"J.R.R. Tolkien - Farmer Giles of Ham" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tolkien J.R.R)

mercy!' he said to himself; and though the night was warm,
he shivered and shook.

`Get back to bed and don't be a fool!' said his wife. `And
drown that dog in the morning. There is no call to
believe what a dog says; they'll tell any tale, when caught
truant or thieving.'

`May be, Agatha,' said he, `and may be not. But there's
something going on in my fields, or Garm's a rabbit. That
dog was frightened. And why should he come yammering
in the night when he could sneak in at the back door with
the milk in the morning?

`Don't stand there arguing!' said she. `If you believe the
dog, then take his advice: be bold and quick!'

'Easier said than done,' answered Giles; for, indeed, he
believed quite half of Garm's tale. In the small hours of the
night giants seem less unlikely,.

Still, property is property; and Farmer Giles had a short
way with 'trespassers that few could outface. So he pulled
on his breeches, and went down into the kitchen and took
his blunderbuss from the wall. Some may well ask what a
blunderbuss was. Indeed, this very question, it is said, was
put to the Four Wise Clerks of Oxenford, and after thought
they replied: `A blunderbuss is a short gun with a large
bore firing many balls or slugs, and capable of doing
execution within a limited range without exact aim. (Now
superseded in civilised countries by other firearms.)'

However, Farmer Giles's blunderbuss had a wide mouth
that opened like a horn, and it did not fire balls or slugs, but
anything that he could spare to stuff in. And it did not do
execution, because he seldom loaded it, and never let it off.
The sight of it was usually enough for his purpose. And
this country was not yet civilised, for the blunderbuss was
not superseded: it was indeed the only kind of gun that
there was, and rare at that. People preferred bows and
arrows and used gunpowder mostly for fireworks.

Well then, Farmer Giles took down the blunderbuss, and he
put in a good charge of powder, just in case extreme
measures should be required; and into the wide mouth he
stuffed old nails and bits of wire, pieces of broken pot,
bones and stones and other rubbish. The he drew on his
top-boots and his overcoat, and he went out through the
kitchen garden.