"Шервуд Андерсен. Марширующие люди (engl) " - читать интересную книгу автора

isn't a time when men are shut off from their fellows. Newspapers and
magazines have done their work too well. They reached even into the
miner's cabin and the merchants along Main Street of Coal Creek stood
before their stores in the afternoon and talked of the doings of the
world. Beaut McGregor knew that life in his town was exceptional, that
not everywhere did men toil all day black and grimy underground, that
not all women were pale bloodless and bent. As he went about
delivering bread he whistled a song. "Take me back to Broadway," he
sang after the soubrette in a show that had once come to Coal Creek.

Now as he sat on the hillside he talked earnestly while he
gesticulated with his hands. "I hate this town," he said. "The men
here think they are confoundedly funny. They don't care for anything
but making foolish jokes and getting drunk. I want to go away." His
voice rose and hatred flamed up in him. "You wait," he boasted. "I'll
make men stop being fools. I'll make children of them. I'll----"
Pausing he looked at his two companions.

Beaut poked the ground with a stick. The boy sitting beside him
laughed. He was a short well--dressed black--haired boy with rings on
his fingers who worked in the town poolroom, racking the pool balls.
"I'd like to go where there are women with blood in them," he said.

Three women came up the hill toward them, a tall pale brown-haired
woman of twenty-seven and two fairer young girls. The black-haired boy
straightened his tie and began thinking of a conversation he would
start when the women reached him. Beaut and the other boy, a fat
fellow, the son of a grocer, looked down the hill to the town over the
heads of the newcomers and continued in their minds the thoughts that
had made the conversation.

"Hello girls, come and sit here," shouted the black-haired boy,
laughing and looking boldly into the eyes of the tall pale woman. They
stopped and the tall woman began stepping over the fallen logs, coming
to them. The two young girls followed, laughing. They sat down on the
log beside the boys, the tall pale woman at the end beside red-haired
McGregor. An embarrassed silence fell over the party. Both Beaut and
the fat boy were disconcerted by this turn to their afternoon's outing
and wondered how it would turn out.

The pale woman began to talk in a low tone. "I want to get away from
here," she said, "I wish I could hear birds sing and see green things
grow."

Beaut McGregor had an idea. "You come with me," he said. He got up and
climbed over the logs and the pale woman followed. The fat boy shouted
at them, relieving his own embarrassment by trying to embarrass them.
"Where're you going--you two?" he shouted.

Beaut said nothing. He stepped over the logs to the road and began