Get a houseboat and be sure that it is water-tight and free from rats
and other unpleasant visitors.
Take care that your servants have no objection to roughing it, and can
turn their hands to anything usually supplied in town by the stores.
Accustom yourself to food in tins and bottles, and learn to love insects
with or without wings.
Acclimatise yourself to mists and fogs and rainy days, and grow
accustomed to reading papers four days old and the advertisements of
out-of-date railway guides.
Try to love the pleasures of a regatta. Do not quarrel with the riparian
owners or the possessors of other houseboats. Enjoy the pleasantries of
masked musicians, and take an intelligent interest in the racing.
Illuminate freely, and do your best to avoid a fire or an explosion. And
if you have fireworks, don't sort them out with the light of a blazing
squib or some illuminant of a similar character.
Be good, and mild and long-suffering. Rest satisfied with indifferently
cooked food, damp sheets, and wearisome companions. And make the best of
storms of rain and hurricanes of wind. In fact, bear everything, and
grin when you can't laugh.
_Another and a better way._--Put up at a comfortable riparian hotel, and
when the weather is against you, run up to town and give a wide berth to
the Thames and its miseries.
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[Illustration: A STORY WITHOUT WORDS Freddy's first day at Henley]
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