"William Tenn - Child's Play" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

much more advanced than Bild-A-Man Sets 1 and 2, will enable the child of this age-group to build and assemble complete adult
humans in perfect working order. The retarded child may also con-struct the babies and mannikins of the earlier kits. Two
disassembleators are pro-vided so that the set can be used again and again with profit. As with Sets 1 and 2, the aid of a Census
Keeper in all disassembling is advised. Refills and additional parts maybe acquired from The Bild-A-Man Company, 928 Diagonal
Level, Glunt City, Ohio. RememberтАФonly with a Bild-A-Man can you build a man!


Weber squeezed his eyes shut. What was that gag in the movie he'd seen last night? Terrific gag.
Terrific picture, too. Nice technicolor. Wonder how much the director made a week? The cameraman?
Five hundred? A thousand?
He opened his eyes warily. The box was still a squat cube in the center of his room. The book was
still in his shaking hand. And the page read the same.
"Only with a Bild-A-Man can you build a man!" Heaven help a neurotic young lawyer at a time like
this!
There was a price list on the next page for "refills and additional parts." Things like one liter of
hemoglobin and three grams of assorted enzymes were offered for sale in terms of one slunk fifty and
three slunks forty-five. A note on the bottom advertised Set #4: "The thrill of building your first live
Martian!"
Fine print announced pat. pending 2348.
The third page was a table of contents. Sam gripped the edge of the mattress with one sweating
hand and read:

Chapter IтАФA child's garden of biochemistry.
Chapter IIтАФMaking simple living things indoors and out.
Chapter IIIтАФMannikins and what makes them do the world's work.
Chapter IVтАФBabies and other small humans.
Chapter VтАФTwins for every purpose: twinning yourself and your friends.
Chapter VIтАФWhat you need to build a man.
Chapter VIIтАФCompleting the man.
Chapter VIIIтАФDisassembling the man.
Chapter IXтАФNew kinds of life for your leisure moments.


Sam dropped the book back into the box and ran for the mirror. His face was still the same,
somewhat like bleached chalk, but fundamentally the same. He hadn't twinned or grown himself a
mannikin or devised a new kind of life for his leisure moments. Everything was snug as a bug in a
bughouse.
Very carefully he pushed his eyes back into the proper position in their sockets.
"Dear Aunt Maggie," he began writing feverishly. "Your ties made the most beau-tiful gift of my
Christmas. My only regret isтАФ"
My only regret is that I have but one life to give for my Christmas present. Who could have gone to
such fantastic lengths for a practical joke? Lew Knight? Even Lew must have some reverence in his
insensitive body for the institution of Christmas. And Lew didn't have the brains or the patience for a job
so involved.
Tina? Tina had the fine talent for complication, all right. But Tina, while possessing a delightful
abundance of all other physical attributes, was badly lacking in funny-bone.
Sam drew forth the leather wallet she'd given him and caressed it. Tina's perfume seemed to cling to
the surface and move the world back into focus.
The metallic greeting card glinted at him from the floor. Maybe the reverse side contained the
sender's name. He picked it up, turned it over.