"Cecilia Dart-Thornton - The Bitterbynde 02 - The Lady of the Sorrows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dart-Thornton Cecilia)

thistle-floss. The face, puckered as lava, was umber-brown, and from the midst of the creases a pair of
clever eyes stared out like two black raisins. After its initial amazement at its release, this creature seemed
greatly delighted.
"'Harry ye're a good lad,' it chirped."
"It knows my name! For certain this thing is a bogle, Harry thought to himself, and he touched
his cap civilly, struggling to hide his terror."
"'Nay,' said the little thing instantly, 'I'm no bogle, but ye'd best not ask me what I be. Anyway,
ye've done me a better service than ye know, and I be well-disposed towards ye.'"
"Harry shuddered, and his knees knocked when he found the eldritch thing could read his unspoken
thoughts, but he mustered his courage."
"'And I now will give you a gift,' said the creature. 'What would you like: a strong and bonny wife or
a crock full of gold coins?'"
"'I have little interest in either, your honor,' said Harry as politely as he could. 'But my back and
shoulders are always aching. My labor on the farm is too heavy for me, and I'd thank you for help with
it.'"
 "'Now hearken you, never thank me,' said the little fellow with an ugly sneer. I'll do the work for you
and welcome, but if you give me a word of thanks, you'll never get a hand's turn more from me. If you
want me, just call "Yallery Brown, from out of the moots come to help me," and I'll be there.' And
with that it picked the stalk of a dandelion puff, blew the fluffy seeds into Harry's eyes, and disappeared."
"In the morning Harry could no longer believe what he had seen and suspected he'd been dreaming.
He walked to the farm as usual, but when he arrived, he found that his work had already been
completed, and he had no need to lift so much as a finger. The same happened day after day; no matter
how many tasks were set for Harry, Yallery Brown finished them in the blink of an eye."
"At first the lad augured his life would be as leisurely as a nobleman's, but after a time he saw that
matters might not go so well for him, for although his tasks were done, all the other men's tasks were
being undone and destroyed. After a while, some of his fellow laborers happened to spy Yallery Brown
darting about the place at night and they accused Harry of summoning the wight. They made his life
miserable with their blaming and their complaints to the master."
"'I'll put this to rights,' said Harry to himself. I'll do the work myself and not be indebted to Yallery
Brown.'"
"But no matter how early he came to work, his tasks were always accomplished before he got
there. Furthermore, no tool or implement would remain in his hand; the spade slipped from his grasp, the
plough careered out of his reach, and the hoe eluded him. The other men would find Harry trying to do
their work for them, but no matter how hard he tried he could not do it, for it would go awry, and they
accused him of botching it deliberately."
"Finally, the men indicted him so often that the master dismissed him, and Harry plodded away in a
high rage, fuming about how Yallery Brown had treated him. Word went around the district that Harry
Millbeck was a troublemaker, and no farmer would hire him. Without a means of earning a living, Harry
was in sore straits."
"'I'll get rid of this wicked wight,' he growled to himself, 'else I shall become a beggar on the streets.'
So he went out into the fields and meadows and he called out, 'Yallery Brown, from out of the mools,
come to me!'"
"The words were scarcely out of his mouth when something pinched his leg from behind, and there
stood the little thing with its tormentil-yellow hair, its pleated brown face and its cunning raisin eyes.
Pointing a finger at it, Harry cried, 'It's an ill turn you've done to me and no benefit. I'll thank you to go
away and allow me to work for myself!'"
"At these words, Yallery Brown shrilled with laughter and piped up: 'Ye've thanked me, ye mortal
fool! Ye've thanked me and I warned you not!'"
"Angrily, Harry burst out, 'I'll have no more to do with ye! Fine sort of help ye give. I'll have no
more of it from this day on!'"