"Louis L'amour - sackett02 - To The Far Blue Mountains" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Amour Louis)

"In the forest they are masters, craftsmen as sure and true as men can be, and
there's much to learn from them. Vast areas of the land seem to be uninhabited,
for they are few in proportion to its size. They are a different people, of
different backgrounds, and you cannot expect them to react like Christians. They
have not heard of turning the other cheek—"
"And well enough they haven't. I never got far with that myself."

We came upon William. He and I had much of which to talk, of plantings and
harvests and what to do with the money earned from the produce of my land,
little though it was. In all I owned but some small pieces of tillable land, and
some from which rushes might be cut—enough for a man's living and a bit over.
William was a solid man, and I'd promised him half. When there was sufficient
earned, he was to buy another small piece of land.
"And what if you come not back, Barnabas?"
"Leave it in the trust of a good man. For if I come not back, a son of mine
surely will."
William and I had known each other from boyhood, although he was the older by
some seven years, a strong, resolute man who had land and crops, and worked hard
with his hands.
I said to him, "And if the time comes you wish to cross the sea, come to me and
I shall find a place for you."
"I am an Englishman, Barnabas. I want no more than England."
Was he wiser than I? My father had lived through wars and troubles, and it left
him with a sense that nothing lasted but what a man made of himself. "Be wary,"
he advised me, "of trusting too much. Men change and times change, but wars and
revolutions are always with us.
"Own a bit of ground where you can plant enough to live, and be not far from
fuel, for days and nights can be cold. Be friendly with all men and censure
none, tell nobody too much of your affairs and remember in all dealings with
men, or women, to keep one hand upon the doorlatch ... in your mind, at least.
"Men distrust strangers, so have a few places where you are known ... but not
too well. Not even a marsh-rat will trust itself to one hole only, so always
have an escape route, and more than one, if it can be."
So in the days of my growing up we had used more than one market town, to become
somewhat known in each, and we went to church now here, now there. My father did
no smuggling as many fen-men did, but we knew the smugglers. We of the fens were
a close-mouthed lot, not given to talking to strangers, but with a strong
loyalty for one another.
The mysterious swordsman, if such he was, might ask in vain and learn nothing to
help, nor would he find me now, for a myriad of watery routes led to many towns
and villages in several shires.
With a warm fire going William and I talked much, and at the last he said, "Do
not worry about your fields. I shall handle them as I would my own, and will
take one-third."
"One-half," I repeated.
He shook his head. "You give too much, Barnabas."
"One-half," I insisted. "I wish you to have the reward of your care, and with
what you have and what you can make of mine you can become a man of
consequence."
"You go to a far land, Barnabas. Are you not afraid?"