"Gordon Eklund - Serving in Time" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eklund Gordon)

black beard and small, deep eyes.

This was Uncle Phineas.

"Well, I was reading, sir."

"I didn't ask that. I asked if you were working hard."

"Oh, sure. You always told me learning was the hardest work
of all. And I'm learning a lot from this book." Jan showed Ms
uncle the cover of Huckleberry Finn.

"And I bet it's peaceful up here, too." Phineas crouched down
beside Jan. "Hear the birds singing. The leaves swishing in the
breeze. Even the grass growing. Have you ever done that, Jan?
Just sat quietly and heard the grass growing?"

"No, sir, I don't think I ever have."

"And you know what strikes me as funny? It's the way nearly
everything in nature grows in one sense or the other. You grow
yourself, Jan, and I do myself, though in a careless, meandering
fashion. Grass grows, and trees. Cows. Horses. And you know
what else grows, Jan?"

Knowing exactly where this conversation was lead-ing, Jan
felt helpless to deflect it from its predestined course. "No, sir, I
don't," was the best he could manage.

Phineas caught Jan firmly by the wrist and held tight "Corn
grows," he said, and hauled Jan none too gently to his feet. "And
right now you're supposed to be down there making sure it stops
growing."

"But, sir, don't you see thatтАФ?"

"Hush up. I don't see a thing. You lie to me and I'm not fool
enough to believe it."

"But I must have forgot. Really." Jan struggled in his uncle's
grip, but only because it was expected of him. He had no more
chance of escaping that huge hand than a fly caught in a spider's
web.

"So your sister comes to me and says where do I get off
excusing you from the work detail. I say that's news to me. She
says the message in the fields is that I did so. Finding me asleep,
she calls me lazy and thoughtless."

"Why, I bet somebody is hoaxing us both," Jan said.