"Charles De Lint - The Little Country" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Lint Charles)

children who would find a copy of it under their Christmas tree, illustrated by whichever artist was
currently the nadir of childrenтАЩs book illustrating.

Which was really a pity, Janey often thought, because in the long run,The Lost Music was the better
book. It was the reason that she had taken up with old things. Because of it, she went back to its
sources, poring over folktales and myths, discovering traditional music and finding that the references
between old lore and old tunes and songs went back and forth between each other. It was a delightful
exploration, one that eventually led to her present occupation.

For while she had no interest in writing books, she had discovered, hidden away inside herself, a real
flair for the old music. She took to playing the fiddle and went wandering through tunebooks tracked
down in secondhand bookshops, the tunes sticking to her like brambles on a walk across a cliff-side
field. Old tunes, old names, old stories. So Dunthorn was partially responsible for who she was today?
тАФa comment that made the Gaffer laugh when she mentioned it to him once.

тАЬWouldnтАЩt Billy smile to hear you say that now, my robin,тАЭ her grandfather had said. тАЬThat his writings
should turn a good Cornish girl to playing Paddy music for a living?тАФnot to mention traveling around by
her ownselтАЩ with nothing but a fiddle and a set of Scotch small pipes to keep her company.тАЭ

тАЬYoulike my music.тАЭ

The Gaffer nodded. тАЬAnd I donтАЩt doubt Bill would have liked it too?тАФjust as he liked his own writing.
HeтАЩd sit up and scribble by the lantern till all hours of the night sometimes?тАФtook it all very seriously,
didnтАЩt he just??тАФand heтАЩd have admired your getting by with the doing of something you love.

тАЬHe always wanted to live by his writing?тАФwriting what he pleased, I mean?тАФbut all the bookmen
wanted was more fairy tales. Bill . . . he had more serious stories to tell by then, so he worked the boats
by day to earn his living and did his writing by night?тАФfor himself, like. He wouldnтАЩt give тАЩem another
book like the one about the Smalls. DidnтАЩt want to be writing the same thing over and over again, was
what he said.тАЭ

тАЬThe Lost Musichas fairy-tale bits in it.тАЭ

{Page19}тАЬAnd doesnтАЩt it just, my beauty? But to hear him talk, they werenтАЩt made-up bits?тАФjust the
way that history gets mixed up as the years go by.The Lost Music was his way of talking about the way
he believed that old wivesтАЩ tales and dance tunes and folktales were just the tangled echoes of something
thatтАЩs not quite of this world . . . something we all knew once, but have forgotten since. ThatтАЩs how he
explained it to me, and very serious he was about it too. But then Bill had a way of making anything
sound important?тАФthat was his gift, I think. For all I know he was serious about the Smalls too.тАЭ

тАЬYou think he really believed in things like that?тАЭ

The Gaffer shrugged. тАЬIтАЩm not saying yes or no. He was a sensible lad, was Bill, and a good mate, but
he was a bit fey too. Solid as the ground is firm, but ever so once in a while heтАЩd get a funny look about
him, like heтАЩd just seen a piskie sticking its little brown head around the doorpost, and he wouldnтАЩt talk
then for a while?тАФat least he wouldnтАЩt say much that made sense. But I never heard a man not make
sense so eloquently as Bill Dunthorn could when he was of a mind to do so, and there was more than
once he had me half believing in what he was saying.тАЭ

Dunthorn had also written essays, short stories, travelogues, and poetry, though none of those writings