Three Men in a Boat

RVED OAK AND LIFE IN GENERAL. - SAD CASE OF STIVVINGS,JUNIOR. - MUSINGS ON ANTIQUITY. - I

the dainty sheen of grass and leaf is blushing to a deepergreen; and the year seems li

wooded towpath, the trim-kept villason the other side, Harris, in a red and orange blazer, grunting away atthe sculls, the distant glimpses of the grey old palace of the Tudors,

esar crossed the riverthere, and the Roman legions camped upon its sloping uplands. Caesar,like, in later years, Elizabeth

not seem to have looked in at, or stopped at, or slept at, some timeor other. I wonder now, supposing Harris, say, turned over a new leaf,and

e inDecember, 1886."No, there would be too many of them! It would be the houses that he hadnever entered that would become famous. "On

ybe boar's head stuffedwith sugar-plums did not agree with him (it wouldn't with me, I know),and he had had eno

g thecalm moonlight on the river, while from the distant halls the boi

quiet room,and hurl coarse insults at the sweet-faced Queen, a

t Ferry, ho! Gadzooks, gramercy."Many of the old houses, round about, speak very plainly of those dayswhen Kingston was a royal borough, and nobles and courtiers lived there,near their King, and the long road to the palace gates was gay all daywith clanking steel and prancing palfreys, and rustling silks andvelvets, and fair faces. The large and spacious houses, with t

a shop now, in themarket-place, but it was evidently once the mansion of some greatpersonage. A friend of mine, who lives at Kin

sort of thing, asked our hero if he wouldlike to see some fine old carved oak. My friend said he would, and theshopman, thereupon, took him through the shop, and up the

ng though cheerful paper ofa blue ground. There was nothing, however, remarkable about theapartment, and my friend w

match-board it allover first, of course. But the room looks cheerful now. It was awfulgloomy before."I can't say I altogether blame the man (which is doubtless a great reliefto his mind). From his point of view, which would be that of the averagehouseholder, desiring to take life as lig

m panelled with it, while people who do carefor it have to pay enormous prices to get it. It seems to

out that they can't get them. Poor people who can hardlykeep themselves have eight

without them, that they bother them,and why don't they go and make love to Miss Smith and Miss Brown, who a

well on these things;

school, we used to call

and as for French irregularverbs there was simply no keeping him away from them. He was full ofweird and unnatural notions about being a credit to his parents and anhonour to the school;

here was any known disease going within ten miles of him, hehad it, and had it badly. He would take bronchitis in the dog-days, andhave hay-fever at Christm

it turned to neuralgia and ear-ache. He was neverwithout a cold, except once for nine weeks while he had scarlet fever;and he always had chilblains. During t

ndhot-house grapes; and he would lie there and sob, because they wouldn

e fooled about in draughts, and it did us good,and freshened us up; and we took things to make us sick, and they made usfat, and gave us an appetite. Nothing we could think of seemed to makeus ill until the holidays began. Then, on the br

t as grass that is cut down,

ust have had very fairnotions of the artistic a

is only the halo of age glowing around them thatgives them their charms in our eyes. The "old blue" that we hang aboutour walls as ornaments were the common every-day household utensils of afew centuries ago; and the pink shepherds an

es be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great inthe years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and thebeautiful gold flower inside (species unk

my furnished lodgings. Itis a white dog. Its ey

myself. Considered as a work ofart, I may say it irritates me. Thoughtless friends jeer at it, and evenmy land

tail broken, andwill be sold for old china, and put in a glass cabinet. And people willpass it round, and admire it. They will be st

ow we did it, andsay how clever we were. We shall be referred to lovingly as "those grandold artists that flourished in the nineteenth century, and produced thosechina dogs."The "sampler" that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as"tapestry of the Victorian era," and be almost priceless. The blue-and-white mugs of the

dsat on his back, and stuck his legs in the air. Montmorency howled, andtu

but I did not lose my temp

ression, especially in a man who has been carefullybrought up, as I know Harris has been. I was thinking of other things,and forgot, as any one might easily understand, that I was steering, andthe consequence wa

ass it without feelingbetter for the sight of it. Such a mellow, bright, sweet old wall; whata charming picture it would make, with the lichen creeping here, and themoss growing there, a shy young vine peeping over the top at this spot,to see what is going

looks sopeaceful and so quiet, and it is such a dear old place t

essing in theevening, when your lamp cast uncanny shadows on the panelled walls, andthe echo of distant feet rang through the

e sun, we men and women.

nough: but in the night, when our Mother Earthhas gone to sleep, and left us waking, oh! the world seems so lonesome,and we get frightened, like children in a silent house. Then we sit andsob, and long for the gas-lit streets, and the s

and light huge bonfires of amillion gas-jets

map, and it was so simple that it seemed foolish - hardly worth thetwopence charged for admission. Harris said he thought that map musthave been

aking the firstturning to the right. We'll just walk round for ten minutes, and then goand get some lunch."They met some peo

just goingin, and then should turn round and come out again. T

ing either in or out, or of everseeing their home and friends again, plucked up courage at the sight ofHarris and his party, and joined the procession, blessing him. Harrissaid he sh

but it seemed a long way, and hiscousin

e largest in Eur

round that Harris'scousin swore he had noticed there seven minutes ago. Harris said: "Oh,impossible!" but the woman with the baby said, "Not at all," as sheherself had taken it from the child, and thrown it down

back to the entrance, and begin again. For the beginning again partof it there was not much enthusiasm; but with regard to the advisabilityof going back to the entrance there w

as what he had beenaiming at; but the crowd looked

wherethey were, and the map was once more consulted, and the thin

later they were back

ople stopped there, and waited for the others to takea walk round, and come back to them. Harris drew out his map again,after a while, but the sight of it only i

he keeper, and the man cameand climbed up the la

pable of grasping anything, and so the man told them tostop where they were, and he w

o them, and then HE got lost. They caught sight of him, everynow and then, rushing about the other side of the hedge, and he would seethem, and rush to

the old keepers came back fro

so far as he was a judge;and we agreed that we wou