"Robert F. Young - When Time Was New" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

ones, not the "new"), and about Geronimo and Sitting Bull and Cochise, and all the while he talked their
eyes remained fastened on his face as though it were the sun and they had never before seen day. When
he finished telling them about the settling of the west, he told them about the Civil War and Abraham
Lincoln and Generals Grant and Lee and the Gettysburg Address and the Battle of Bull Run and the
surrender at Appomattox.
He had never talked so much in all his life. He wondered what had come over him, why he felt so
carefree and gay all of a sudden and why nothing seemed to matter except the haze-ridden Cretaceous
afternoon and the two round-eyed children sitting beside him. But he did not waste much time wondering.
He went on to tell them about the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the American
Revolution and George Washington and Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and John Adams, and
about what a wonderful dream the founding fathers had had and about how much better it would have
turned out if opportunistic men had not used it to further their own selfish end and about how relatively
wonderful it had turned out anyway, despite the many crimes that had been committed in its name. By the
time he finished, evening was on hand. The white cliffs rose up before them, shouldering the darkening
sky.
At the base of the cliffs they found a jim-dandy of an untenanted cave, large enough to accommodate
both Sam and themselves and with enough room left over to build a campfire. Carpenter drove the
reptivehicle inside and parked it in the rear; then he extended the shield-field till it included the cave, the
side of the cliff and a large semi-circular area at the base of the cliff. After checking the "front yard" and
finding that it contained no reptiles except several small and harmless lizards, he put the two children to
work gathering firewood. Meanwhile, he generated a one-way illusion-field just within the shield field so
that the forthcoming campfire would not be visible from without.
There was plenty of firewood available in the form of dead laurel and dogwod branches. Soon a
respectable pile of fuel reposed just within the mouth of the cave. By this time Skip, at least, had shed his
reserve. "Can I help build the fire, Mr. Carpenter?" he cried jumping up and down. "Can I—can I— can
I?"
"Skip!" Marcy said.
"It's all right, pumpkin," Carpeter told her. "You can help, too, it you like."

The walls of the cave turned red, then rosy, as young flames grew into full-fledged ones.
Carpenter opened three packages of frankfurters and three packages of rolls and showed his charges
how to spear the frankfurters on the end of pointed sticks and roast them over the fire. Afterward he
demonstrated how to place a frankfurter in a roll and smother it with mustard, pickle relish, and chopped
onions. It was as though he had flung wide magic casements opening on enchanted lands that the two
children had not dreamed existed. The last vestiges of solemnity departed from their faces, and during the
next half hour they created and consumed six hot dogs apiece. Skip got so excited that he nearly fell into
the fire, and the smile that had been trying all afternoon to break upon Marcy's lips at last came through,
teaching the flames to burn bright.
Carpenter had made a pot of cocoa in Sam's kitchenette, and nothing more was needed to round out
the cookout except marshmallows. Was it remotely possible, he wondered, that his efficient chief
assistant had included such nostalgic delicacies among the various supplies in Sam's tail-compartment? It
was doubtful at best, but he took a look anyway. To his delight, he found a whole box of them.
Again, he performed a demonstration, while the two children looked on in open-mouthed awe. When
the two marshmallows which he had speared on his stick turned golden brown he thought for a moment
that Skip's eyes were going to fall out of his head. As for Marcy, she just stood there and stared as
though Carpenter had said, "Let there be light!" and the first day had come into being.
Laughing, he removed the marshmallows and handed one to each of them. "Skip!" Marcy said when
the boy popped his into his mouth and dispatched it with a single gulp; "where are your manners?" She
ate her's daintily.
After the marshmallow roast, he went outside and cut enough laurel and dogwood branches for three