"Asimov, Isaac - Magical Wishes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

regarding him anxiously.

He shook his head. "Never mind, though; there's no harm
done, but it gave me a shock all the same."

They sat down by the fire again while the two men finished
their pipes. Outside, the wind was higher than ever, and the
old man started nervously at the sound of a door banging
upstairs. A silence unusual and depressing settled upon al!
three, which lasted until the old couple rose to retire for the
night.

"I expect you'll find the cash tied up in a big bag in the
middle of your bed," said Herbert, as he bade them good
night, "and something horrible squatting up on top of the
wardrobe watching you pocket your ill-gotten gains."

He sat alone in the darkness, gazing at the dying fire, and
seeing faces in it. The last face was so horrible and so simian

THE MONKEY'S PAW 17

that he gazed at it with amazement, ft got so vivid that, with
a little uneasy laugh, he felt on the table for a glass contain-
ing a tittle/ water to throw over it. His hand grasped the
monkey's paw, and with a little shiver he wiped his hand on
his coat and went up to bed.

II

In the brightness of the wintery sun next morning as it
streamed over the breakfast table he laughed at his fears.
There was an air of prosaic wholesomeness about the room
which it had lacked on the previous night, and the dirty,
shrivelled little paw was pitched on the side-board with a
carelessness which betokened no great belief in its virtues.

"I suppose all old soldiers are the same," said Mrs. White.
"The idea of our listening to such nonsense! How could
wishes be granted in these days? And if they could, how
could two hundred pounds hurl you. father?"

"Might drop on his head from the sky," said the frivolous
Herbert.

"Morris said the things happened so naturally," said his
father, "that you might if you so wished attribute it to
coincidence.''

"Well, don't break into the money before I come back,"