It was one Saturday in August. There was George, and Harris, and me. We were tired and

hungry. When we got to Datchet, we took out of the boat the basket of food, the two bags, and

the coats and things. Then we began to look for somewhere to stay. We passed a very pretty

little hotel, but there were no roses round the door. I wanted somewhere with roses round the

door. I do not know why. Anyway, I said, 'Oh, we don't want to go there. Let's look for a little

hotel with roses round the door.'

So we went on until we came to another hotel. That

was a very nice one, too, and it did have roses. But Harris

did not like the man who was standing by the front door.

Harris said that he did not look like a nice man, and he was

wearing ugly boots. So we went on. We walked for some

time, but we did not see any more hotels. Then we met a

man and we decided to ask him.

'Excuse me, do you know any nice little hotels near

here?' we said.

'Well,’ he said, 'you're coming away from them. Go

back, and you'll come to the Black Horse.'

We said, 'Oh, we've been there, and we didn't like it. There were no roses round the door.'

'Well, then,' he said, 'there's the Travellers' Rest just beyond it. Have you tried that?'

Harris replied that we did not want to go there. We did not like the man who was staying

there. Harris did not like the colour of his hair. He did not like his boots either.

'Well, I don't know what you're going to do, then,' the man answered, 'because they are

the only two hotels here.'

'No other hotels!' Harris cried.

'None,' the man replied.

'What are we going to do now?' Harris asked.

Then George spoke. He said, 'You two can ask someone to build you a hotel. I'm going

back to the Black Horse!'

So we went back to the Black Horse. 'Good evening,' the man at the desk said.

'Oh, good evening,' George answered. 'We want three beds, please.'

'I'm sorry, sir,' the man replied, 'but we haven't got three beds.'

'Oh, well, it doesn't matter - two beds, then. Two of us can sleep in one bed, can't we?'

George continued. He looked at Harris and me.

Harris said, 'Oh, yes.' He thought that George and I could sleep in one bed very easily.

'I'm very sorry, sir,' the man repeated. 'We haven't got any beds. We've already got three

men in one bed.'

We picked up our things, and we went over to the Travellers' Rest. It was a pretty little

place. I said I thought it was better than the other hotel. Harris said it would be all right. We

would not look at the man with red hair and ugly boots.

The people at the Travellers' Rest did not wait to hear what we wanted. The lady at the

desk said she had already sent away fourteen people. There was no room of any kind. We

asked her if she knew somewhere we could spend the night. She said there was a little house

along the road . . .

We did not wait. We picked up the basket, the bags and the coats, and we ran along the

road.

The people there laughed at us. There were only three beds in the house, and there were

seven men there already.

Someone said, 'Why don't you try the little shop next to the Black Horse?'

So we went back along the road, but there were no beds at the little shop. However, there

was an old lady in the shop. She said she had a friend who had some rooms. She added that

she would take us there.

The old woman walked very slowly, and it took us twenty minutes to get to her friend's

house. During the walk, she told us about all the pains she had in her back. When we got there,

there were already some people in her friend's rooms. From there we went to number 27.

Number 27 was full. They sent us to number 32, and number 32 was full.

Then we went back along the road. Suddenly Harris sat down on the basket. He said he

was not going to move. He added that it seemed to be nice and quiet there, and he said that he

would like to die there.

Just then, a little boy came past. 'Do you know any old people that we can frighten, so

that they will give us their beds?' we asked him.

'No, I don't,' the boy answered, but he added that his mother would give us a room. And

that was where we spent the night - in two very short beds.

After that, we were never quite so difficult about hotels . . .

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