"Robert A. Heinlein - Farmer In The Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

тАЬWellтАФlook, George, does that mean that you'll sign for Duck if his father says it's okay?тАЭ

тАЬI meant what I said, Bill. Let's wait. The problem may solve itself.тАЭ
I said, тАЬOh well, maybe Mr. and Mrs. Miller will decide to put in for it, too, after Duck gets them stirred
up.тАЭ

Dad just cocked an eyebrow at me. тАЬMr. Miller has, shall we say, numerous business interests here. I
think it would be easier to jack up one corner of Boulder Dam than to get him to give them up.тАЭ

тАЬYou're giving upyour business.тАЭ

тАЬNot my business, my professional practice. But I'm not giving up my profession; I'm taking it with me.тАЭ

I saw Duck at school the next day and asked him what his father had said.

тАЬForget it,тАЭ he told me. тАЬThe deal is off.тАЭ

тАЬHuh?тАЭ

тАЬMy old man says that nobody but an utter idiot would even think of going out to Ganymede. He says
that Earth is the only planet in the system fit to live on and that if the government wasn't loaded up with a
bunch of starry-eyed dreamers we would quit pouring money down a rat hole trying to turn a bunch of
bare rocks in the sky into green pastures. He says the whole enterprise is doomed.тАЭ

тАЬYou didn't think so yesterday.тАЭ

тАЬThat was before I got the straight dope. You know what? My old man is going to take me into
partnership. Just as soon as I'm through college he's going to start breaking me into the management end.
He says he didn't tell me before because he wanted me to learn self reliance and initiative, but he thought
it was time I knew about it. What do you think of that?тАЭ

тАЬWhy, that's pretty nice, I suppose. But what's this about the 'enterprise being doomed'?тАЭ

тАЬ 'Nice', he calls it! Well, my old man says that it is an absolute impossibility to keep a permanent colony
on Ganymede. It's a perilous toehold, artificially maintainedтАФthose were his exact wordsтАФand someday
the gadgets will bust and the whole colony will be wiped out, every man jack, and then we will quit trying
to go against nature.тАЭ

We didn't talk any more then as we had to go to class. I told Dad about it that night. тАЬWhat do you
think, George?тАЭ

тАЬWell, there is something in what he saysтАФтАФтАЭ

тАЬHuh?тАЭ

тАЬDon't jump the gun. If everything went sour on Ganymede at once and we didn't have the means to fix
it, it would revert to the state we found it in. But that's not the whole answer. People have a funny habit of
taking as 'natural' whatever they are used toтАФbut there hasn't been any 'natural' environment, the way
they mean it, since men climbed down out of trees. Bill, how many people are there in California?тАЭ