Kitabı oku: «Трое в лодке, не считая собаки / Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)», sayfa 3
“If you want rest and change,” said Harris, “let’s make a sea trip.”
I objected to the sea trip strongly. I was afraid for George. George said that he felt sure we should both be ill.
It is a curious fact, but nobody ever is seasick – on land. At sea, you come across18 plenty of people very bad indeed, whole boat of them; but I never met a man yet, on land, who had ever known at all what it was to be sea-sick.
For myself19, I have discovered an excellent preventive against sea-sickness, in balancing myself. You stand in the centre of the deck, and you move your body about, so as to keep it always straight. When the front of the ship rises, you lean forward, till the deck almost touches your nose; and when its back end gets up, you lean backwards. This is all very well for an hour or two; but you can’t balance yourself for a week.
George said:
“Let’s go up the river.”
He said we should have fresh air, exercise and quiet; and the hard work would give us a good appetite, and make us sleep well.
Harris said he didn’t think George ought to do anything that would make him sleepier than he always was, as it might be dangerous. He might just as well be dead, and so save his board and lodging20.
Harris and I both said it was a good idea of George’s. The only one who was not struck with the suggestion was Montmorency.
“It’s all very well for you fellows,” he says; “you like it, but I don’t. There’s nothing for me to do. If you ask me, I call the whole thing foolishness.”
We were three to one21, however.
Chapter II
We pulled out the maps, and discussed plans. We arranged to start on the following Saturday from Kingston22. Harris and I would go down in the morning, and take the boat up to Chertsey 23, and George would meet us there.
Should we ‘camp out’ or sleep at inns?
George and I were for camping out. We said it would be so wild and free, so patriarchal.
Harris said:
“How about when it rained?”
Camping out in rainy weather is not pleasant. We therefore decided that we would sleep out on fine nights; and in hotels and inns, like respectable folks, when it was wet. Montmorency approved this compromise. To look at Montmorency you would imagine that he was an angel sent upon the earth, for some reason in the shape of a small fox-terrier. When first he came to live with me, I never thought I should be able to have him long. I used to sit down and look at him, and think: “Oh, that dog will never live.” But I was wrong.
