Introduction

The book Three Men in a Boat has a chapter called “Packing.” The story is all about learning how to pack. It tells about a funny thing that happened when the narrator, George, and Harris were getting ready for a boat trip. At first, the three friends try to show off how well they can pack, but they don’t know how to do it. Because of this, they and the narrator’s dog, Montmorency, make a mess of everything.

Summary

Jerome, who tells the story, was proud of his packing. The narrator and his friends George and Harris were going on a trip. The narrator was proud of how well he could pack, so he told his friends that he would pack for them. They took him up on his offer right away and relaxed while the narrator got to work. The person telling the story did not want to pack. Instead, he wanted his friends to help him pack. He would just watch over them and show them how to do it right. But his friends took his offer in the wrong way. George put his feet up on the table and sat back in the easy chair. The person telling the story was left alone to pack. When the narrator saw how happy his friends were, it made him mad. When he was working, the narrator didn’t like people who didn’t do anything.

The person telling the story began to pack. He took a little longer than he thought. Harris told him as he finished packing that he had forgotten to put their boots inside. So, the storyteller opened the bag again and put the boots back in. When the narrator was putting the bag away, he had a sudden thought. He couldn’t remember if he had brought his toothbrush with him or not.

The Narrator’s toothbrush always caused him trouble right before he went on a trip. He would sometimes forget to pack it, or he would pack it in the morning before he had used it. This time, too, he had to open the bag again and search for his toothbrush. George’s and Harris’s toothbrushes had been found more than eighteen times, but he couldn’t find his. In the end, he found his toothbrush in a shoe.

The storyteller finished putting the bag together. This time, George asked the person telling the story if he had brought the soap. At this point, the narrator was angry, so he wouldn’t open the bag to get the soap. But the narrator put his glasses in the bag by accident, so he had to take them out and put them back in.
George and Harris did not do a good job of packing. They offered to finish packing up the rest of the boxes. There were still a lot of dishes, cups, tomatoes, and other things to pack. The person telling the story knew that packing would become fun. When George and Harris started to pack, things got worse. They did a lot of wrong things. They broke a cup, squashed a tomato by putting strawberry jam on it, and squashed the pies by putting heavy things on top. They stepped on things and moved them out of the way. So, they could not find what they were looking for. The narrator just sat there and watched his friends make a mess.

The person telling the story had never seen someone make a mess with butter. When George was packing, he stepped on the butter. George and Harris tried to put it in the kettle after he took it off his slipper. But they were not able to do so, so they put it on a chair. Harris sat on the chair, and the butter hit him in the back. Then they look everywhere in the room for it. George found the butter later, and they put it in the teapot.

George and Harris made a mess, and Montmorency, the dog of the person telling the story, was a part of it. The narrator says that Montmorency was always there when no one expected him to be. He liked making people mad. He came by while George and Harris were packing and sat on things that still needed to be packed. He stuck his leg in the jam and threw the spoons everywhere.
He also attacked three lemons because he thought they were rats when he went into the hamper. Harris finally sent him away because he thought the storyteller was making the dog be a nuisance.

At 12:50 am, the packing was done. The three friends were all very tired and ready for bed. But before they went to sleep, they fought about what time to get up in the morning. They finally chose to get up at 6:30 am. George was supposed to wake them up, but he was sleeping. So, the narrator and Harris put a bath tub near George so that when he wakes up, he will fall into it.