The most ordinary circumstances turn hilarious as J., an idler who exhibits a
u201cgeneral disinclination to work of any kind,u201d and his friends journey up
the Thames River. Getting into many scrapes along the way, the friends consider
u201cassaulting a policemanu201d just to have u201ca night's lodging in the
station-house,u201d when they get lost, but ultimately reject the proposition,
fearful that he would hit them back without locking them up. The real scene
stealer, though, is Montmorency, a small fox terrier who appears to be u201cborn
with about four times as much original sin in [him] as other dogs are.u201d
Jerome K. Jerome's Three Men in a