"Eric Flint - [Grantville 04] - 1634 The Ram Rebellion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Flint Eric)

natural gas. Willie Ray Hudson had made that suggestion several years ago. Birdie was glad he had
listened.

Much to his disgust, Birdie simply didn’t have enough land. Even worse, the little bit of land that the Ring
of Fire had left him was mortgaged to the Grantville Bank. There was plenty of land on the other side of
the cliff created by the Ring of Fire, including a village about a mile beyond it. It wasn’t much of a village,
according to Birdie’s sons Haskell and Trent, who’d been patrolling the area with the UMWA guys. But
they said the land was good.

“Birdie,” his wife called, interrupting his thoughts, “staring at that wall won’t undo the Ring of Fire. Come
inside. It’s time for dinner.”

“Be right in, Mary Lee,” Birdie answered, all the while thinking,There’s land on the other side of the
Ring Wall, if only I can get it.

“What do you think Mr. Walker will say?” Mary Lee asked as he was sitting down to dinner. When she
was worried about something she couldn’t just leave it alone, she had to talk about whatever it was.

“Don’t know. Coleman’s a decent enough sort but he’s still a banker. The Ring of Fire took a third of
our land. From where he’s sitting, that means we have two-thirds the collateral for our loan. On the other
hand, there’s a fair bit of property that the bank is gonna get, chunks of land where the owners were
outside the ring. Anyway, I think he’d rather extend the loan if he can see his way clear to do it. Maybe
he’ll give us six months to work something out.”

“And what will we have in six months that we don’t have now?”

“Well, I’ve been giving that some thought while I was staring at that damn wall. Maybe, just maybe, I
have a solution.” He then refused to say another word on the matter, much to Mary Lee’s dismay. Birdie
loved teasing her like that. It still worked, even after almost thirty years.
***

Birdie had an appointment with Coleman Walker, but didn’t get to talk to him. Coleman was busy trying
to set up some kind of money changing business for the Emergency Committee. Instead, Edgar came out
to meet him, and escorted him to an office, chattering all the way.

“You know, Mr. Newhouse,” Edgar said, “here at the bank, we know that the farmers are going to be
really important to the success of Grantville. There’s been a lot of talk about that. The Emergency
Committee got involved and asked, well, demanded, to tell the truth about it, that the Bank put a hiatus
on calling in any farm loans for at least a year. Mr. Walker agreed to it, right smartly, too.”

Birdie thought that was something of a miracle, all by itself. Getting Coleman Walker to agree to anything
“right smartly” hadn’t ever happened in Birdie’s experience.

“Don’t get me wrong, Edgar,” Birdie responded, “Coleman’s always been a good sort. But, there’s got
to be a catch in there, somewhere. Spit it out.”
 “I don’t know all the details, Mr. Newhouse. Mr. Walker talked to Mike and Willie Ray, as well as J.
D. Richards and some other teachers from the Tech School. It seems that the problem, well, one of the
problems, is the stock of seeds we have here. We don’t have enough improved crop seeds. And there’s
something about hybrid seeds not breeding true. And even if they did, there still isn’t enough.”