THE FIERY WOOING OF MORDRED, by P.G. Wodehouse

P.G. Wodehouse, the well-known British humorist, has created many enduring characters. One of those is Mr. Mulliner, who has endless nephews.

In this short story Mordred Mulliner falls in love with a girl who lives in a white elephant of a country home. At least it's heavily insured. When he visits her all his competitors are big-game hunter types. Morosely, he retires to write a poem. What a pity that he's got this absent-minded habit of tossing his cigarettes into the waste-paper basket.

THREE MEN IN A BOAT (to say nothing of the dog), by Jerome K. Jerome

I picked up this treasure today while scavenging my sister's bookcase. The last time I read it I was in my cynical teens and didn't see the humor. I'd been meaning to get back to it for ages since I first read Connie Willis' brilliant science fiction novel *To Say Nothing of the Dog.* That book richly deserves its own review, later. I knew that Willis was referencing the Jerome K. Jerome book, but my memories of it were few.

Today I entered its pages more slowly, taking time to smile over the short chapter introductions. "Three invalids--Sufferings of George and Harris--A victim to one hundred and seven fatal maladies----We agree we are overworked and need rest----George suggests the river--Montmorency lodges an objection--Original motion carried by three to one--"

No one, of course, can possibly enjoy this ancient book, written in 1889, no one at all, unless you have ever overly enthusiastically planned a trip, squeezed a suitcase shut and latched it, only to discover a pair of shoes have been left out, got up ominously late to catch a plane or a train, suffered through a camping trip marred by rain or a hideously uncomfortable tent, or twisted a foot over a small eager dog. For the dog, of course, "to get someone to stumble over him and curse him for an hour, is his highest aim and object; and when he has succeeded in accomplishing this, his conceit becomes quite unbearable."