"Henry Kuttner - See You Later" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

There was one short, o' course, on account of I left out Yancey, and o' course the Hogbens ain't listed in
no census. But here I was, standing right in front of everybody in the whole, entire world except the
Hogben fam'ly and Yancey hisself. It was plumb onreasonable.

Never did I know there was so many faces in this world! They was all colors, some with whiskers, some
without, some with clothes on, some naked as needles, some awful big and some real short, and half of
them was in daylight and half was in the nighttime. I got downright dizzy.

For just a flash, I thought I could make out some of the people I knowed down in Piperville, including the
Sheriff, but he got mixed up with a lady in a string of beads who was casing a kangaroo-critter, and she
turned into a man dressed up fit to kill who was speechifyin' hi a big room somewheres.

My, I was dizzy.

I got ahold of myself and it was about time, too, for just about then near everybody in the whole world
noticed me. 'Course, it must have looked like I'd popped out of thin air, right in front of them, real
sudden, and тАФwell, you ever had near two billion, two hunnerd and fifty million, nine hunnerd and
fifty-nine thousand, nine hunnerd and nineteen people looking you right square hi the eye? It's just awful. I
forgot what I'd been intending. Only I sort of heard Grandpaw's voice telling me to hurry up.

So I pushed that stick of firewood I was holding, only now it was two billion, two hunnerd and fifty
million, nine hunnerd and fifty-nine thousand, nine hunnerd and

nineteen sticks, into just about the same number of hands and let go. Some of the people let go too, but
most of 'em held on to it. Then I tried to remember the speech I was a-gonna make, telling 'em to git hi
the fust lick at Yancey afore he could swing that monkey wrench.

But I was too confounded. It was funny. Having all them people looking right at me made me so
downright shy, I couldn't even open my mouth. What made it worse was that Grandpaw yelled I had
only one second left, so there wasn't even tune to make a speech. In just one second, I was a-gonna
flash back to our kitchen, and then old Yancey was all ready to jump hi the gadget and swing that
monkey wrench. And I hadn't warned nobody. All I'd done was give everybody a little old stick of
firewood.

My, how they stared! I felt plumb naked. Their eyes bugged right out. And just as I started to thin out
around the edges like a biscuit, IтАФwell, I don't know what come over me. I guess it was feeling so
oncommon shy. Maybe I shouldn't of done it, butтАФ

I done it! ^

Then I was back in the kitchen. Grandpaw was laughing fit to kill hi the attic. The old gentleman's got a
funny kind of sense of humor, I guess. I didn't have no time for him then, though, for Yancey jumped past
me and into the gadget. And he disappeared into thin air, the way I had. Split up, like I'd been, into as
many people as there was hi the world, and standing right hi front of 'em.

Maw and Paw and Uncle Les was looking at me real hard. I sort of shuffled.

"I fixed it," I said. "Seems like a man who's mean enough to hit little babies over the haid deserves what
he's"тАФI stopped and looked at the gadgetтАФ"what he's been and got," I finished, on account of Yancey
had tumbled out of thin air, and a more whupped-up old rattlesnake I never seen. My!