"Terry Pratchett. A Hat Full Of Sky " - читать интересную книгу автора

the nettles, thistles and hedgehogs were.)
But if it came to it, people were a bit wary of the wandering teachers,
too. They were said to pinch chickens and steal away children (which was
true, in a way) and they went from village to village with their gaudy carts
and wore long robes with leather pads on the sleeves and strange flat hats
and talked amongst themselves using heathen lingo no one could understand,
like Alea jacta est and Quid pro quo. It was quite easy for Miss Tick to
lurk amongst them. Her pointy hat was a stealth version, which looked just
like a black straw hat with paper flowers on it until you pressed the secret
spring.
Over the last year or so Tiffanys mother had been quite surprised, and
a little worried, at Tiffanys sudden thirst for education, which people in
the village thought was a good thing in moderation but if taken unwisely
could lead to restlessness.
Then a month ago, the message had come: Be ready.
Miss Tick, in her flowery hat, had visited the farm and had explained
to Mr and Mrs Aching that an elderly lady up in the mountains had heard of
Tiffanys excellent prowess with cheese and was willing to offer her the post
of maid at four dollars a month, one day off a week, her own bed and a weeks
holiday at Hogswatch.
Tiffany knew her parents. Three dollars a month was a bit low, and five
dollars would be suspiciously high, but prowess with cheese was worth the
extra dollar. And a bed all to yourself was a very nice perk. Before most of
Tiffanys sisters had left home, sleeping two sisters to a bed had been
normal. It was a good offer.
Her parents had been impressed and slightly scared of Miss Tick, but
they had been brought up to believe that people who knew more than you and
used long words were quite important, so theyd agreed.
Tiffany accidentally heard them discussing it after she had gone to bed
that night. Its quite easy to accidentally overhear people talking
downstairs if you hold an upturned glass to the floorboards and accidentally
put your ear to it.
She heard her father say that Tiffany didnt have to go away at all.
She heard her mother say that all girls wondered what was out there in
the world, so it was best to get it out of her system. Besides, she was a
very capable girl with a good head on her shoulders. Why, with hard work
there was no reason why one day she couldnt be a servant to someone quite
important, like Aunt Hetty had been, and live in a house with an inside
privy.
Her father said shed find that scrubbing floors was the same
everywhere.
Her mother said, well, in that case shed get bored and come back home
after the year was up and, by the way, what did prowess mean?
Superior skill, thought Tiffany to herself. They did have an old
dictionary in the house, but her mother never opened it because the sight of
all those words upset her. Tiffany had read it all the way through.
And that was it, and suddenly here she was, a month later, wrapping her
old boots, whichd been worn by all her sisters before her, in a piece of
clean rag and putting them in the second-hand suitcase her mother had bought
her, which looked as if it was made of bad cardboard or pressed grape pips