"William Morrison - Disappointment" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

"You'll learn," replied the old man airily. "What I'm getting at is this—that all these results were
practical. But Stewart Payne didn't think them up."
"You'll have to admit, though, that he contributed. Without his surface-hardening process, our tissues
and organs would degenerate as before. We wouldn't mature at twelve and live to two hundred. We
wouldn't stay as healthy as we are. Without hardened surfaces, our houses and buildings would weather
and wear out in the same old way. We wouldn't have superpenetrating tools and atomic-resisting
surfaces. We wouldn't have meteor-proof rocket ships, and even the Moon might still be out of our
reach."
"Don't tell me that you admire the old man," said Perry in alarm.
"I think I do. Ancestor. He could be more practical, but for the theoretical type, he didn't do so
badly."
"Maybe he didn't but I did. The day I met him was the most disappointing day of my life. Threw five
hundred dollars out of the window just because that fellow promised—"
Perry interrupted himself. "Have some of these delicious Martian trek-nuts, Alan."
"Thanks. Ancestor. Kind of salty, aren't they? Must have come out of the bottom of the box."
Perry smiled sourly. "Promised results in a week—and it's over a hundred and thirty years, and he
still hasn't solved it. He just isn't the practical type, lad. After all this time, that should be clear enough."