"R. A. Lafferty - Stories 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

"Ah, McGruder, I don't know what the Flea-Bag is, and I forget what
early ambition of mine you refer to."
"The Flea-Bag, Heinie, is a mimeographed sheet that still circulates
among the members of our dwindling profession. And your early ambition was
to grow up and have fleas of your own."
"Wish I had done it, McGruder, wish I had done it, especially on
days like this. Some of my happiest hours were spent watching McGruder's
Marvels, that greatest of all Flea Circuses, in that little hole in the
wall."
"In the Hippodrome, you mean, Heinie? Do you remember the Coachman
Set?"
"Yes, yes, and the flea up on the coachman's seat, in livery, and
with the whip! McGruder, when you screwed the three sections of the
microscope together, you could see the very braiding of that coachman's
whip. And the flea in harnass! The harnass was perfect, and had little bells
on it. The bells had clappers, and you could hear them jingle when you
screwed that little thing into your ear. And the flea in harnass was shod,
with real horse-shoes, or flea-shoes."
"More, Heinie, more! The shoes had authentic calks on them, and
nails! And the nails were of no ordinary sort, but were ancient horseshoe
nails with the oblong wedge-shaped heard. You could see that when you
screwed the fourth section into the microscope. And you remember the lady
fleas inside the coach, Heinie?"
"Yes, yes, dressed in old Empire style with the high hair on them,
and the flounce stuff. And when you screwed the little hting into your nose
you could smell their perfume. What was it, McGruder?"
"Printemps. And you may not know it, but there were eight petticoats
on each of those lady fleas, and the microscopic lace on even the inmost of
them was done with loving care and suprassing detail, more than the nine
hundred loops on the bottom round in the style that is called punto a
groppo. Your eyes used to boggle at my little things, little Heinie."
"My mind boggles at something now. That was forty years ago.
McGruder, I know you were good, but this passes reason! Yopu still have your
little lathes and turners and instruments here, but you did not make a
miniaturized control station with such!"
"Of course not, Heinie. The detailign for the little control station
had to be a thousand times finer, actually eight thousand times finer, than
anything I could do on my little lathes. I'm surprised you could ask such a
silly question, Heinie."
"Is that the control station there, Marvelous?"
"That's it, Heinie. Take it along and try and send me the
twenty-four dollars if it works. I'll have another one this time tomorrow if
you wish. It's nice to have seen you. I'm always happy when the little boys
come back to see me again."
The Marvelous McGruder still had a certain threadbare elegance about
him.
"McGruder, how did you make the control station?"
"Trade secret, Heinie. You remember my patter. Everything was always
a trade secret."
"McGruder, I'm going to ask you the silliest question I've every