1 English ( Three Men in a Boat ) for Class 9

The act of tresspassing

Harris and Jim stopped under the willows by Kempton Park and lunched. It was a pleasant little spot. They had just begun to eat the bread and jam when a gentleman in a short sleeves and a short pipe came along. He asked them if they knew that they were tresspassing and told them that it was his duty to turn them off. Harris was a well- made man and looked hard and bony. He asked the gentleman how he would accomplish his task. He said that he would consult his master and went away. He never returned. Actually he wanted a shilling and was trying to blackmail them. But both Harris and Jim were angry and blamed the owners who allowed that to happen. The narrator wanted to kill the owner, but Harris wanted to kill him, his family, friends, relatives, and bum down his house. Harris decided to calm himself by singing a comic songs of the ruins.

Harris as a singer

It was one of Harris’ fixed ideas that he could sing a comic song. But 1l his friends knew that he could not sing, and would never be able to sing, and that he should not be allowed to sing. Harris did not know that he made an ass of himself when he Sang. He did not realise that he annoyed many.

A German singer

Jim was reminded of an incident which threw light on the inner working of human mind. Once he was at a fashionable and highly cultured party. There were two young students who had come back from Germany. They asked if they had heard Herr Slossenn Boschen sing his great German comic song. No one had heard it. The young man said that it was the funniest song that had ever been written. They could get Herr Slossenn Boschen to sing it. They brought him and he sat down to the piano and began to sing. The prelude did not suggest a comic song. It was a soulful music. The narrator who did not understand German simply watched the two young men. When they tittered, the narrator tittered; when they roared, he also roared. He noticed that as the song progressed, most of the listeners seemed to be doing the same. Yet the German professor did not seem happy. He was surprised when they began to Laugh. As the listeners continued to laugh, he got angry and ended his song amidst their laughter. He got up, swore at them, and then danced and shook his fists. He said that he had never been so insulted in all his life.

Grave misunderstanding

It appeared that the song was not comic at all. It was about a young girl who had given UP her life to save her lover’s soul. It was a tragic song. The two young men who had done this thing disappeared. They had taken their revenge for being considered common persons. The narrator never saw a party break up so quietly. They did not say goodnight to one another.

Different places

They reached Sunburry Lock at half-past three. And then they sculled up to Walton and went past Oatlands Park, a famous old place. Henry VIII lived here. The late Duchess of York who lived at Oatlands, was very fond of dogs. She had a special graveyard made for the large number of dogs she had kept. At Weybridge they saw George’s blazer on one of the lock gates.

George joins in

Montmorency gave a furious bark, Jim shrieked and Harris roared. George waved his hat and yelled back. The lock keeper rushed out thinking that someone had fallen into the lock. George had a banjo with him. He thought that it was very easy to learn the banjo.

The narrator’s dress sense

The river afforded a good opportunity for dress. Men could reflect their  tastes in colours. The narrator liked a little red in all his things-red and black. His hair was a sort of golden brown. So the dark red matched  with his hair. A light blue necktie went well with it. A pair of Russian-leather shoes and a red silk handkerchief round the waist added charm to his personality.

Harris’ dress sense

Harris kept to shades a mixture of orange or yellow but in his opinion they didn’t suit him well. His complexion was too dark for yellows, but he didn’t pay attention to any suggestion.

George’s dress sense

George had bought some new things for this trip, but the narrator was rather vexed about them. The blazer was gaudy. He did not want George to know about his opinion. The narrator and Harris were worried about it because it would attract attention to the boat.

Girls in a boat

Girls also didn’t  look bad in a boat ,if they were prettily dressed .But he was of the opinion that a boating dress  ought to be a dress that can be worn in a boat’. The narrator once went with  two Ladies of this kind. They were both beautifully dressed. But they were dressed for a photographic studio, not for a river picnic. The first thing that they thought was that the boat was not clean. They thought that a drop of water would ruin their dress. Jim was stroke. He did his best, but could not prevent a few drops of water falling on their clothes. He left his seat and asked another man to row. The ladies felt relieved, but when the man spread more than a pint of water on their dresses, they began to protect themselves with their umbrellas and drew rugs and coats over themselves.

The narrator’s dislike of tombs

Harris wanted to get out at Hampton Court and visit Mrs. Thomas’s tomb. The writer objected to it. He is reminded of his visit to a village church. It was a lovely landscape. Suddenly the narrator looked up and saw an old bald-headed man coming to him. He was carrying a huge bunch of keys in his hand that shook and jingled at every step. He insisted that Jim should see the tomb. Jim protested. The old bald-headed man persisted and requested him to see the memorial windows. He burst into tears and asked Jim to see the skulls at least. Jim had to run away from the scene.

Harris’ liking for old places

Harris who was interested in tombs, graves, epitaphs and monuments revealed that he had joined the trip to see Mrs. Thomas’s Tomb. Jim reminded him that they had to reach Shepperton by five o’clock to meet George. This made Harris angry and he said why George had not taken the day off and joined them at the start. He further remarked that he had never seen him doing any work.

Mishap with Harris

Harris wanted to go to the pub to have a drink. Jim told him that they were miles away from a pub. He told Hams to take out a bottle from the hamper. The bottle was at the bottom of the hamper and seemed difficult to find and he had to lean further and further. In trying to steer at the same time, he pulled the wrong line and sent the boat into the bank. This upset him and he dived down right into the hamper and stood there on his head holding on the sides of the boat. He had to stay there till the narrator got hold of his legs and hauled him back.

Importance of Kingston
It was a glorious morning, late spring or early summer when every leaf was green. Kingston or ‘Kymingeston’, as it was called earlier, was known ?‘ many great kings. Great Caesar crossed the river there. The Roman kings camped upon its sloping uplands. Queen Elizabeth had stopped there.

History of Kingston
Many old houses there spoke of those days when nobles and courtiers lived there. They lived in red brick houses. They had oak stairs that did not creak. The writer was reminded of a magnificent carved oak staircase in one of the houses of Kingston. It was a shop now in the marketplace, but it was evidently the mansion of some great person. The shopkeeper once took his friend through the shop and up the staircase of his house. The wall all the way up was oak-panelled. The friend was surprised to see the house. The oak- panelling was covered with blue wall-paper. The owner said that the room looked cheerful now. It was awfully gloomy before.
Jim felt sad to think, ’’Each person has what he doesn’t want and other people have what he does want.”

The story of Stivvings
Jim remembered a boy at his school. He was called Standford and Merton. His real name was Stivvings. He was the most extraordinary lad. He loved studies. He desired to win prizes and grow up to be a clever man. He wanted to bring credit to his parents. But he used to fall ill about twice a week and couldn’t go to school. If there was any known disease going within ten miles of him, he had it and had it badly. He had to stay in bed when he was ill, and eat chickens and custards and hot-house grapes. The other boys would have sacrificed ten terms of their school-life for the sake of being ill for a day. They took things to make them ill, instead they made them fat. Nothing made them ill until the holidays began. Then they would fall III till the term recommenced, when they would suddenly get well again.

The journey to Hampton Court
Jim now began to think about life. He thought how the art treasures of today were only the dug- up commonplaces of three or four hundred years ago. His thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Hams. He threw away the sculls, got up, and left his seat and sat on his back and stuck his legs in the air. Montmorency howled and turned a somersault and the top hamper jumped up and all the things came out. Harris wanted Jim to scull. Jim ran the boat round the walls of Hampton Court. It looked peaceful and quiet.

The maze
Harris asked Jim if he had ever seen the maze at Hampton Court. Harris said that he went in once to show it to someone. He had studied the map and thought that it was vety simple to come out. There they met some people who wanted to come out. Harris told them to follow him. They went round and round but could not find the way out Then Harris did not know what to do. So he Suggested that the best thing was to go back to the entrance. They started again but failed to find the Way out. They all got crazy and called the keeper. He came and gave instructions to them. But they could not understand anything. The young keeper also got lost with them. Then the old keeper came after dinner and rescued them. Harris said that it was a very fine maze. Harris and Jim agreed that they would try to get George into it, On their way back.

George fails in his duty
The narrator was woken up by his housekeeper, Mrs Poppets, at nine o’clock in the morning. He woke Harris up and both began to accuse each other for not waking each other up. Soon they realised that George who took the responsibility of waking them up at 6.30 in the morning was still asleep. He was snoring. They were angry with him and rushed to him. Harris landed him one with a slipper and Jim shouted in his ear. George woke up. “Get up, you fat-headed chunk!” said Harris, “It’s quarter to ten” . He got up and fell into the bath-tub.

Weather -Forecasts
Montmorency had invited two other dogs and they were whiling away their time by fighting with each other on the doorstep. They calmed them with an umbrella and sat down to take their breakfast. George got hold of the paper and read the ‘weather— forecast’ to them. The writer thought that the ‘weather4orecast’ was a fraud. It was generally wrong. He remembered a lovely day that was ruined by the forecast “Heavy showers with thunderstorms may be expected”. They didn’t go out that day. But it did not rain at all. The next morning they read that it was going to be a warm and ‘fair’ day, but they returned home drenched. The barometer was useless.

Getting ready
The friends carted out their luggage on to the doorstep and waited for a cab. They  seemed to have a good deal of luggage. No cab came by, but the street boys stopped there to look at the luggage. Biggs’ boy was the first to arrive. Biggs, their green grocer, secured the services of the most unprincipled errand-boys that civilization had ever produced. He came to a dead stop in front of their luggage. And then another boy stopped there. Then the young gentleman from the boot-shop stopped there. Soon a small crowd collected there. One party thought that it was a wedding and pointed out Harris as the bridegroom, while the party of elders thought that it was a funeral, and the writer was probably the corpse’s brother. Finally, a cab turned up and they went to the Waterloo station. Nobody knew at Waterloo where the eleven-five train to Kingston started from.

Train journey to Kingston
They gave bribe to the engine driver and begged him to reach Kingston by 11. .5. Thus they reached Kingston by the London and South-Western Railway. They learnt, afterwards, that the train they had come by was really the Exeter Mail and they had spent hours looking for it.

The boat journey begins
Their boat was waiting for them at Kingston just below the bridge. They stored their luggage in it and stepped in. With Harris at the sculls, and the writer at the tiller-lines, and Montmorency in the prow, they shot out on to the waters. it was to be their home for a fortnight.

The food question
Now the friends discussed the food question. George said, “Begin with breakfast. Now for breakfast we shall want a frying pan, a tea-pot and a kettle, and a methylated stove, but no oil”. Harris and Jim agreed. George was practical.

Oil stove
They had taken an oil stove with them once, but would not commit this mistake again. The oil oozed down to the rudder and into the river and spoiled the whole atmosphere. Even the wind brought with it the fragrance of paraffin oil. They took an oath never to take paraffin oil with them.

Smell of the cheeses
George suggested that they should take with them eggs, bacon, cold meat, tea, bread and butter and jam. They would not take cheese because cheese, like oil, gave strong smell. The narrator remembered a friend who had bought a couple of cheese of Liverpool. He asked the narrator to take those cheeses to London. He took them away in a cab. The smell of the cheeses made the horses run at a very fast speed. They were beyond control. But a clever porter put a handkerchief over the horse’s nose in order to control his speed. The narrator then caught a train. In the train, people felt so uncomfortable with the smell that they moved out of the bogey in which he was sitting. His friend was detained in Liverpool longer than he expected. Three days later, his wife called on him. Even she hated the smell of the cheeses. She did not keep it in her room in a hotel. Finally, Tom took them to a sea-side town, and buried them on the beach.

Packing begins
The next day, they got all things together and met in the evening to pack them. They got a big Gladstone for the clothes, and a couple of hampers for the food items, and the cooking utensils. They placed everything in a heap, in the middle of the floor and sat round it. The narrator said that he would pack. He thought that he knew more about it than any other. His two friends readily agreed. He felt annoyed because he did not like others doing nothing.

Wrong packing
However he packed the things. When he was Strapping the bag, Harris said, “Aren’t you going to put the boots in ?“ The narrator got irritated. George’s senseless laughs increased his irritation. The narrator had to unpack the bag and put the boots in when he finally packed. George and Harris Came forward to do the hampers. Jim began to look at them. Firstly they broke a cup, and then Hams squashed a tomato. They became so nervous that they placed light things at the bottom and heavy things on the top. The preserves got smashed. Harris sat on the butter. They wanted buffer but could not find it. At last they found it on Harris’ back.

Montmorency’s misdeeds
Montmorency was in it all, of course. He put his leg into the jam and he pretended that the lemons were rats, and got into the hamper and killed three of them before Harris could land him with a frying pan. The packing was done at 12.50 at midnight. They were ready to sleep. Harris was to sleep with them and they went upstairs. They asked George to wake them up at 6.30. But George was asleep at that time. They placed the bath tub where he could tumble into it on getting out in the morning and went to bed themselves.

The things for the trip
The next evening, the friends met to discuss and chalk out their plans. Harris said that the first thing to settle was what to take with them. He asked the narrator (Jim) to get a piece of paper and write down, grocery catalogue. Then Harris seemed eager everything on himself back of other people.

Uncle Podger
Harris reminded the narrator (Jim) of his poor Uncle Podger. There was a lot of commotion in the house when Uncle Podger undertook to do a job. He involved all the members of the family when he was hanging a picture on the wall. He would lift up the picture and drop it, and it would come out of the frame, and he would try to save the glass and cut his finger, and then he would look for his handkerchief. He could not find it because it was in the pocket of his coat and he was sifting on it. And then he would shout, “oh, you can give it up, I have found it myself now.” Then he would ask for the hammer. When all the members did not find it, he would again shout at them.  After several mishaps, he would be able to hang the picture on the wall at midnight. The wall would be in shambles. He would, then, come down after hanging the picture and survey the mess that he had created and say proudly, “Why, some people would have had a man in to do a little thing like that”. Jim thought that Harris would be exactly like Uncle Podger when he grew up.

Travelling light
The first list that the friends made had to be discarded because it was too long. George suggested that they should make a list of those things that they couldn’t do without. Jim remarked that George sometimes came out with sensible Suggestion. He then commented that many people loaded their boats with unnecessary and useless things. He opined that the boat of life should be light. A person should take along with him only those things which were needed. He should take with him one or two friends, someone to love and someone to love you, a cat, a dog and a pipe or two, enough food and sufficient clothes and drinks. He would find the boat easier to pull.

Individual tastes
George was to prepare the list and he said that they would carry a boat cover instead of a tent. Both George and Harris proclaimed that they loved an early morning swim. Jim did not like to get up early in the morning and thus hated an early morning swim. Harris said that it always gave him an appetite. George did not want him to have a swim because in that case, he would eat more.
Jim persuaded George to let Harris have a bath. George, then, told them that two suits of flannel would be enough. They would wash them on the river. Jim and Harris came to know later on that George was an imposter and he knew nothing about washing and clothes.

Planning the trip
After taking the decision of having a boat trip along the river, the friends began to plan it. They planned to start from Kingston on Saturday and George would join them at Chertsey in the afternoon, when his bank closed. They debated about the stay at night. George and the narrator wished to ‘camp out’ at night. The narrator insisted on it. He became poetical about the sun setting in the evening, and the birds becoming silent. He went into a nostalgic mood and described how they would tie their boat in a corner and pitch their tent and eat a small meal. They would Listen to the song of the flowing river. They would lie down under the starry sky. His description of the natural scenery showed that civilization was taking man away from the lap of nature.

Harris’ objection
The poetic mood of the narrator was interrupted by Harris who asked, “How about when it rained ?“ Harris used to weep whenever he ate raw Onions. Harris was fond of drinks. For him that place was the best where he could get a drink. But he was right in his opinion that it was unpleasant to Camp out in rainy weather. It was tedious and hopeless to attempt to make wood fire. So they would have to light a stove to cook food. The bread’ be soaked in rain water. The pie, the jam, the butter and salt would become rich with rainwater.

Problems in a rain
You would wake up from your sleep because you felt that an elephant was sitting on your chest. You would feel that the world had come to an end because you heard faint cries coming from under your bed. Then suddenly you realised that the tent had fallen down. In the morning all the three Mends would be speechless owing to severe cold that they caught in the night. They would quarrel with one another and shout at one another.

Montmorency, the dog
So they took the decision that they would sleep out for five nights in a hotel or a pub when it rained. Even Montmorency, the dog, hailed this decision. He looked like a fox-terrier having a gentle look in his eyes. When the narrator had owned the dog he had thought that he would not live long. But after paying for a dozen chickens that he had killed, and rescuing him from a hundred and fourteen street fights, listening to the angry neighbour whose cat he had killed, the narrator changed his opinion about the dog. The only thing that was yet to be decided was what to take along with them. Harris came with a suggestion that he knew a place where they would get excellent Irish whisky. George said that he felt thirsty. The debate was adjourned to the following night . all the three put on their hats.

Three friends
George, Harris and the narrator were friends. All the three considered themselves to be seriously ill. They felt seedy. They met to discuss how to deal with their problems. George and Harris thought they suffered from fits of giddiness. 

But the narrator was sure that he suffered from the ailment of liver. He was certain about his ailment because he had recently been reading a patent liver-pill circular. He had been in the habit of imagining, after reading patent medicine advertisements, that he had the same symptoms of the ailment as described in them.

Visit to the British Museum 
One day, the narrator went to the British Museum. There he consulted a medical dictionary and went through every disease alphabetically. After reading it, he was convinced that he suffered from every disease mentioned in the dictionary. 

He thought that the only disease that he did not suffer from was the disease of the housemaid’s knee (arthritis) though he suffered from ‘gout’ in the extreme form. He thought that the students of the medical colleges would not have to ‘walk the hospitals’ if they had him as a patient. He was a hospital himself.

The doctor’s advice
He went to the doctor who was his friend. He his pulse, looked at his tongue and examined thoroughly. The doctor, then, prescribed medicines . He went to the chemist to get the medicines. 

The chemist refused to give him the prescribed medicines by saying that he was only a chemist The narrator read the prescription. The medicines prescribed were “one pound beefsteak, with one pint bitter beer every six hours, a ten-mile walk every morning and sleep at 11 sharp every night.”

Plan for a boat-trip
The narrator, then, said that he suffered from a weak liver even as a boy. The disease never left him even for a day. The family considered it laziness and cured it by giving him clumps on the side of his head. The friends described to each other their maladies. They came to the conclusion that the remedy for their maladies was ‘rest’ and a holiday. 

They should seek out some old—world spot far away from the crowd. They discussed a sea trip but the narrator was strongly opposed to it. He gave a graphic detail of what happened to his brother-in-law and a friend who went to sea-trips. 

George seemed to be the only person who liked sea-trips and he boasted about it He, finally, put forward a suggestion : “Let’s go up the river a boat trip” . They all agreed with this suggestion. The only one who did not accept this suggestion was Montmorency — the dog. But his objection was ruled out.

Answer the following questions in detail:

Q1. Describe the three men’s reaction when they saw. “The pride of the Thames.”

Ans. The three friends went to hire a boat where the boy showed them one and called it ‘The pride of the Thames’. It was supposed to be a good sailing boat but it looked as an old fashioned chunk of wood. The writer described it as if it had been recently dug out of somewhere and dug carelessly getting damaged in the process. He, on first seeing thought it to be a Roman relic of a coffin and later addressing the lad he called it his (the lad’s) mother’s washing tub. Seeing it they reacted desperately and asked if it was a fossil of a pre-Ademits whale.

Q2. What made the writer and Harris decide to give up gambling?

Ans. After supper they played penny nap for about an hour and a half, by the end of which time George had won four pence as he is always lucky at cards. Harris and the writer lost exactly two pence each. Then they gave up gambling as Harris said it breeds an unhealthy excitement when carried too far. George offered to go on and give them their revenge, but Harris and the writer decided not to gamble any further against fate.

Q3. Describe how they felt about having dinner at Pangbourne.

Ans. The Three friends decided to abandon the boat and to return to their homes two days before their holiday was to end. George told them that there was a train that leaves Pangbourne soon after five which would land them in town in a comfortable time to get a chop and then go to Alhambra, provided they had not made up their minds to contract their certain deaths in this ‘bally old coffin’ (the boat) They reached Pangbourne at seven and drove straight to the restaurant. They had a hearty supper and drank a toast to ‘Three Men Well out of A Boat’. They had been living on cold meat, cake and bread and jam for about ten days. Now they enjoyed the delicious dinner at the restaurant and left.

Q4. Narrate the beauty of the river as described by the writer.

Ans. The writer explains to us the beauty of the river with changing moods. When it was sunny, he describes– the river-with the sunlight flashing from its dancing wavelets, gilding gold the grey-green beech-trunks, glinting through the dark, cool wood paths, chasing shadows over the shallows, flinging diamonds from the mill-wheels, throwing kisses to the lilies and making the air soft with glory seems to be a golden fairy stream. But when it begins to rain he calls it chill and weary with the ceaseless rain-drops falling on its brown and sluggish waters, with a sound as of a woman weeping low in some dark chamber; while the woods, all dark and silent stand like ghosts.

Q5. Why can’t the writer honestly say, “we had a merry evening”?

Ans. The writer and his friends did not feel happy as the rain poured down with quiet persistency. Everything in the boat was damp and clammy. Supper was not a success. Cold veal pie is apt to cloy when one does not feel hungry. The writer wanted white bait and a cutlet, Harris babbled of soles and white-sauce, and passed the remains of his pie to Montmorency, who apparently felt insulted of the offer, went ant sat over at the other end of the boat by himself. Thus the writer felt troublesome due to bad weather and continuous rain and so they could not enjoy a happy evening.

Q6. State your opinion about the decision of the three men to finish rest of the journey by train.

Ans. In our opinion the three friends made the right decision to finish their boat journey and to return home by train. It rained continuously, all the goods, food and clothes were wet. It could have resulted in their falling ill seriously. It was inconvenient, depressing and foolish to keep on boating in such a bad weather. They did not tell the boatman that they were running away because of the rain, rather they instructed him to stay ready at nine next morning. They left the boat and all it contained in his charge and told him if something unforeseen happens, they would write to him stating they would return or not.

Answer the following questions in detail:   Q1. What happened to the boat when they were posing for a photograph?

Ans. When George and the writer were posing for their photographs, their boat had got fixed with its nose under the wood work of the lock while the incoming water was rising all around it and tilting it up. In another moment they should have been over. Very quickly they seized on oar and a vigorous blow against the side of the lock with the buttend released the boat, and sent them sprawling on their backs.

Q2. How did the photograph actually turn out?

Ans. Their photographs did not turn out well. As both of them were lying on their backs in boat and their legs stuck straight upwards at the moment, only their legs were visible in their photographs. If the man should have set his wretched machine in motion at the precise moment, their photographs would have been in order.

Q3. Why is the bit of river between Iffley and Oxford difficult to manage?

Ans. Between Iffley and oxford, is the most difficult bit of the river. It is very difficult to understand this bit of water unless you are born on it. The writer tells us that he has been over it several times, but he found himself unable to understand it. first the current drives you on the right bank and then on to the left, then it takes you out into the middle turns you round three times and carries you up stream again and ends by trying to smash you up against a college barge. As a consequence, the writer got in the way of other boats and other boats in theirs and thus a lot of bad language occurred.

Q4. What different views had the writer formed about “Barley Mow.”?

Ans. The writer suggests if somebody has to spend a night on land at Clifton, Barley Mow is the best place for him to stay at. It is the quaintest and most old-world inn up the river. It stands on the right of the bridge, quite away from the village. Its low-pitched gables, thatched roof and latticed windows give it quite a story-book appearance while inside it is even still more once-upon-a-timeyfied. But it would not be a good place for the heroine of a modern novel to stay at. The heroine of a modern novel is always “divinely tall”, and she is ever “drawing herself up to her full height.” At the “Barley Mow” she would bump her head against the ceiling while doing so. Thus the writer has different views for different people for staying there.

Q5. “The air of the river is demoralising”. Comment on the remark of the writer.

Ans. The writer is unaware of the reason why everybody is always so exceptionally irritable on the river. A little mishap that you would hardly notice on dry land, drive you nearly mad with anger, when it occures on the water. When Harris or George makes an ass of himself on dry land, the writer smiles indulgently, but when they behave in a chuckle-head way on the river, he uses the most blood-curdling language for them. When another boat gets in his way, he feels as he wants to take oar and kill all the people in it. The mildest tempered people on land, become violent and blood-thirsty when in a boat. The writer means that the atmosphere of a river, due to bad language of everybody on sail, has a demoralising effect upon one’s temper.

Q1. Sketch the character of Mr. W. Lee.

Ans. The writer describes that in Helen’s Church, at Abingdon, it is recorded that W. Lee, who died in 1637, “had in his life-time issue from his loins two hundred lacking but three.” If you work this out you will find that Mr. W. Lee’s family consisted of one hundred and ninety-seven members. Mr. Lee had been five times Mayor of Abingdon. Undoubtedly he was a benefactor to his generation. The writer considers that there are not many of his kind about in this overcrowded nineteenth century.

Q2. Explain human nature on being photographed.

Ans. Through the incident of a photographer taking photographs of the people in their boats and launches, we come to know about vanity of human nature. The people in the boats were trying to put up a pose that suited them best in their photographs. George and the writer also did the same. They became so involved that they forgot where they were or where their boat was. Even they narrowly escaped after a violent blow when their boat’s nose had got fixed under wood work of the lock. When the photographs finally came up nobody was ready to buy them, for nothing was visible in them except the four feet of George and the writer who were lying on their backs with some wild expressions on their faces.

Q3. Give examples to illustrate that even the mildest tempered people become irritated when sailing in a boat.

Ans. The writer gives us several examples why everybody while sailing about on a river becomes irritable. Even a little mishap that we otherwise ignore on dry land, drive us crazy on a river. The writer himself feels irritated when George or Harris makes a fool of himself while sailing their boat and he uses blood-curdling language where as he smiles indulgently when they do so on earth. When another boat comes in their way he wants to pick up an oar and kill all the people on it. Even the mildest tempered people on land, becomes violent and blood-thirsty when in a boat. The writer is reminded of a young, sweet by nature and gentle lady who once did boating with him. It was quite awful to hear her while boating. When some unfortunate sculled got in her way, she exclaimed, “oh, drat the man! why don’t he look where he’s going?” and “oh, bother the silly old thing!” Thus the air of the river had a demoralising effect upon one’s temper to use such absurd language.