cked my
toothbrush.

My toothbrush is a thing that haunts me when I'm traveling, 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.

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 in 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 reopen it. It got shut up finally at
10:05 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, etc., 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 them more than anything I could have said. I felt
that. It made them nervous and excited, and they stepped on things, and
put things behind them, and then couldn't find them