Chapter - 9, Three Men in a Boat Summary Class 9 Three Men in a Boat

George’s experience of towing
Jim and Harris made George work. He towed them till Runnymede. The narrator considered tow- lines strange. He described how he got into a mess when he dealt with them himself. Once he and his friends were going down in Bovericy. They saw two men who were looking for their boat which had gone off when they were disentangling their tow-line. He also remembers how George tied a tow-line to the boat of a young couple and made them tow four bulking chaps in another boat for a long time. The girl was shocked when she could not see her aunt. Hams asked if they had recovered the old lady. George replied that he did not know. In fact they towed the wrong boat.

Bad towing by girls
The narrator said that being towed by girls was the most exciting experience. It took three girls to tow always, two to hold the rope, and third one to run round and round. They generally began by getting themselves tied up. They got the line round their legs and had to sit down on the path and to undo each other and then they twisted it round their necks, and were nearly strangled. At the end of a hundred yards, they were naturally breathless. They sat down on the grass and laughed. In the meantime the boat drifted out midstream. This was the dullest moment.

The boat trip with a Cousin
The narrator, then, describes what happened when he was out with a young lady, his on a river trip down goring. It was half when they reached Benson’s lock. She was reach home before evening. The narrator drew out a map and found that they were just a mile and half to the next lock, Wallingford. They rowed on and passed the bridge and never looked at a lock. The girl thought that they had lost their way and began to cry. The narrator pulled on for another mile. Then he began to get nervous himself. He still went on pulling however, and still no lock came in sight and the river grew more and more gloomy and mysterious under the gathering shadows of the night. Suddenly they heard the sweet sounds of an accordion. A boat came along. The narrator asked the occupants if they could tell him the way to Wallingford lock. They told him that there was no Wallingford lock for the last one year. They were very close to Cleeve now. The narrator thanked him and wished them a pleasant trip. They got home in time for supper.