The Stone Book Quartet. Alan Garner

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ at Joseph. ‘Eh, dear, dear! Robert?’ he said. ‘Has the Missis been sitting on your shirt tail?’

      ‘Take it away,’ said Grandfather. ‘I’ll not put me name to it.’

      Damper Latham let down the boards and the sides of the cart and climbed onto the load. He began to walk the stones to the edge and slide them down two planks to Grandfather.

      ‘You’ll take what you’re given, Robert,’ he said. ‘Else go without. I’ve had a job for to get these.’

      Grandfather grunted, and swung the blocks to lie as he wanted. They seemed to move without more than his hand on them.

      Joseph tried to help, but he couldn’t even pull the weight from the slope of the plank. He pulled and shoved, and the block shifted its balance and came at him. He couldn’t stop it and he couldn’t put it down and it was fighting him. He twisted away, but he still couldn’t let go. The living dead weight of it all gripped his hands and wrenched his shoulders. Then it fell clear and smashed on the road.

      ‘You great nowt!’ shouted Grandfather. ‘See at what you’ve done!’

      Joseph ran up the plank to the cart.

      ‘See at it!’ shouted Grandfather. ‘I can’t use that! I’m not a man with string round his britches!’

      The chapel clock struck eight.

      ‘There’s not better to be got, Robert,’ said Damper Latham.

      ‘Well, I’ll not abide it,’ said Grandfather.

      ‘Must I go fetch you a load from Leah’s Bank?’ said Damper Latham.

      ‘No!’

      ‘Where’s stone on Leah’s Bank?’ said Joseph.

      ‘It’s eight o’clock,’ said Grandfather. ‘Time you were off.’

      ‘Stay and give us a tune,’ said Damper Latham. ‘I’m going down the village. You can have a ride.’

      ‘He’ll be late,’ said Grandfather.

      ‘He’ll not,’ said Damper Latham. ‘The E-Flat’s under me coat there.’

      Joseph picked up the bright cornet from beneath the seat and set his tongue to the mouthpiece and loosened the valves with his fingers.

      ‘What must I play?’ he said.

      ‘Give us a Methody hymn for to fetch this load off,’ said Damper Latham. ‘One with a swing.’

      Joseph played ‘Man Frail and God Eternal’ twice. Grandfather and Damper Latham worked together, as they had always done. The stone moved lightly for them.

      ‘The busy tribes of flesh and blood, with all their lives and cares,’ sang Damper Latham, ‘are carried downwards by the flood, and lost in following years.’

      ‘Couldn’t wait,’ said Grandfather. ‘One week to flit. Out.’

      ‘Where’ve they gone?’ said Damper Latham.

      ‘The Moss,’ said Grandfather.

      ‘Give us a swing, youth!’ Damper Latham nudged Joseph. Joseph had stopped playing.

      ‘Let’s have some Temperance,’ said Grandfather.

      So Joseph played ‘Dip your Roll in your own Pot at Home’.

      ‘How’s Elijah?’ said Damper Latham.

      ‘Badly,’ said Grandfather. ‘Them as can’t bend, like as not they break.’

      ‘Eh,’ said Damper Latham, and he looked both ways on the road before he spoke. ‘Is it true what it’s for? A kitchen garden?’

      ‘True? It’s true!’ said Grandfather. ‘Kitchen garden! Rector’s wife must grow herself a vine and a twothree figs, seemingly. She caught a dose of religion, that one; and there’s Allmans out. Hey!’

      Joseph was looking at his own stretched face in the swell of the cornet. Someone must have taken the brass and shaped it and turned it, with valves for every note, tapping, drawing it to soprano E-Flat.

      ‘Hey! Let’s hear “Ode to Drink”. This lot wants some raunging.’ The cart shook as Grandfather pulled at the base of the stack.

      Joseph sucked for spit, but his mouth had dried.

      Grandfather and Damper Latham began without him, and he had to catch up when his lips were wet.

       ‘Let thy devotee extol thee,

       And thy wondrous virtues sum;

       But the worst of names I’ll call thee,

       O thou hydra monster Rum!’

      The stones thumped off.

       ‘Pimple-maker, visage-bloater,

       Health-corrupter, idler’s mate;

       Mischief-breeder, vice-promoter,

       Credit-spoiler, devil’s bait!’

      Damper Latham swept the cart with his broom, and danced and marched to Joseph’s music. Grandfather had his chisels out and was hitting the notes on them with his hammer, like a xylophone.

       ‘Utterance-boggler, stench-emitter,

       Strong-man sprawler, fatal drop;

       Tumult-raiser, venom-spitter,

       Wrap-inspirer, coward’s prop!’

      Joseph had stopped playing. His neck hurt for thought of the Allmans. He couldn’t swallow. But Grandfather and Damper Latham went on, singing louder and louder, tenor and bass, by turns.

      Joseph shut his eyes.

       ‘Virtue-blaster, base deceiver!

       Spite-displayer, sot’s delight!

       Noise-exciter, stomach-heaver!

       Falsehood-spreader! Scorpion’s bite!’

      Grandfather and Damper Latham were laughing too much to work.

      Joseph opened his eyes. He was looking straight into Grandfather’s, and they were hard, fierce, kind and blue.

      ‘That’s it, youth,’ said Grandfather. ‘Strike or laugh. You’ll learn.’

      Конец ознакомительного СКАЧАТЬ