"Howard Waldrop - The Sawing Boys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

THE SAWING BOYS
Howard Waldrop


For Arthur Hunnicutt and the late Sheldon Leonard.




THERE WAS A PLACE IN THE WOODS WHERE THREE paths came
together and turned into one big path heading south.
A bearded man in a large straw hat and patched bib overalls came down one.
Over his shoulder was a tow sack, and out of it stuck the handle of a saw. The man
had a long wide face and large thin ears.
Down the path to his left came a short man in butternut pants and a red
checkerboard shirt that said Ralston-Purina Net Wt. 20 lbs. on it. He had on a
bright red cloth cap that stood up on the top of his head. Slung over his back was a
leather strap; hanging from it was a big ripsaw.
On the third path were two people, one of whom wore a yellow-and-black-striped
shirt, and had a mustache that stood straight out from the sides of his nose. The
other man was dressed in a dark brown barn coat. He had a wrinkled face, and wore
a brown Mackenzie cap down from which the earflaps hung, even though it was a
warm morning. The man with the mustache carried a narrow folding ladder; the other
carried a two-man bucksaw.
The first man stopped.
"Hi yew!" he said in the general direction of the other two paths.
"Howdee!" said the short man in the red cap.
"Well, well, well!" said the man with the floppy-eared hat, putting down his big
saw.
"Weow!" said the man with the wiry mustache.
They looked each other over, keeping their distance, eyeing each others' clothing
and saws.
"Well, I guess we know where we're all headed," said the man with the brown
Mackenzie cap.
"I reckon," said the man in the straw hat. "I'm Luke Apuleus, from over Cornfield
County way. I play the crosscut."
"I'm Rooster Joe Banty," said the second. "I'm a ripsaw bender myself."
 "I'm Felix Horbliss," said the man in stripes with the ladder. "That thar's Cave
Canem. We play this here big bucksaw."
They looked at each other some more.
"I'm to wonderin'," said Luke, bringing his toe sack around in front of him. "I'm
wonderin' if'n we know the same tunes. Seems to me it'd be a shame to have to play
agin' each other if'n we could help it."
"You-all know Trottin' Gertie Home'?" asked Felix.
Luke and Rooster Joe nodded.
"How about 'When the Shine comes Out'n the Dripper'?" asked Rooster Joe.
The others nodded.
"How are you on 'Snake Handler's Two-Step'?" asked Luke Apuleus.
More nods.
"Well, that's a start on it," said Cave Canem. "We can talk about it on the way