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

"You ought to read some history, Jan. You ought to find out
what it was like in 1895 or 2015 before you go shooting off your
mouth."

"History makes me fall asleep. I like stories better."

"Stories are fine," Phineas agreed. "Huckleberry Finn
contains a great great deal of truth and all history can give you is
mere facts. But they're important, tooтАФ facts are good to know.
It's a way of growing up."

"I'm already grown," Jan said. "I'm twenty now."

"So you are," Phineas mused, "so you are. Sometimes I
forget." Abruptly, he appeared to notice that it was now getting
dark. He cursed softly. "We better get back home before we're
lost."

Jan agreed enthusiastically. After all, what did it matter to
him? The picking was long since over for the day.

By the time they reached the big house, it was more dark than
dusk and Jan could barely make out the figure of his older sister
Cassie standing at the edge of the high wooden front porch. She
waved eagerly in greeting. From the amount of noise emanating
from the' interior of the house, it seemed very likely he and
Phineas were the last members of the family to return for the
night.

Cassie sprang from the porch and dashed across the yard to
meet them. In her hand she held a long white sheet of paper.

"Oh, Jan," she said, when she reached them. "Oh, Phineas.
Something terrible has happened."

Well aware of Cassie's tendency toward exaggeration, Phineas
interceded reassuringly: "There's nothing to get upset about,
Cassie. Jan was out doing a favor for me and I guess I forgot to
tell the work detail. I hope I caused no great inconvenience to
anyone."

"I don't mean that," Cassie said. She shook the white paper
meaningfully. "I mean this."

"Well, what is it, then?"

"It's not for you. It's for Jan. A messenger in a green uniform
brought it about an hour ago. I didn't catch her homestead. A
stranger, I think."
 "A green uniform denotes a government agent," Phineas said.