Chapter Six. An Interesting Supper
That morning something happened to Montmorency. We were returning from our swim when a cat came out of a house. It went across the road. Montmorency barked. He was excited. It was a large black cat: the largest cat I've ever seen. It only had one ear and part of its nose.
Montmorency ran after it, barking. The cat wasn't worried. When Montmorency was near, it turned round, sat down and looked at him. Montmorency stopped running and stopped barking. He looked at the cat and the cat looked at him. He was afraid of it. Then the cat got up and walked away. Montmorency came back to me, his ears down. He hasn't looked at a cat since that day.
After breakfast we went shopping and bought food for the next three days.
‘We should eat some vegetables. They're quite healthy,' said George. ‘I'll cook them.'
So we bought potatoes and carrots. We also bought a lot of other things: meat; pies; bread; butter; jam; cakes; fruit and eggs. There was a boy from each shop to help us to carry our things. We went to a lot of different shops and had a number of boys with us at the end. Then, finished at last, we walked back to the boat. I like to think that we made an interesting show for the good people of Marlow. This is what they saw: at the front, Montmorency with a piece of wood in his mouth; then two other dogs, friends of Montmorency; George, carrying coats and rugs; Harris carrying our bag of clothes and a bottle; a greengrocer's boy carrying our vegetables and the baker's boy carrying a basket of bread; a man from the hotel with a hamper; the boy from the sweet shop; a dog; the boy from the cheese shop; a stranger carrying a bag; the stranger's friend; the boy from the fruit shop with a basket; me, with three hats and some boots; six young boys and four dogs.
When we arrived, the boatman helped us too. He was surprised when he saw our boat. He looked at all our shopping again and then at the small boat.
‘Oh! I was sure you had one of the bigger boats,' he said and walked away, disappointed. Speaking of bigger boats, we had problems with steam-launches that morning. There were a lot of them on the river.
I don't like steam-launches. I think most men in small boats feel the same. Steam-launches think they're kings of the river. They think that other boats should move out of their way.
We had fun that week with the people on them. When one of us saw a steam-launch in the distance we got ready. We put our boat in the middle of the river and sat with our backs to the launch. We heard it come nearer and nearer. Now people were looking over the sides and shouting at us. But we didn't hear them. Harris was too busy telling George and me an interesting story and we were too busy listening. People on other boats and on the riverbanks shouted at us too. Then, at the last minute, we looked up and saw the launch.
We were surprised. We tried to move out of their path but couldn't. We didn't know how to. People on the launch shouted instructions but we didn't understand. Finally they put a small boat in the water and came to help us. A quarter of an hour later we thanked them and said goodbye. I don't know how many times we played this game that week.
We stopped at Hambledon lock because we needed some water. George went to ask the man who worked there.
‘Excuse me, could we possibly have some water?' The old man told him to take what he wanted.
‘Where is it?' George asked.
‘Behind you, of course!' the man answered, pointing at the river.
‘We can't drink the river!' George said.
‘Not all of it, no,' the man said. ‘But some of it, yes. I drink it and have done for years. And look at me.'
‘I am looking at you and I'm sorry to say I don't think you're a very good advertisement,' George answered. We went to ask for water at another house.
We drank river water once, almost. We didn't have any water and wanted a cup of tea. So it was river water or nothing. We boiled it well and made our tea. Then George looked up and saw something in the water. It was a dead dog. We looked at each other, cups in our hands, and threw the tea away.
We stopped for lunch at a quiet place on the river. George and I had quite a surprise during that meal and so did Harris.
We were sitting in a field not too far from the water. Harris was cutting a pie and asked for a spoon to serve it. George and I both turned round to get one. When we turned back, Harris and the pie weren't there!
‘Hey!' George said. ‘Where's old Harris gone?'
‘Do you think the fairies have taken him?' I asked.
‘And the pie?' George answered.
‘No, probably not,' I agreed. We thought a little more.
‘It's a shame he had the pie,' George said. I agreed.
We looked again. What a surprise! We saw Harris's head in the long grass. Only his head, and his face was very red.
‘Are you alright?' George asked. ‘Where have you been?'
‘Be quiet, you fool!' Harris answered. ‘Here, take this!'
Then we saw the pie come up through the grass.
‘I know you two planned it,' he said when we were all sitting down again.
‘We certainly didn't!' we both answered. ‘What happened?'
‘I was sitting on a little hill. It was covered by the grass so I didn't see it. Anyway, I was cutting the pie when I moved back a little and fell down it. It wasn't funny, I can tell you. I didn't know what was happening.'
Harris still believes we planned it.
We sailed up the river and stopped early for the night.
‘We can have a really good meal tonight,' George said. ‘I'll get wood for the fire and you two start preparing the potatoes.'
I didn't know it was so difficult. We prepared one and George came to see. The potato was now very small.
‘Oh dear! There's nothing left!' he said. ‘Try to keep some potato!' It was a long job. After nearly half an hour we only had four potatoes ready.
‘That's not enough!' George said but Harris and I were bored. We washed a few more and threw them into the pan. We put some carrots in too. George looked in the pan. There wasn't much in it. So we looked in the hampers for things to add. Meat, fish, pie, eggs, they all went in. Montmorency brought us a dead rat. Harris thought we should put it in but George decided against it.
It was an interesting supper; very unusual. We finished with a cup of tea. Montmorency hurt his mouth on the kettle.
Every time we boiled the kettle, Montmorency came near it. When it made a noise, he barked. He wanted to bite it but someone always picked it up before he could. This time he was faster than us. He barked at the kettle and bit it. He howled, jumped off the boat and ran around the island three times as fast as he could go. After that he always went to sit on the riverbank while we boiled the kettle.
George wanted to play his banjo after supper but Harris said he had a headache.
‘A little music could help your head,' George said and played a few notes.
‘Hmm, I prefer having a headache,' Harris answered.
George tried on two or three other evenings; however, Harris was never happy and Montmorency always howled.
‘That dog has a musical ear,' Harris said. ‘And you're hurting it.' George tried when we returned home too but Mrs P. asked him to stop. He tried practising outside but people told the police. After that he sold the banjo and learnt to play cards instead.
Poor musicians! It isn't easy to learn a musical instrument. People
don't understand or try to help you. I had a friend who wanted to learn to play the bagpipes. First he practised early in the morning. However, his sister wasn't happy: she thought that it was a bad way to start the day. So he practised at night, when everyone was in bed. People who were passing the house were afraid. They thought something terrible was happening inside. Then he tried to play during the day but his mother was always upset. Finally his family made him a place at the bottom of the garden. He only knew one song and nobody could agree which song it was. But they all agreed that one song was enough.
After supper George and I decided to go for a walk. Harris preferred not to go. He took us across the river and then returned to the island. We walked into the town, a distance of about four miles. We met some people we knew there and spent a pleasant evening with them.
At about eleven o'clock we decided to go back to the boat. It was raining and a little cold now. We walked in the dark and talked in quiet voices. We hoped we were going in the right direction. Finally we arrived at the river. But we didn't remember which island our boat was on. There were four islands. We stopped opposite the first and shouted ‘Harris!' There wasn't an answer. So we walked to the second and did the same. Again there wasn't an answer. We tried the third and the fourth. Now we were worried; wet, cold, and tired too. Perhaps there were more than four islands.
‘What will we do if we don't find the right island?' George asked. ‘Should we walk back into town to find a hotel? Or should we hit a policeman and get a free bed for the night?'
‘Don't be a fool!' I said.
Then, I saw a light through the rain. It was our boat! I shouted ‘Hello! Harris!' Nothing. Then Montmorency barked. Oh my sweet dog! We shouted again. Nothing happened. Finally, we saw the boat coming across the water and heard Harris say ‘I'm coming!'
Harris was a little strange that night. He told us a story. A mother swan tried to bite him. She was angry because the boat was near her eggs. Harris sent her away but she came back with another swan. He sent them both away, helped by Montmorency. They came back twice again: once with another sixteen swans and then with thirty! It was a very exciting story but it was hard to believe. We asked him to tell us again in the morning but he didn't remember anything.
Harris woke up several times that night and so did we. He was worried about his clothes and wanted to find them.
‘Are you lying on my trousers?' he asked. He pushed George and me to try to see under us. George became quite angry with him.
‘You don't need your trousers! It's night, you fool!' he said. ‘Go back to sleep!'
Another time he was looking for his socks. And I'm sure I heard him in the early morning; he couldn't find his umbrella.
