Summary
Jerome, the narrator, took pride in himself on his packing. When he, along with his friends, George and Harris decided to go on a holiday he offered to do the packing. His friends were impressed with him and relaxed assuming that Jerome would do the packing.
But Jerome had intended that George and Harris would pack and he would boss over them. Seeing them sitting around, irritated him. He hated seeing people doing nothing while he was working.
He started the packing. As soon as he had finished Harris told him he had forgotten his boots. Then he started searching for his toothbrush. A series of hilarious events followed as the bag was packed and unpacked a number of times.
Eventually, George and Harris undertook to do the rest of the packing. Soon the packing became exciting as cups were broken. Harris packed strawberry jam on top of a tomato and squashed it. George trod on the butter. George and Harris upset everything while the narrator sat and saw them packing.
The dog Montmorency added to the confusion. He sat down on things that were to be packed. His aim was to get somebody to stumble over him and curse him. He pretended that the lemons were rats and attacked them.
Finally, the packing was done. Harris said that he hoped nothing was broken. Then they decided to sleep. George asked when he should wake them. They started to argue over the time. Finally, they decided to wake up at 6.30 a.m.