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the whole matter entirely to me. They fell into the suggestion with a
readiness that had something uncanny about it. George spread himself
over the easy-chair, and Harris cocked his legs on the table.

Pride myself on: am proud of
fell into: here, accepted
Uncanny: strange, weird
cocked his legs: bent the legs on the knee as he sat

Jerome thought that his ability to pack luggage was better than others.
He asked his friends George and Harris to leave the task of packing to
him. The two friends agreed to his offer instantly which was strange.
George sat comfortably on the easy - chair and Harris bent his knees as
he sat on the sofa and kept his feet on the table.

This was hardly what I intended. What I had meant, of course, was, that
I should boss the job, and that Harris and George should potter about
under my directions, I pushing them aside every now and then with, “Oh,
you!” “Here, let me do it.” “There you are, simple enough!” — really
teaching them, as you might say. Their taking it in the way they did
irritated me. There is nothing does irritate me more than seeing other
people sitting about doing nothing when I’m working.

Intended: planned, meant
potter about: do some unimportant things

By saying that he would pack, the writer did not mean that his friends
would sit and relax while he would do all the work. He had meant that he
would boss upon them while they would do all the chores. He would nag
them and curse them for not knowing the work well and then, he would
chip in to sort out the mess that they would create.He was irritated to
see them sitting while he did all the work.

I lived with a man once who used to make me mad that way. He would
loll on the sofa and watch me doing things by the hour together. He said
it did him real good to look on at me, messing about. Now, I’m not like
that. I can’t sit still and see another man slaving and working. I want to
get up and superintend, and walk around with my hands in my pockets,
and tell him what to do. It is my energetic nature. I can’t help it.

loll on the sofa: to recline or lean in a relaxed manner
messing about: to waste time doing something without a particular
purpose
sit still: sit without doing anything
Superintend: supervise, manage

He recollects that once he lived with a man who would sit lazily on the
sofa all day through and would watch the writer do all the work. The man
would say that he enjoyed watching him go around, doing all the work.