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

Nothing but blank gold surface. He was sure of the gold; his father had been a jeweler. The very
value of the sheet was rebuttal to the possibility of a practical joke. Besides, again, what was the point?
"Merry Christmas, 2353." Where would humanity be in four hundred years? Trav-eling to the stars,
or beyondтАФto unimaginable destinations? Using little mannikins to perform the work of machines and
robots? Providing children withтАФ
There might be another card or note inside the box. Weber bent down to remove its contents. His
eye noted a large grayish jar and the label etched into its surface: Dehydrated Neurone Preparation,
for human construction only.
He backed away and glared. "Close!"
The thing melted shut. Weber sighed his relief at it and decided to go to bed.
He regretted while undressing that he hadn't thought to ask the messenger the name of his firm.
Knowing the delivery service involved would be useful in tracing the origin of this gruesome gift.
"But then," he repeated as he fell asleep, "it's not the giftтАФit's the principle! Merry Christmas, me."


The next morning when Lew Knight breezed in with his "Good morning, counselor," Sam waited for
the first sly ribbing to start. Lew wasn't the man to hide the light of his humor under a bushel. But Lew
buried his nose in The New York State Supplement and kept it there all morning. The other five young
lawyers in the communal office appeared either too bored or too busy to have Bild-A-Man sets on their
conscience. There were no sly grins, no covert glances, no leading questions.
Tina walked in at ten o'clock, looking like a pinup girl caught with her clothes on.
"Good morning, counselors," she said.
Each in his own way, according to the peculiar gland secretions he was enjoying at the moment,
beamed, drooled or nodded a reply. Lew Knight drooled. Sam Weber beamed.
Tina took it all in and analyzed the situation while she fluffed her hair about. Her conclusions
evidently involved leaning markedly against Lew Knight's desk and asking what he had for her to do this
morning.
Sam bit savagely into Hackleworth On Torts. Theoretically, Tina was employed by all seven of
them as secretary, switchboard operator and receptionist. Actually, the most faithful performance of her
duties entailed nothing more daily than the typing and addressing of two envelopes with an occasional
letter to be sealed inside. Once a week there might be a wistful little brief which was never to attain
judicial scrutiny. Tina therefore had a fair library of fashion magazines in the first drawer of her desk and a
complete cosmetics laboratory in the other two; she spent one third of her working day in the ladies'
room swapping stocking prices and sources with other secretaries; she devoted the other two thirds
religiously to that one of her employers who as of her arrival seemed to be in the most masculine mood.
Her pay was small but her life was full.
Just before lunch, she approached casually with the morning's mail. "Didn't think we'd be too busy
this morning, counselorтАФ" she began.
 "You thought incorrectly, Miss Hill," he informed her with a brisk irritation that he hoped became
him well; "I've been waiting for you to terminate your social en-gagements so that we could get down to
what occasionally passes for business."
She was as startled as an uncushioned kitten. "ButтАФbut this isn't Monday. Somerset & Ojack only
send you stuff on Mondays."
Sam winced at the reminder that if it weren't for the legal drudgework he received once a week from
Somerset & Ojack he would be a lawyer in name only, if not in spirit only. "I have a letter, Miss Hill," he
replied steadily. "Whenever you assemble the necessary materials, we can get on with it."
Tina returned in a head-shaking moment with stenographic pad and pencils.
"Regular heading, today's date," Sam began. "Address it to Chamber of Commerce, Glunt City,
Ohio. Gentlemen: Would you inform me if you have registered currently with you a firm bearing the name
of the Bild-A-Man Company or a firm with any name at all similar? I am also interested in whether a firm