Quotes

Quote 47 of 521

Rather an amusing thing happened while dressing that morning.  I was
very cold when I got back into the boat, and in my hurry to get my
shirt on, I accidentally jerked it into the water.  It made me awfully
wild, especially as George burst out laughing.  I could not see
anything to laugh at, and I told George so, and he only laughed the
more.  I never saw a man laugh so much.  I quite lost my temper with
him at last, and I pointed out to him what a drivelling maniac of an
imbecile idiot he was; but he only roared the louder.  And then, just
as I was landing the shirt, I noticed that it was not my shirt after
all, but George's, which I had mistaken for mine, whereupon the humour
of the thing struck me for the first time, and _I_ began to laugh.
And the more I looked from George's wet shirt to George, roaring with
laughter, the more I was amused, and I laughed so much that I had to
let the shirt fall back into the water again.

`Ar'n't you -- you -- going to get it out?' said George between his
shrieks.

I could not answer him at all for a while, I was laughing so, but at
last, between my peals I managed to jerk out:

`It isn't my shirt -- it's _yours_!'

I never saw a man's face change from lively to severe so suddenly in
all my life before.

`What!' he yelled, springing up.  `You silly cuckoo!  Why can't you be
more careful what you're doing?  Why the deuce don't you go back and
dress on the bank?  You're not fit to be in a boat, you're not.  Gimme
the hitcher.'

I tried to make him see the fun of the thing, but he could not.
George is very dense at seeing a joke sometimes.

Jerome K. Jerome, _Three Men in a Boat_, p. 102--103

Tags: facechange hitcher peals imbecile shrieks wetshirt deuce cuckoo maniac temper laughter hurry humour joke shirtfall