"Howard Waldrop - The Sawing Boys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

they are attached to civilization at the other end."
"I do not spy no filling station," I says. "But there does seem to be great activity
for so early of a morning." I am counting houses. "More people are already in town
than live here."
"Perhaps the large gaudy sign up ahead will explain it," says Little Willie. The sign
is being at an angle where another larger dirt path comes into town. From all around
on the mountains I can see people coming in in wagons and on horses and on foot.
We get to the sign. This is what it says, I kid you not:
 BIG HARMONY CONTEST! BRIMMYTOWN SQUARE SAT MAY 16
$50 FIRST PRIZE
Brought to you by Watkins Products and CARDUI, Makers of BLACK
DRAUGHT
Extra! Sacred Harp Singing Rev. Shapenote and the Mt. Sinai Choir.


"Well, well," says Chris. "Looks like there'll be plenty of etrangers in this burg.
We get in there, make the call on the meet, get someone to fix the jalopy, and be on
our way. We should fit right in."
While Chris the Shoemaker is saying this, he is adjusting his orange-and-pink tie
and shooting the cuffs on his purple-and-white pinstripe suit. Little Willie is
straightening his pumpkin-colored, double-breasted suit and brushing the dust off his
yellow spats. Large Jake is dressed in a pure white suit with a black shirt and white
tie, and has on a white fedora with a thin black band. Miss Millie Dee Chantpie swirls
her fringes and rearranges the ostrich feather in her cloche. I feel pretty much like a
sparrow among peacocks.
"Yeah," I says, looking over the town, "they'll probably never notice we been
here."


They made their way into town and went into a store. They bought themselves
some items, and went out onto the long, columned verandah of the place, and sat
down on some nail kegs, resting their saws and ladders against the porch railings.
Cave Canem had a big five-cent RC Cola and a bag of Tom's Nickel Peanuts. He
took a long drink of the cola,, tore the top off the celluloid bag, and poured the
salted peanuts into the neck of the bottle. The liquid instantly turned to foam and
overflowed the top, which Canem put into his mouth. When it settled down, he
drank from the bottle and chewed on the peanuts that came up the neck.
Rooster Joe took off his red cap. He had a five-cent Moon Pie the size of a
dinner plate and took bites off that.
Horbliss had a ten-cent can of King Oscar Sardines. The key attached to the
bottom broke off at the wrong place. Rather than tearing his thumb up, he took out
his pocketknife and cut the top of the can off and peeled the ragged edge back. He
drank off the oil, smacking his lips, then took out the sardines between his thumb
and the knife blade and ate them.
Luke had bought a two-foot length of sugarcane and was sucking on it, spitting
out the fine slivers which came away in his mouth.
They ate in silence and watched the crowds go by, clumps of people breaking
away and eddying into the stores and shops. At one end of town, farmers stopped
their wagons and began selling the produce. From the other end, at the big open
place where the courthouse would be if Brimmytown were the county seat, music