Packing - Three Men in a Boat - Jerome K. Jerome

 Jerome K. Jerome- excerpt from Three Men in a Boat (Packing Episode)

"Three Men in a Boat" is a humorous travelogue written by Jerome K. Jerome in 1889. The book recounts the misadventures of three friends—Jerome himself, George, and Harris—as they embark on a boating trip from Kingston upon Thames to Oxford. In the "Packing” Episode, the author presents how the friends struggle to pack their things for the trip.

As Jerome, Harris, and George are ready to set out on a journey, they start packing for it. Being the narrator, Jerome describes how the packing experience went. Jerome is quite confident with his packing skills as he handles it all alone. While in reality, he wishes to simply supervise the packing session while making his friends do the work under him. However, they listen to him and let him handle it all by himself, while they sit and relax. This does not impress Jerome; nonetheless, he gets to it.

Finally, after a long packing session, he packs the bag up while his friends watch him quietly do all the work. Soon, Harris tells him about the shoes that he did not pack and Jerome will have to reopen the bag to make space for them. Thus, after learning about the shoes, Jerome remembers his toothbrush which he did not pack. In order to find it, he empties the whole just for one toothbrush. Alas, he finds it inside a boot and packs the bag again.

After that, one more query arises for the soap by George. Consequently, this irritates Jerome so much that he does not heed it and packs the bag anyway. However, to his mistake, he has to reopen it again due to his spectacles being locked inside the bag. This packing session finally concludes at 10 o’clock.

So, after taking such a long time to pack, Jerome’s other two friends pack the hampers themselves to show him how it’s actually done. However, they are also similarly gawky and break many things including a cup into pieces. Further, they squash tomatoes and tread on butter while also smashing the pies. In addition, there is salt flying here and there during this process. Thus, after much chaos, they try to put things back in order.

However, it is not as successful as their pet dog, Montmorency, worsens things. He sits on things meant to be packed and climbs into the jam as well as crushes lemons as if they were rats. But, finally, the final packing ends at around 12:50 in the night. After a tiring packing session, they decide the time to get up for the next morning and George dozes off before engaging in this conversation. In the end, Jerome and Harris mark 6:30 as the wake-up time and go off to sleep.

Jerome humorously details the absurdities and challenges the friends face as they try to decide what to bring, what to leave behind, and how to fit everything into their small boat. This episode is emblematic of Jerome's comedic style, characterized by sharp observations of everyday life and the quirks of human behaviour.