"Gene Wolfe - The Waif" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

"When the Flying People came, we started calling each other Neighbor. Neighbor meant
that a man was one of us, and not one of them. Then we wanted to bum our neighbors." The
bitter smile returned. "Which our religion -- some people's religion, at least -- teaches us we
should not do. So we changed it to Near-man, then to Niman. It wasn't all that long ago.
About the time I was born."

Bin nodded again.

"Have I ever used my switch on you, Bin?"

"Last year." Bin gulped. "For talkin' in class."
"I'm going to do it again, when class resumes. I am going to make the dust fly. Did you cry,
last year?" "A little, Niman Pryderi."

"Are you going to cry this time ?"

Bin shook his head. "I'm bigger."

"You will cry, this time," the schoolmaster told him. "You'll scream. When class resumes, I'm
going to ask you questions, and they will be questions you can't answer. I'll see to that. Then
I'll bend you over my desk and whale away. It will hurt and you'll cry, but the boys who are
ready to league against you will like you after that. And the girls will talk about how you were
beaten when they go home this afternoon, not about what you said. Do you understand?"

"I think so, Niman Pryderi."

The schoolmaster's voice softened. "Guilt is the worst part, Bin. Knowing that we were on
the devil's side, and that what we got was less than we deserved. I want to spare you that.
You've done nothing wrong. Have you ever raked something out of the fire with a stick?"

Bin nodded.
"That's what I'll be doing, with my switch. Remember that."

GAM SAW the tracks the tears had left down a face no particularly clean and said, "What
happened?" and hugged him, and he ate his supper standing up. There was fresh bread for
supper, and to divert him from his sufferings she told him about the salt some kind neighbor
had surely left for them, a nice big sack of clean white salt just sitting there on the doorstep
when she had gone to the well. "Spring was in the air, Bin. I guess you noticed, too, when
you children went outside to play? I was thinking about it, it felt so nice, and I turned around
and carry my bucket back in, and there it was, sitting on the step."

By a great effort of will, Bin succeeded in not looking at his bed; it seemed likely the other
boy would not have gone to bed so early anyway. He would want some of the new bread
after Gam had gone to sleep, Bin decided, and he had earned it, too.

"You want to study your book now?"

He shook his head. "I'm goin' out to play. It'll be dark soon. I'll study then."

"You got switched for not knowing the answers, Bin. You know them now?"