"John D. Fitzgerald - The Great Brain ReformsUC - 5" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fitzgerald John D)

Frankie the jackknife.

"You are nothing but a couple of blackmailers," I
complained bitterly.

Sometime^ a fellow can get so plumb disgusted with
himself that, he wishes he'd never been born. The Great
Brain had only been home about twenty-four hours and
already he had cost me my basketball, my backstop, my
jackknife, and ten cents a week allowance. They had muz-

ifi

zles for dogs to stop them from barking and biting people.
Why in the heck didn't somebody invent a muzzle for fools
like me, who didn't have sense enough to keep their big
mouths shut?

That evening after supper Sweyn went to sit on the
front porch of the Vinson home with his girl, Marie.
Sweyn had disgraced Tom and me after his first year at the
academy by going with a girl. In those days boys under
sixteen played with boys and girls played with girls. And
any boy under sixteen who went with a girl was considered
a sissie. The fellows had really given Tom and me a bad'
time about it. At the rate Sweyn was going, he would be
married before he was sixteen and having kids brfore he
was old enough to shave.

Tom left to see Parley Benson about something soon
after. I started playing checkers with Frankie but he didn't
have his mind on the game. Finally he got up aad walked
over and put his hand on Papa's knee.

"What is a blackmailer, Papa?" he asked.

Papa looked surprised and put aside a magazine he
was reading. "Where did you pick up a word like that?"
he asked. *,

I thought for sure Frankie was going to spill the
beans but he didn't.

"I heard a boy say it," he said. "What does it mean?"

"A blackmailer," Papa said, "is one of the most low-
down crooks there is. He finds out a secret about some-
body and threatens to tell other people about it if the
person doesn't pay him to be silent."