"Habberton, John - Everybody's Chance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Habberton John)

inspiring in the back of that seat. The lecturer continued:
"An old book which all of you have in the house, and which some of you profess
to believe with all your might, says that 'A man's life consisteth not in the
abundance of the things which he possesseth'; you can read the passage for
yourselves, and correct me if I am wrong. That same old book tells of chances
that came to lots of people that hadn't a cent, either before or after. There
are just as good chances now, and Brundy's as full of 'em as any other place,
an' the people that don't get 'em are the people who won't see 'em, though if
the chances were bears they'd bite 'em, they're so close. A man's best chance is
whatever is closest to him; if it isn't also closest to his heart, that's the
man's faultЧ not the chance's."
The lecturer went on in the same vein, and told of some of his own chances which
he had missed, as well as of some in which he had, to use his own expression,
"caught on"; and he told some stories of personal experience so well that he
made a lot of people cry a little, and laugh much, and not a few were compelled
to do some serious thinking
When the talk ended there was quite a melodious jingling of coin in the box at
the door; and several members of the audience who were nearest to old Pruffett
told their neighbors for a week afterward that the old man actually dropped into
the box a ten-dollar bill, forty times as much as would have paid the lecturer's
stage fare to the next town.
"Got any small change about your clothes, Champ?" asked Charley Wurring, a
smiling youth, of Champney Bruff, a serious-looking man of about thirty years,
who was exploring his vest pocket. Charley had abundant reason for smiling, for
by his side, where she had been throughout the lecture, was Luce Grew, the
handsomest girl in the village. "I didn't bring any money, for I came only to
laugh, but I found my chance during the lecture, and here she is, eh, Luce?"
Luce looked rather bashfully toward Champ with her great dark eyes and strong
face, and then, for relief, smiled pleasantly at Charley. Champ flushed a little
under his dark brown skin, but mechanically extended a coin toward Charley, who
took it and dropped it into the box. Then he took Luce's hand, placed it on his
arm, whispered something to the girl, which elicited a smile which Champ
regarded fixedly, although the longer he looked the whiter and more fixed it
became. Suddenly it appeared to him that old Pruffett was regarding him
intently, and as he did not care to be looked at closely at that particular
moment he abruptly left the hall and started homeward.
So Charley Wurring and Luce Grew had come to an understanding.
And Luce Grew was the one woman of Brundy whom Champney Bruff had ever thought
he could love. Could love? Had he not loved her for years? He had not dared tell
her so, for how could he? He was the oldest member of his father's family; his
mother was dead, his father unfit for work; and the farm was one which required
steady work and rigid economy if it was to support all of Champ's brothers and
sisters. The farm would be better if he could clear and drain about twelve acres
of marshy woodland that belonged to it, and to clear that land had been his
special effort for two or three years; but after the usual farm routine had been
gone through with, even in winter, he could find time to chop down only two or
three trees a day, and after all the trees were gone there would still be the
stumps, and after the stumps the ditching. When all this had been done, he would
propose to Luce Grew, but now, evidently, his chance or his duty, which to the
lecturer had seemed to mean the same thing, was the finishing of that clearingЧ