"Yuri Olesha. The three fat men (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Chapter Thirteen. Victory

EPILOGUE


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CHAPTER ONE

DOCTOR CASPAR ARNERY HAS A BUSY DAY


The time of magicians has past. And there probably never were any, to
begin with. They must have been made up to fool very little children. But
there really were very smart and nimble jugglers who could trick the crowd
watching them, and that is why people believed there were wizards and
magicians.
Once upon a time, there was a doctor whose name was Caspar Arnery. A
simple-minded person, or an idler at a country fair, or a half-baked student
might think he was a magician, for the doctor could do wonderful and unusual
things that really looked just like magic. But he was nothing at all like
the fakes and magicians who fooled the trusting, simple people.
Doctor Caspar Arnery was a scientist. He had studied a hundred
different sciences, and there was not another person in all the land as wise
and educated as he.
Everyone knew how wise he was: the miller, the soldiers, all the
ladies, even the Palace ministers. This is the song the schoolboys sang
about him:
Doctor Caspar Arnery-
What a clever man is he!
He can trap the sliest fox,
He can crack the hardest rocks,
He can fly from here to Mars,
He can reach the farthest stars!



One lovely day in June, Doctor Caspar Arnery decided to set off on a
long walk to gather some grasses and beetles for his collection.
Doctor Caspar was not young any more, and so he was afraid of the wind
and the rain. Whenever he left the house he would tie a warm scarf round his
neck, put on a pair of spectacles to keep the dust out of his eyes, and take
along his walking-stick to lean on and keep him from stumbling. When he
started out he always took a lot of trouble to have everything just so.
It was a beautiful day. The sun did nothing but shine, the grass was so
green it made your mouth water just to look at it, the air was full of
dandelion fuzz, birds chirped, and there was a light breeze.
"Ah, how lovely," said the doctor. "But I'd better take my cape, just
in case. Summer days are so changeable. It might begin to rain."
When he had made sure that everything was in order at home, he wiped
his spectacles clean, picked up his green leather bag and set off.