"Zenna Henderson - Holding Wonder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Henderson Zenna)

right!"

"I caught it!" Gene blazed back.

"Gene! Be still or I'll send you outside!"

Gene subsided, muttering.

"You didn't object to Ruth's hamster being in a cage."

"Cage" and "math" seemed trying to equate in my mind.

"That's because it was a cage beast," he said, fingering the taped hand again.
"It didn't know any better. It didn't care." His voice tightened. "The ground
squirrel did. It would have killed itself to get out. I-I just had to-"

To my astonishment, I saw tears slide down his cheek as he turned his face
away from me. Wordlessly I handed him a tissue from the box on my desk. He
wiped his face, his fingers trembling.

"Gene?" I turned to him. "Anything more?"

"Well, gollee! It was mine! And I liked it! It-it was mine!"

"I'll trade you," said Vincent. "I'll trade you a white rat in a real neat
aluminum cage. A pregnant one, if you like. It'll have four or five babies in
about a week."

"Gollee! Honest?" Gene's eyes were shining.

"Vincent?" I questioned him.

"We have some at home," he said. "Mr. Wellerk at MEL gave me some when we
came. They were surplus. Mother says I may trade if his mother says okay."

"She won't care!" cried Gene. "Us kids have part of the barn for our pets, and
if we take care of them, she doesn't care what we have. She don't even ever
come out there! Dad checks once in a while to be sure we're doing a decent
job. They won't care:"

"Well, you have your mother write a note saying you may have the rat, and
Vincent, if you're sure you want to trade, bring the rat tomorrow and we'll
consider the affair ended." I reached for my hand bell. "Well, scoot, you two.
Drinks and rest room, if necessary. It's past bell time now."
Gene scooted and I could hear him yelling, "Hey! I getta white rat-"
Vincent was at the door when I stopped him with a question. "Vincent, did your
mother know before you came to school that you were going to let the ground
squirrel go?"

"No, ma'am. I didn't even know Gene had it."