"Boris and Arkady Strugatsky. The snail on the slope" - читать интересную книгу автора

in the nose and he doesn't go anywhere anymore. . . . Dummy was going to the
City because there was no City, they knew Dummy, Dummy was a fool if ever
there was one, and if there was no City, how could there be Amalgamation?
There was no Amalgamation, there had been one time mind you, but that was
ages ago . . . and no Accession either! Who says there's no Accession? What
do you mean? What's that? Loudmouth . . . hold Loudmouth! They've let him
go! Why couldn't they hold onto him?
Kandid, knowing this would go on for long, attempted to start a
conversation with Barnacle, but Barnacle was in no mood for conversation.
"Accession," he shouted. "Then what about the deadlings? You're forgetting
the deadlings! Why? Because you haven't any idea what to think about them,
that's why you're all shouting about this Accession! . . ."
They went on shouting about the deadlings, then about the mushroomy
villages, then they got tired and began to quiet down, mopping their faces
and shrugging one another off wearily. Soon it transpired that everybody had
fallen silent and only the old man and Loudmouth were carrying on. Everyone
came to their senses. Loudmouth was borne down and his mouth stuffed with
leaves. The old man went on for a while but lost his voice and became
inaudible. Then a disheveled representative from New Village got up and
pressing his hands to his breast and staring about him, began to beg in a
broken voice that Loudmouth shouldn't be sent to New Village, they had no
need of him, they had lived a hundred years without him and could do it
again, they should bring the bride to the village and then they would see
New Village would make no trouble over a dowry. . . . Nobody had the
strength to start arguing again--they promised to think about it and decide
later, especially as the matter wasn't urgent.
People began to drift off to dinner. Barnacle took Kandid by the arm
and dragged him to one side under a tree.
"Right, when do we leave?" he asked. "I'm so fed up here in the
village, I want off into the forest, I'll be ill of boredom here soon. ...
If you're not going, say so and I'll go alone, I'll talk Buster or Hopalong
into going too."
"We're going the day after tomorrow," said Kandid. "You've prepared
food?"
"Prepared it and eaten it. I haven't got patience to look at it, lying
there and nobody to eat it except the old man--he's getting on my nerves,
I'll make a cripple of him yet if I don't go soon. . . . What do you think,
Dummy, who is that old man and why does he eat everybody out of house and
home, where does he live? I'm a traveled man, I've been in a dozen villages,
I've been with the funny folk, I've even visited the skinnies, spent the
night there--nearly died of fright, but I've never seen an old man like
that, he must be a rare specimen, that's why we keep him and don't beat him,
but I've no patience left to watch him rummage around my pots day and
night--he eats in the house and takes stuff away with him, why my father
used to curse him before the deadlings smashed him up. . .. Where does he
put it all? He's just skin and bones, there's no room inside him, but he can
lap up two jars and take two away with him, and he never brings any jars
back. . . . You know, Dummy, maybe we've got more than one old man, maybe
there's two or even three? Two sleep while one works. When he's had his fill
he wakes up the next and goes to sleep himself. . . ."