g
to close it, a horrible idea occurred to me. Had I packed my
tooth-brush? I don't know how it is, but I never do know whether I've
packed my tooth-brush.

My tooth-brush is a thing that haunts me when I'm travelling, and makes
my life a misery. I dream that I haven't packed it, and wake up in a
cold perspiration, and get out of bed and hunt for it. And, in the
morning, I pack it before I have used it, and have to unpack again to get
it, and it is always the last thing I turn out of the bag; and then I
repack and forget it, and have to rush upstairs for it at the last moment
and carry it to the railway station, wrapped up in my
pocket-handkerchief.

[Picture: Boot] Of course I had to turn every mortal thing out now, and,
of course, I could not find it. I rummaged the things up into much the
same state that they must have been before the world was created, and
when chaos reigned. Of course, I found George's and Harris's eighteen
times over, but I couldn't find my own. I put the things back one by
one, and held everything up and shook it. Then I found it inside a boot.
I repacked once more.

When I had finished, George asked if the soap was in. I said I didn't
care a hang whether the soap was in or whether it wasn't; and I slammed
the bag to and strapped it, and found that I had packed my tobacco-pouch
in it, and had to re-open it. It got shut up finally at 10.5 p.m., and
then there remained the hampers to do. Harris said that we should be
wanting to start in less than twelve hours' time, and thought that he and
George had better do the rest; and I agreed and sat down, and they had a
go.

They began in a light-hearted spirit, evidently intending to show me how
to do it. I made no comment; I only waited. When George is hanged,
Harris will be the worst packer in this world; and I looked at the piles
of plates and cups, and kettles, and bottles and jars, and pies, and
stoves, and cakes, and tomatoes, &c., and felt that the thing would soon
become exciting.

It did. They started with breaking a cup. That was the first thing they
did. They did that just to show you what they _could_ do, and to get you
interested.

Then Harris packed the strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it,
and they had to pick out the tomato with a teaspoon.

And then it was George's turn, and he trod on the butter. I didn't say
anything, but I came over and sat on the edge of the table and watched
them. It irritated