"Lewis Padgett - Mimsy Were The Borogoves" - читать интересную книгу автора (Padgett Lewis)

were a maze. Perhaps that's what the gadget wasтАФa puzzle.
"Where'd you get this?"
"Uncle Harry gave it to me," Scott said on the spur of the moment. "Last Sunday,
when he came over." Uncle Harry was out of town, a circumstance Scott well knew.
At the age of seven, a boy soon learns that the vagaries of adults follow a certain
definite pattern, and that they are fussy about the donors of gifts. Moreover, Uncle
Harry would not return for several weeks; the expiration of that period was
unimaginable to Scott, or, at least, the fact that his lie would ultimately be discovered
meant less to him than the advantages of being allowed to keep the toy.
Paradine found himself growing slightly confused as he attempted to manipulate
the beads. The angles were vaguely illogical. It was like a puzzle. This red bead, if
slid along this wire to that junction, should reach thereтАФbut it didn't. A maze, odd,
but no doubt instructive. Paradine had a well-founded feeling that he'd have no
patience with the thing himself.
Scott did, however, retiring to a corner and sliding beads around with much
fumbling and grunting. The beads did sting, when Scott chose the wrong ones or
tried to slide them in the wrong direction. At last he crowed exultantly.
"I did it, dad!"
"Eh? What? Let's see." The device looked exactly the same to Paradine, but Scott
pointed and beamed.
"I made it disappear."
"It's still there."
"That blue bead. It's gone now."
Paradine didn't believe that, so he merely snorted. Scott puzzled over the
framework again. He experimented. This time there were no shocks, even slight. The
abacus had showed him the correct method. Now it was up to him to do it on his
own. The bizarre angles of the wires seemed a little less confusing now, somehow.
It was a most instructive toy.
It worked, Scott thought, rather like the crystal cube. Reminded of the gadget, he
took it from his pocket and relinquished the abacus to Emma, who was struck dumb
with joy. She fell to work sliding the beads, this time without protesting against the
shocksтАФwhich, indeed, were very minorтАФand, being imitative, she managed to
make a bead disappear almost as quickly as had Scott. The blue bead
reappearedтАФbut Scott didn't notice. He had forethoughtfully retired into an angle of
the chesterfield with an overstuffed chair and amused himself with the cube.
There were little people inside the thing, tiny mannequins much enlarged by the
magnifying properties of the crystal, and they moved, all right. They built a house. It
caught fire, with realistic-seeming flames, and stood by waiting. Scott puffed
urgently. "Put it out!"
But nothing happened. Where was that queer fire engine, with revolving arms, that
had appeared before? Here it was. It came sailing into the picture and stopped. Scott
urged it on.
This was fun. Like putting on a play, only more real. The little people did what
Scott told them, inside of his head. If he made a mistake, they waited till he'd found
the right way. They even posed new problems for him.
The cube, too, was a most instructive toy. It was teaching Scott, with alarming
rapidityтАФand teaching him very entertainingly. But it gave him no really new
knowledge as yet. He wasn't ready. LaterтАФlaterтАФ
Emma grew tired of the abacus and went in search of Scott. She couldn't find
him, even in his room, but once there the contents of the closet intrigued her. She