Three Men in a Boat Boat" is how undated it appears to modern readers – the jokes have been praised as fresh and witty. The three men are based on Jerome himself (the narrator Jerome K. Jerome) and two real-life friends, George Wingrave (who would become a senior manager at Barclays Bank) and Carl Hentschel (the founder of a London printing business, called Harris in the book), with whom Jerome often took boating trips. The dog, Montmorency, is entirely fictional but, "as Jerome admits, developed out of that area of inner consciousness which, in all Englishmen, contains an element of the dog". The trip is
The Three Little Men in the Wood and soon finds the house with the three little men. However, she acts rudely towards them and refuses to clean. When she realizes she won't be given anything, she takes her leave. The three men decide to punish her for her behavior: the girl will grow uglier every day, toads will jump out from her mouth at every word, and she will die a horrible death. The step-sister returns home unhappily, and her mother is disgusted by the toads that come out of her mouth. The step-mother's hatred for her step-daughter increases day by day due to her becoming more