Posted by Ed Kiser on April 19, 2006 at 12:42:07 from 64.12.116.6 user Kisered.
In Reply to: Best memory/experience with boats posted by Prue Eckett on April 19, 2006 at 10:49:43:
`This has been a wonderful day!' said he, as the Rat shoved off
and took to the sculls again. `Do you know, I`ve never been in a
boat before in all my life.'
`What?' cried the Rat, open-mouthed: `Never been in a -- you
never -- well I -- what have you been doing, then?'
`Is it so nice as all that?' asked the Mole shyly, though he was
quite prepared to believe it as he leant back in his seat and
surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating
fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.
`Nice? It's the only thing,' said the Water Rat solemnly, as he
leant forward for his stroke. `Believe me, my young friend,
there is nothing -- absolute nothing -- half so much worth doing
as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,' he went on
dreamily: `messing -- about -- in -- boats; messing -- -- '
`Look ahead, Rat!' cried the Mole suddenly.
It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt. The
dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the
boat, his heels in the air.
` -- about in boats -- or with boats,' the Rat went on
composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. `In or out
of 'em, it doesn't matter. Nothing seems really to matter,
that's the charm of it. Whether you get away, or whether you
don't; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you
reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all,
you're always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and
when you've done it there's always something else to do, and you
can do it if you like, but you'd much better not...'
-------------------------
The SUBJECT phrase comes up from time to time in this forum, almost to the point that one might be made to think that somewhere in the Ransome stories this expression is used, but it is not found there, but in "Wind In The Willows" in Chapter 1, as shown above. It sure does sound like something a Ransome character could have said.
There is some "messing" as with Magna Carter, or some native messing with what CF has prepared at the North Pole, or Squashy Hat messing about with a map in his hand, or with a paint bucket, or in preparing the dragon in ML, or with the green paint in CC.
Ed Kiser, South Florida