1.

CHARACTER OF UNCLE PODGER The author potrays the character of Uncle Podger, as a person who assumes an air of confidence in doing things. He shows to have a great confidence in his ability to do odd jobs in the house but finally makes a mess of the whole thing. Uncle Podger is a person who does not view the situation in totality, rather addresses the work in bits and pieces. As he does not take a holistic view of the situation, he does not have any plan for doing the work. This results in his engaging each and every person available, in some work or running for some errand. He sends somebody to buy nails, somebody else is sent for the hammer, another person for the spirit level and the like. He also needs help in holding the light and handing him up the picture. Though he had boasted of doing the job on his own, it is seen that he is not at all skilful. The picture falls from his hand and while trying to save the glass, he cuts himself. He is also absent minded as is seen while he searches for the handkerchief after he gets cut by the glass of the picture. Though he was sitting on his coat, in whose pocket he had kept the handkerchief, he was totally oblivious of it. He does not accept his failures. He loses his temper easily and blames others. In the story, we find him blaming others for not being able to trace his coat, scold others for not being able to find the hammer which he has misplaced and call others fools while locating the mark on the wall. His workmanship is also equally bad. He loses the mark he had made on the wall, slides down on the piano, strikes his thumb with the hammer instead of the nail and hammers the nail more than it is required causing the nail to go through the plaster completely. Finally a new hole is required to be made and when the work was completed, the whole workplace looked as if it had been smoothed down by a rake. 2. DIFFERENT PEOPLE AFFECTED BY THE SMELL OF CHEESE The author narrates his experience of the effect of the smell of cheese on different people. While they are packing and preparing to begin the trip, the narrator is reminded of one of the funniest stories involves the transport of smelly cheese. He tells of his consent to take some cheese to the home of a friend, who plans to return home later. During the trip, the first living being to respond to the smell of cheese was the cab horse which on the whiff of the cheese woke him up and with a breath of terror it dashed off at great speed. At the station platform, the odour of the cheese, cause people to fall back respectfully on either side. The smell of the cheese inside the rail carriage made two passengers begin to fidget and sniff to locate the cause of the odour. Once they could locate the source of the smell, they silently left the carriage. Next a lady got up, expressed her resentmentby saying that it was disgraceful on the part of the narrator to harry a respectable married woman with the smell of cheese and left the place. A solemn looking gentleman remarked that the smell reminded him of a dead baby.

The smell of cheese precluded more passengers from entering the carriage, though it was empty. Those who ventured to enter the carriage, dropped off immediately after a feel of the foul smell and squeezed into other carriages. When he arrived to London, the narrator took the cheeses down to his friends house, but the friends wife did not seem to be happy about it and promised to have a word with her husband when he came back. When it turned out that Jeromes friend was forced to stay in Liverpool longer than he had expected, his wife suggested that they should pay someone to bury the cheeses. However, that would probably disappoint her husband, and for this reason she decided to take the children and go to a hotel until the cheeses were eaten. Thus the house was left only to the charwoman, who when made to sniff the cheese, said that she could get a faint odour of melons. When the narrators friend returned home he found out that the cheeses cost him much beyond his means and he decided to get rid of them. First, he threw them into a canal, but had to fish them out because the bargeman complained. Next he attempted to take it to the mortuary, but the coroner declared that the smell could wake up the dead. Ultimately, the cheese is buried on a beach that becomes a haven for consumptive people. 3. HOSPITAL IN HIMSELF The three friends George, Harry and the writer felt seedy and seriously ill. They suffered from hypochondria abnormal chronic anxiety about ones health. Both George and Harris had fits of giddiness. The writer felt that his liver was ill as he read about the various symptoms of an unhealthy liver in a patent liver pill circular, and the symptoms matched with him. All the medicine advertisements he read, led him to conclude that he was suffering from that particular disease described therein. The writer once visited the British Museum to read about the treatment for some ailment of which he had touch hay fever. He got down the books and started reading. As he turned over the pages, he studied the symptoms of the various diseases listed therein. Before he had completed half the list, he was horrified to discover that he had got all of them. He again turned over the pages and read the symptoms of all the diseases starting from the alphabet A to the alphabet Z. The list of diseases included typhoid, St. Vituss Dance, Brights disease, Cholera, Gout in its most malignant stage. The only disease that he was not infected of was housemaids knee - arthritis. This experience made the writer feel that he would be a very interesting case from medical point of view for a medical student and for a medical class. Students would have no need to walk to the hospital, if they got him, as he was a hospital in himself. 4. WRITERS VIEW ON WEATHER FORECAST The writer and his friends George and Harris were having breakfast. George glanced through the newspaper and read out the headlines and the weather forecast. The writer thought that out of all silly things, this weather forecast was the most irritating, as they were always misleading and fraud, most annoying and wrong. He had lost all faith on weather forecast as it had played spoilsport on his plans earlier.

He remembered how wrong weather forecasts had spoilt his plans earlier. On one occasion he had given up a picnic and shut himself at home, because the weather forecast had predicted heavy rains. As he stayed back indoors, he envied to see other people passing by merrily under bright sunshine. The whole day passed without even a single drop of rainfall, followed by a lovely night. The next morning, the weather forecast predicted the day to be a fair sunny day. As the writer went out lightly dressed, he experienced rain after barely half an hour along with bitter cold wave of wind, which continued for the whole day. Thus the writer is of the view that the weather forecasts are always wrong, predicting the opposite of what is going to happen. 5. CHARACTER OF GEORGE AND HARRIS The character of George is portrayed as a lazy and carefree person who is free from anxieties. He can sleep anywhere and anytime. He is easily contended and understands the basic realities of life. He is sensible and has a clear mind for thinking, as he had showed in suggesting carrying articles which are of utmost necessity. He even went to the extent of saying that many people load their life boat with unnecessary things, when life boat should be light simple pleasures, with one or two worthy friends, someone to love and someone to beget love, a pet and enough to eat and wear. Harris is practical and knows how to make his needs met. He is not casual in sleeping outside like his friends George and the author. He is fussy and puts up an air of confidence. Whenever it comes to doing something, Harris takes the lead but instead of doing the work, he makes others get involve and do the work for him. His character is somewhat similar to Uncle Podger who also shows to have a great confidence in his ability to do odd jobs in the house but finally makes a mess of the whole thing. His character can be compared to the hunter who gets himself photographed keeping his foot on the skin of the dead tiger killed by somebody else. This boastfulness in Harris character is also reflected when he makes a fool of himself in trying to sing a comic song.