"Шервуд Андерсен. Триумф яйца (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автораdarkness.
SENILITY He was an old man and he sat on the steps of the railroad station in a small Kentucky town. A well dressed man, some traveler from the city, approached and stood before him. The old man became self-conscious. His smile was like the smile of a very young child. His face was all sunken and wrinkled and he had a huge nose. "Have you any coughs, colds, consumption or bleeding sickness?" he asked. In his voice there was a pleading quality. The stranger shook his head. The old man arose. "The sickness that bleeds is a terrible nuisance," he said. His tongue hand on the stranger's arm and laughed. "Bully, pretty," he exclaimed. "I cure them all--coughs, colds, consumption and the sickness that bleeds. I take warts from the hand--I cannot explain how I do it--it is a mystery--I charge nothing--my name is Tom--do you like me?" The stranger was cordial. He nodded his head. The old man became reminiscent. "My father was a hard man," he declared. "He was like me, a blacksmith by trade, but he wore a plug hat. When the corn was high he said to the poor, 'go into the fields and pick' but when the war came he made a rich man pay five dollars for a bushel of corn." "I married against his will. He came to me and he said, 'Tom I do not like that girl.'" "'But I love her,' I said. "'I don't,' he said. "My father and I sat on a log. He was a pretty man and wore a plug hat. 'I will get the license,' I said. "'I will give you no money,' he said. |
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