it was still early George said it would be a good idea to have a really excellent supper he said we could use all kinds of things and all the bits of food we had left we could make it really interesting and we could put everything into one big pan together George said he would show us how to do it we liked this idea so George collected wood to make a fire Harris and I started to prepare the potatoes this became a very big job we began quite happily however by the time we had finished our first potato we were feeling very miserable there was almost no potato left George came and looked at it oh that's no good you've done it wrong do it like this he said we worked very hard for 25 minutes at the end of that time we had done four potatoes we refused to continue George said it was stupid to have only four potatoes so we washed about six more then we put them in the pan without doing anything else to them we also put in some carrots and other vegetables but George looked at it and he said there was not enough so then we got out both the food baskets we took out all the bits of things that were left and we put them into in fact we put in everything we could find I remember that Montmorency watched all this and he looked very thoughtful then he walked away he came back a few minutes later with a dead rat in his mouth he wanted to give it to us for the meal we did not know if he really wanted to put it in the pan or if he wants to tell us what he thought about the meal Harris said he thought it would be alright to put the rat in however George did not want to try anything new it was a very good meal it was different from other meals the potatoes were a bit hard but we had good teeth so it did not really matter after supper Harris was rather disagreeable I think it was the meal which caused this he is not used to such rich food George and I decided to go for a walk in Henley but we left Harris in the boat he said he was going to have a glass of whiskey smoked his pipe and then get the boat ready for the night we were on an island so when we came back we would shout from the riverbank then Harris would come in the boat and get us when we left we said to him don't go to sleep Henley was very busy and we met quite a lot of people we knew in town the time passed very quickly when we started off on our long walk back it was eleven o'clock it was a dark and miserable night it was quite cold and it was raining a bit we walked through the dark silent fields and we talked quietly to each other we wondered if we were going the right way we thought of our nice warm comfortable boat we thought of Harris and Montmorency and the whisky and we wished that we were there we imagined that we were inside our warm little boat tired and a little hungry with the dark mists River outside we could see ourselves we were sitting down to supper there we were passing cold meat and thick pieces of bread to each other we could hear the happy sounds of our lives and our laughing voices we hurried to make it real after some time we found the river and that made us happy we knew that we were going the right way we passed shiplake at a course to twelve and then George said quite slowly you don't remember which island it was do you know I don't I replied and I began to think carefully how many are there only four George answered it'll be all right if Harris is awake and if he isn't awake I asked but we decided not to think about that when we arrived opposite the first island we shouted but there was no answer so we went to the second island and we tried there the result was the same oh I remember now George said it was the third one and full of hope we ran to the third one and we called out there was no answer it was now becoming serious it was after midnight the hotels were all full and we could not go round all the houses and knock on doors at midnight George said that perhaps we could go back to Henley find the policeman and hit him he would arrest us and take us to a police station and then we would have somewhere to sleep but then we thought perhaps he won't arrest us perhaps he'll just hit us too we could not fight policemen all night we tried the fourth island but there was still no reply it was raining hard now and it was not going to stop we were very cold and wet and miserable we began to wonder if there were only four islands or if we were on the wrong bit at the river everything looked strange and different in the darkness just when we had lost all hope I suddenly saw a strange light it was over by the trees on the opposite side of the river I shouted as loudly as I could we waited in silence for a moment and then oh how happy we were we heard Montmorency bark we continued to shout for about five minutes and then we saw the lights of the boat it was coming towards us slowly we heard Harris's sleepy voice he was asking where we were Haris seemed very strange it was more than tiredness he brought the boat to our side of the river he stopped at a place where we could not get into the boat and then immediately he fell asleep we had to scream and yell to wake him up again at last we did wake him up and we got into the boat Harris looked very sad in fact he looked like a man who had had a lot of trouble we asked him if anything had happened and he said swans we had left the boat near a swans nest and soon after George and I had left mrs. Swan came back she started to shout at Harris however Harris managed to chase her away and she went to fetch her husband Harris said he had had quite a hard battle with these two swans but he had fought bravely and in the end he defeated them half an hour later they returned with 18 more swans there was another terrible battle Harris said the swans had tried to pull him and Montmorency from the boat and crown them but once again Harris fought bravely for four hours and he had killed them all then they had all swam away to die how many swans did you say there were George asked thirty q Harris replied sleepily you said eighteen before George said no I didn't Harris answered I said twelve do you think I can't count we never discovered what had really happened we asked Harris about it the next morning but he said what swans and he seemed to think that George and I had been dreaming oh how wonderful it was to be in the boat again we had a very good supper and then we thought we would have some whiskey but we could not find it we asked Harris what he had done with it but he did not seem to understand the expression on Montmorency face told us that he knew something but he said nothing I slept well that night although Harris did wake me up ten times or more he was looking for his clothes he seemed to be worrying about his clothes all night twice he made George and me get up because he wanted to see if we were lying on his trousers George got quite angry the second time whatever do you want your trousers for it's the middle of the light he cried why don't you lie down and go to sleep the next time I woke up Harris said he could not find his shoes and I can remember that once he pushed me over onto my side wherever cannot umbrella be he was saying chapter 14 work washing and fishing we woke up late the next morning and it was about 10 o'clock when we moved off we had already decided that we wanted to make this a good day's journey we agreed that we would row and not tow the boat Harris said that George and I should row and he would steer I did not like this idea at all I said that he and George should row so that I could rest a little I thought that I was doing too much of the work on this trip I was beginning to feel strongly about it I always think that I am doing too much work it is not because I do not like work I do like it I find it very interesting I can sit and look at it for hours you cannot give me too much work I like to collect it my study is full of it and I am very careful with my work too why some of the work in my study has been there for years and it has not got dirty or anything that is because I take care of it however although I love work I do not want to take other people's work from them but I get it without asking for it and this worries me George says that I should not worry about it in fact he thinks that perhaps I should have more work however I expect he only says that to make me feel better in a boat I have noticed that each person thinks that he is doing all the work Harris's idea was that both George and I had let him do all the work George said that Harris never did anything except eat and sleep he George had done all the work he said that he had never met such lazy people as Harris and me that a new Paris Gorge work he loved if George worked for half an hour it would kill him have you ever seen George work he had it and he turned to me I agreed with Harris that I had never seen George work well how can you know George answered Harris you're always asleep have you ever seen Harris awake except at mealtimes George asked me I had to tell the truth and agree with George Harris had done very little work in the boat oh come on I've done more than old Jay anyway Harris replied well it would be difficult to do less George added now him he thinks he's a passenger and doesn't need to work Harris said and that was how grateful they were to me after I had brought them and their old boat all the way up from Kingston after I had organized everything for them and after I had taken care of them finally we decided that Harris and George would row until we got past Redding and then I would tow the boat from there we reached reading at about eleven o'clock we did not stay long though because the river is dirty there however after that it becomes very beautiful goring on the left and strictly on the right are both very pretty places earlier we had decided to go on to Wallingford that day but the river was lovely at Streatley we left our boat at the bridge and we went into the village we had lunch at a little pub and Montmorency enjoyed that we stayed it Streatley for two days and we took our clothes to be washed we had tried to wash them ourselves in the river and George had told us what to do this was not a success before we washed them they were very very dirty but we could just wear them after we had washed them they were worse than before however the river between reading and Henley was cleaner because we had taken all the dirt from it and we had washed it into our clothes the woman who washed them at strictly made us pay three times the usual price we paid her and did not say a word about the cost the river near Streatley and goring is excellent for fishing you can sit and fish there all day some people do sit and fish all day they never catch any fish of course you may catch a dead cat or two but you will not catch any fish when you go for a walk by the river the fish come and stand half out of the water with their mouths open for bread and if you go swimming they all come and stare at you and get in your way but you cannot catch them on the second evening George and I and Montmorency I do not know where Harris was went for a walk to Wallingford on the way back to the boat we stopped at a little pub by the river we went in and sat down there was an old man there he was smoking a pipe and we began to talk to him he told us that it had been a fine day today and we told him that it had been a fine day yesterday then we all told each other that we thought it would be a fine day tomorrow we told him that we were on holiday on the river and that we were going to leave the next day then we stopped talking for a few minutes and we began to look round the room we noticed a glass case on the wall in it there was a very big fish the old man saw that we were looking at this fish ah he said that big fish isn't it yes it is I replied yes the old man continued it was 16 years ago I caught him just by the bridge - Dhruv ruler George asked yes the man answered they told me he was in the river I said I'd catch him and though he did you don't see many fish as big as that one now well good night then and he went out after that we could not take our eyes off the fish it really was a fine fish we were still looking at it when another man came in he had a glass of beer in his hand and he also looked at the fish but some fine big fish isn't it George said to him oh yes the man replied he drank some of his beer and then he added perhaps she weren't here when it was caught no we said and we explained that we did not live there we said that we were only there on holiday ah Wow the man went on it was nearly five years ago that I caught that fish oh did you catch it then I asked yes he replied I caught him by the lock well good night to you five minutes later a third man came in and described how he had caught the fish early one morning he left and another man came in and sat down by the window nobody spoke for some time then George turned to the man and said extremer I hope you don't mind but my friend and I who are only on holiday here would like to ask you Jim could you tell us how you caught that fish who told you that I caught that fish he asked we said that nobody had told us we just felt that he was the man who had caught it will it's very strange he answered with a little love you're right I did catch it and he went on to tell us how he had done it and that it had taken him half an hour to land it when he left the landlord came in to talk to us we told him the different stories we had heard about his fish he was very amused and we all laughed about it and then he told us the real story of the fish he said that he had caught it himself years ago when he was a boy it was a lovely sunny afternoon and instead of going to school he went fishing that was when he caught the fish everyone thought he was very clever even his teacher thought he had done well and did not punish him he had to go out of the room just then and we turned to look at the fish again George became very excited about it and he climbed up onto a chair to see it better and then George fell and he caught hold of the glass case to save himself it came down with George and the chair on top of it is the fish all right I cried I hope so George said he stood up carefully and looked round but the fish was lying on the floor in a thousand pieces it was not a real fish chapter 15 on to Oxford we left Streatley early the next morning we were going to column and we wanted to spend the night there between Streatley and Wallingford the river is not very interesting then from cleave there is quite a long piece of the river which has no locks most people are pleased about this because it makes everything much easier but I quite like locks myself I remember that George and I nearly had an accident in the lock once it was a lovely day and there were a lot of boats in the lock someone was taking a photograph of us all and the photographer was hoping to sell the picture to the people in the lock I did not see the photographer at first but suddenly George started to brush his trousers and he fixed his hair and put on his hat then he sat down with a kind but sad expression on his face and he tried to hide his feet my first idea was that he had seen a girl that he knew and I looked round to see who it was everybody in the lock had stopped moving and they all had fixed expressions on their faces all the girls were smiling prettily and all the men were trying to look brave and handsome then I saw the photographer and at once I understood I wondered if I would be in time our boat was the first one in the lock so I must look nice for the man's photograph so I turned round quickly and stood in the front of the boat I arranged my hair carefully and I tried to make myself look strong and interesting we stood and waited for the important moment when the man would actually take the photograph just then someone behind me called out hi look at your nose I could not turn round to see whose nose it was but I had a quick look at George's nose it seemed to be all right I tried to look at my own nose and that seemed to be alright to look at sure now's you stupid fool the voice cried again more loudly this time and then another voice called push your nose out yo toe weather dog we could not turn round because the man was just going to take the photograph was it us they were calling to what was the matter with our noses why did they want us to push them out but now everybody in the LOC started shouting and a very loud deep voice from the bat called look at your boat you in the red and black caps if you don't do something quickly there'll be two dead bodies in that photograph we looked then and we saw that the nose of our boat was caught in the wooden gate at the front of the Loch the water was rising and our boat was beginning to turn over quickly we pushed hard against the side of the Loch to move the boat the boat did move and George and I fell over on our backs we did not come out well in that photograph because the land took it just as we fell over we had expressions of where am I and what happened on our faces and we were waving our feet about wildly in fact our feet nearly filled the photograph you could not see much else nobody bought the photographs they said they did not want photographs of our feet the photographer was not very pleased we passed Wallingford and Dorchester and we spent the night at Clifton Hamden which is a very pretty little village the next morning we were up early because we wanted to be in Oxford by the afternoon by half-past eight we had finished breakfast and we were through Clifton lock at half-past twelve we went through a flea lock from there to Oxford is the most difficult part of the river first the river carries you to the right then to the left then it takes you out into the middle and turns around three times we got in the way of a lot of other boats a lot of other boats got in our way and a lot of bad words were used however at Oxford we had two good days there are a lot of dogs in the town a Montmorency had 11 fights on the first day and 14 on the second this made him very happy if you are thinking of taking a trip on the river and you are going to start from Oxford take your own boat unless you can take someone else's without being discovered the boats that you can hire on the Thames above Marlow are all right they do not let too much water in and they have seats and things but they are not really boats which you want people to see the person who hires one of these boats is the kind of person who likes to stay under the trees he likes to travel early in the morning or late at night when there are not many people about to look at him when he sees someone he knows he gets out of the boat and hides behind a tree I remember that some friends and I heard one of these boats one summer we had written to ask for a boat and when we arrived at the boathouse we gave our names the man said aureus and then he called out to another man Jim fetch the queen of the thames five minutes later jim came back with a very old piece of wood he had clearly just dug it up from a hole in the ground when he dug it up he had damaged it very badly we asked Jim what it was it's the queen of the thames he answered we laughed at this and then one of us said all right now go and fetch the real boat they said that this was the real boat chapter 16 the journey home we left Oxford on the third day to go back home the weather changed and when we left Oxford it was raining it continued to rain not heavily but all the time when the sun is shining the river turns everything into a golden dream but when it rains the river is brown and miserable it rained all day and at first we pretended we were enjoying it we said that it was a nice change we added that it was good to see the river in all kinds of weather Harris and I sang a song about how good it was to be free and to be able to enjoy the Sun and the rain George thought it was much more serious and he put up the umbrella before lunch he put the cover on the boat and it stayed there all afternoon we just left a little hole so that we could see out we stopped for the night just before days Locke and I cannot say that we spent a happy evening the rain came down without stopping everything in the boat was wet supper was not a success we were all tired of cold meat and we talked about our favourite foods when we passed the cold meat to Montmorency he refused our offer he went and sat at the other end of the boat alone we played cards after supper we played for about an hour and a half and George won ten pence Harris and I lost five pence each we decided to stop then because the game was getting too exciting after that we had some whiskey and we sat and talked George told us about a man he had known this man had slept on the river in a wet boat like ours and it had made him very ill ten days later the poor man died in great pain George said he was quite a young man so it was very sad then Harris remembered one of his friends who had camped out on a wet night when he woke up the next morning he was in great pain and he was never able to walk again so then of course we began to talk about other illnesses Harris said it would be very serious if one of us became he'll because we were a long way from a doctor after this we really needed something to make us feel a bit happier so George sang to us that really made us cry after that we could think of nothing else to do so we went to bed well we undressed and we'd lay down in the boat we tried to go to sleep but it was four hours before we did so at five o'clock we all woke up again so we got up and had breakfast the second day was the same as the first it rained all day we sat in our raincoats under the cover and we traveled slowly along the river I did try to sing again but it was not a success however we all agreed that we should continue our trip we had come to enjoy ourselves for a fortnight on the river and we were going to finish the trip if it killed us well that would be a sad thing for our friends and families but we would not give in to the weather it's only two more days Harris said and we are young and strong perhaps we'll be alright at about four o'clock we began to discuss our plans for that evening we were a little past goring then and we decided to go on to Pangborn and spend the night there another happy evening George said we sat and thought about it we would be in Pangborn by five o'clock we would finish our dinner by half-past six after that we could walk about the village in the rain or we could sit in a dark little pub it would be more interesting to go to the Alhambra Theatre in London Harris said and he looked out at the sky with supper afterwards at that little French restaurant I added yes I'm almost sorry we've decided to stay on the boat Harris said then we was silent for a time I know we've decided to stay and die on this boat George said but there is a train which leaves Pangborn soon after five o'clock we could be in London in time to get something to eat and afterwards we could go on to the theatre nobody said a word we looked at each other and we all felt badly about it we did not speak but we got out the bag we looked up the river and down the river there was nobody there 20 minutes later three figures and am ashamed dog quietly left the nearest boathouse and went towards the station we had told the boatman a lie we had asked him to take care of the boat for us until nine o'clock the next morning we said we would come back for it then however if only if something happened to stop us from coming back then we would write to him we reached Paddington Station at 7 o'clock and we drove straight to the restaurant we had a light meal and left Montmorency there then we went to the theatre for some reason everybody stared at us and this made us very happy perhaps it was because of our interesting clothes or because we looked so healthy afterwards we went back to the restaurant where supper was waiting for us we really did enjoy that supper for 10 days we had lived on cold meat and bread and not much else we act and drank without speaking and then we sat back and rested we felt good and thoughtful and kind then Harris who was sitting next to the window pulled back the curtain and looked out into the street it was still raining and it was dark and very wet one or two people hurried past the rain was running from their umbrellas and the women were holding up their long skirts Harris picked up his glass well he said we've had a good trip and I'm very grateful to old father Thames but I think we were right to give up and come back here's to three men well out of a boat and Montmorency stood on his back legs in front of the window looked out into the night and gave a short bark to show that he agreed [Music]

Channel: Story English with Subtitles

Views: 14,623

Rating: 4.7522125 out of 5

Keywords: english story, learn english through stories, learn english, english stories, story in english, learn english through story, bedtime stories, listen english story, listening english through story, english story with subtitle, english language, english conversation, english, learn to english, english for beginner, learning english, learn english for beginner, esl, pdf, Three Men In A Boat, Three Men In A Boat ( intermediate level ), Three Men In A Boat ( Level 4 )

Id: eTDp_IlzwaA

Length: 135min 15sec (8115 seconds)

Published: Mon Nov 12 2018