Three Men in a Boat

by Jerome K. Jerome

I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.

In the present instance, going back to the liver-pill circular, I had the symptoms, beyond all mistake, the chief among them being "a general disinclination to work of any kind."

There is nothing does irritate me more than seeing other people sitting about doing nothing when I'm working.

I don't know why it should be, I am sure; but the sight of another man asleep in bed when I am up, maddens me.

they cursed us - not with a common cursory curse, but with long, carefully-thought-out, comprehensive curses, that embraced the whole of our career, and went away into the distant future, and included all our relations, and covered everything connected with us - good, substantial curses.

This naturally led to some pleasant chat about sciatica, fevers, chills, lung diseases, and bronchitis;