"Andre Norton - Long Night of Waiting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

where they had been for a hundred and ten yearsтАФa hundred and ten just like the stone said.

She and Rick had found the stone when Alex had run away. They had often had to hunt Alex like that.
Ever since he learned to open the Safe-tee gate he would go off about once a week or so. It was about
two months after they moved here, before all the new houses had been built and the big apartments at the
end of the street. This was all more like real country then. Now it was different, spoiledтАФjust this one
open place left and that (unless Lizzy was right in thinking she'd stopped it all) would not be open long.
The men had started to clear it off with the bulldozer the day before yesterday. All the ground on that
side was raw and cut up, the trees and bushes had been smashed and dug out.

There had been part of an old orchard there, and a big old lilac bush. Last spring it had been so pretty.
Of course, the apples were all little and hard, and had worms in them. But it had been pretty and a swell
place to play. Rick and Jim Bowers had a house up in the biggest tree. Their sign said "No girls allowed,"
but Lesley had sneaked up once when they were playing Little League ball and had seen it all.

Then there was the stone. That was kind of scary. Yet they had kept going to look at it every once in a
while, just to wonder.

Alex had found it first that day he ran away. There were a lot of bushes hiding it and tall grass. Lesley felt
her eyes drawn in that direction now. It was still there. Though you have to mostly guess about that, only
one teeny bit of it showed through all those leaves and things.

And when they had found Alex he had been working with a piece of stick, scratching at the words
carved there which were all filled up with moss and dirt. He had been so busy and excited he had not
tried to dodge them as he usually did, instead he wanted to know if those were real words, and then
demanded that Rick read them to him.

Now Lesley's lips silently shaped what was carved there.

A long night of waiting.

To the Memory of our dear children,

Lizzy and Matthew Mendal,

Who disappeared on this spot

June 23, 1861.

May the Good Lord return them

to their loving parents and this

world in His Own reckoned time.

Erected to mark our years of watching,

June 23, 1900.

It had sounded so queer. At first Lesley had thought it was a grave and had been a little frightened. But