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

I said no, I hadn't.

тАЬThen be glad you've got a cot. The room you reserved is occupied by a family with nine children.тАЭ

I went.
 The hotel was a madhouse. I couldn't have gotten anything to eat even if I hadn't promised myself not to
eat; you couldn't get within twenty yards of the dining room. There were children underfoot everywhere
and squalling brats galore. There were emigrant families squatting in the ball room. I looked them over
and wondered how they had picked them; out of a grab bag?

Finally I went to bed. I was hungry and got hungrier. I began to wonder why I was going to all this
trouble to hang on to a Scout uniform I obviously wasn't going to use.

If I had had my ration book I would have gotten up and stood in line at the dining roomтАФbut Dad and I
had turned ours in. I still had some money and thought about trying to find a free-dealers; they say you
can find them around a hotel. But Dad says that тАЬfree-dealerтАЭ is a fake word; they are black marketeers
and no gentleman will buy from them.

Besides that I didn't have the slightest idea of how to go about finding one.

I got up and got a drink and went back to bed and went through the relaxing routine. Finally I got to
sleep and dreamed about strawberry shortcake with real cream, the kind that comes from cows.

I woke up hungry but I suddenly remembered that this was it!тАФmy last day on Earth. Then I was too
excited to be hungry. I got up, put on my Scout uniform and my ship suit over it.

I thought we would go right on board. I was wrong.

First we had to assemble under awnings spread out in front of the hotel near the embarking tubes. It
wasn't air conditioned outside, of course, but it was early and the desert wasn't really hot yet. I found the
letter тАЬLтАЭ and sat down under it, sitting on my baggage. Dad and his new family weren't around yet; I
began to wonder if I was going to Ganymede by myself. I didn't much care.

Out past the gates about five miles away, you could see the ships standing on the field, theDaedalus and
theIcarus, pulled off the Earth-Moon run for this one trip, and the oldBifrost that had been the shuttle
rocket to Supra-New-York space station as far back as I could remember.

TheDaedalus and theIcarus were bigger but I hoped I would get theBifrost; she was the first ship I
ever saw blast off.

A family put their baggage down by mine. The mother looked out across the field and said, тАЬJoseph,
which one is theMayflower?тАЭ

Her husband tried to explain to her, but she still was puzzled. I nearly burst, trying to keep from laughing.
Here she was, all set to go to Ganymede and yet she was so dumb she didn't even know that the ship she
was going in had been built out in space and couldn't land anywhere.

The place was getting crowded with emigrants and relatives coming to see them off, but I still didn't see
anything of Dad. I heard my name called and turned around and there was Duck Miller. тАЬGee, Bill,тАЭ he