One dollar and eighty-seven cents. That was all. And sixty cents of it was in pennies. Pennies saved one and two at a time by bulldozing the grocer and the vegetable man and the butcher until one\u2019s cheeks burned with the silent imputation of parsimony that such close dealing implied. Three times Della counted it. One dollar and eighty-seven cents. And the next day would be Christmas.<\/p>\n
There was clearly nothing to do but flop down on the shabby little couch and howl. So Della did it. Which instigates the moral reflection that life is made up of sobs, sniffles, and smiles, with sniffles predominating.<\/p>\n
While the mistress of the home is gradually subsiding from the first stage to the second, take a look at the home. A furnished flat at $8 per week. It did not exactly beggar description, but it certainly had that word on the lookout for the mendicancy squad.<\/p>\n
In the vestibule below was a letter-box into which no letter would go, and an electric button from which no mortal finger could coax a ring. Also appertaining thereunto was a card bearing the name \u201cMr. James Dillingham Young.\u201d The \u201cDillingham\u201d had been flung to the breeze during a former period of prosperity when its possessor was being paid $30 per week. Now, when the income was shrunk to $20, the letters of \u201cDillingham\u201d looked blurred, as though they were thinking seriously of contracting to a modest and unassuming D. But whenever Mr. James Dillingham Young came home and reached his flat above he was called \u201cJim\u201d and greatly hugged by Mrs. James Dillingham Young, already introduced to you as Della. Which is all very good.<\/p>\n
Della finished her cry and attended to her cheeks with the powder rag. She stood by the window and looked out dully at a grey cat walking a grey fence in a grey backyard. Tomorrow would be Christmas Day, and she had only $1.87 with which to buy Jim a present. She had been saving every penny she could for months, with this result. Twenty dollars a week doesn\u2019t go far. Expenses had been greater than she had calculated. They always are. Only $1.87 to buy a present for Jim. Her Jim. Many a happy hour she had spent planning for something nice for him. Something fine and rare and sterling\u2014something just a little bit near to being worthy of the honour of being owned by Jim.<\/p>\n
There was a pier-glass between the windows of the room. Perhaps you have seen a pier-glass in an $8 flat. A very thin and very agile person may, by observing his reflection in a rapid sequence of longitudinal strips, obtain a fairly accurate conception of his looks. Della, being slender, had mastered the art.<\/p>\n
Suddenly she whirled from the window and stood before the glass. Her eyes were shining brilliantly, but her face had lost its colour within twenty seconds. Rapidly she pulled down her hair and let it fall to its full length.<\/p>\n
Now, there were two possessions of the James Dillingham Youngs in which they both took a mighty pride. One was Jim\u2019s gold watch that had been his father\u2019s and his grandfather\u2019s. The other was Della\u2019s hair. Had the Queen of Sheba lived in the flat across the airshaft, Della would have let her hair hang out the window some day to dry just to depreciate Her Majesty\u2019s jewels and gifts. Had King Solomon been the janitor, with all his treasures piled up in the basement, Jim would have pulled out his watch every time he passed, just to see him pluck at his beard from envy.<\/p>\n
So now Della\u2019s beautiful hair fell about her, rippling and shining like a cascade of brown waters. It reached below her knee and made itself almost a garment for her. And then she did it up again nervously and quickly. Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn red carpet.<\/p>\n
On went her old brown jacket; on went her old brown hat. With a whirl of skirts and with the brilliant sparkle still in her eyes, she fluttered out the door and down the stairs to the street.<\/p>\n
Where she stopped the sign read: \u201cMme. Sofronie. Hair Goods of All Kinds.\u201d One flight up Della ran, and collected herself, panting. Madame, large, too white, chilly, hardly looked the \u201cSofronie.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWill you buy my hair?\u201d asked Della.<\/p>\n
\u201cI buy hair,\u201d said Madame. \u201cTake yer hat off and let\u2019s have a sight at the looks of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Down rippled the brown cascade. \u201cTwenty dollars,\u201d said Madame, lifting the mass with a practised hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive it to me quick,\u201d said Della.<\/p>\n
Oh, and the next two hours tripped by on rosy wings. Forget the hashed metaphor. She was ransacking the stores for Jim\u2019s present.<\/p>\n
She found it at last. It surely had been made for Jim and no one else. There was no other like it in any of the stores, and she had turned all of them inside out. It was a platinum fob chain simple and chaste in design, properly proclaiming its value by substance alone and not by meretricious ornamentation\u2014as all good things should do. It was even worthy of The Watch. As soon as she saw it she knew that it must be Jim\u2019s. It was like him. Quietness and value\u2014the description applied to both. Twenty-one dollars they took from her for it, and she hurried home with the 87 cents. With that chain on his watch Jim might be properly anxious about the time in any company. Grand as the watch was, he sometimes looked at it on the sly on account of the old leather strap that he used in place of a chain.
\nWhen Della reached home her intoxication gave way a little to prudence and reason. She got out her curling irons and lighted the gas and went to work repairing the ravages made by generosity added to love. Which is always a tremendous task, dear friends\u2014a mammoth task.<\/p>\n
Within forty minutes her head was covered with tiny, close-lying curls that made her look wonderfully like a truant schoolboy. She looked at her reflection in the mirror long, carefully, and critically.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Jim doesn\u2019t kill me,\u201d she said to herself, \u201cbefore he takes a second look at me, he\u2019ll say I look like a Coney Island chorus girl. But what could I do\u2014oh! what could I do with a dollar and eighty-seven cents?\u201d<\/p>\n
At 7 o\u2019clock the coffee was made and the frying-pan was on the back of the stove hot and ready to cook the chops.<\/p>\n
Jim was never late. Della doubled the fob chain in her hand and sat on the corner of the table near the door that he always entered. Then she heard his step on the stair away down on the first flight, and she turned white for just a moment. She had a habit for saying little silent prayers about the simplest everyday things, and now she whispered: \u201cPlease God, make him think I am still pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n
The door opened and Jim stepped in and closed it. He looked thin and very serious. Poor fellow, he was only twenty-two\u2014and to be burdened with a family! He needed a new overcoat and he was without gloves.<\/p>\n
Jim stopped inside the door, as immovable as a setter at the scent of quail. His eyes were fixed upon Della, and there was an expression in them that she could not read, and it terrified her. It was not anger, nor surprise, nor disapproval, nor horror, nor any of the sentiments that she had been prepared for. He simply stared at her fixedly with that peculiar expression on his face.<\/p>\n
Della wriggled off the table and went for him.<\/p>\n
\u201cJim, darling,\u201d she cried, \u201cdon\u2019t look at me that way. I had my hair cut off and sold because I couldn\u2019t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. It\u2019ll grow out again\u2014you won\u2019t mind, will you? I just had to do it. My hair grows awfully fast. Say \u2018Merry Christmas!\u2019 Jim, and let\u2019s be happy. You don\u2019t know what a nice\u2014what a beautiful, nice gift I\u2019ve got for you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve cut off your hair?\u201d asked Jim, laboriously, as if he had not arrived at that patent fact yet even after the hardest mental labor.<\/p>\n
\u201cCut it off and sold it,\u201d said Della. \u201cDon\u2019t you like me just as well, anyhow? I\u2019m me without my hair, ain\u2019t I?\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim looked about the room curiously.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou say your hair is gone?\u201d he said, with an air almost of idiocy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou needn\u2019t look for it,\u201d said Della. \u201cIt\u2019s sold, I tell you\u2014sold and gone, too. It\u2019s Christmas Eve, boy. Be good to me, for it went for you. Maybe the hairs of my head were numbered,\u201d she went on with sudden serious sweetness, \u201cbut nobody could ever count my love for you. Shall I put the chops on, Jim?\u201d<\/p>\n
Out of his trance Jim seemed quickly to wake. He enfolded his Della. For ten seconds let us regard with discreet scrutiny some inconsequential object in the other direction. Eight dollars a week or a million a year\u2014what is the difference? A mathematician or a wit would give you the wrong answer. The magi brought valuable gifts, but that was not among them. This dark assertion will be illuminated later on.<\/p>\n
Jim drew a package from his overcoat pocket and threw it upon the table.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t make any mistake, Dell,\u201d he said, \u201cabout me. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s anything in the way of a haircut or a shave or a shampoo that could make me like my girl any less. But if you\u2019ll unwrap that package you may see why you had me going a while at first.\u201d<\/p>\n
White fingers and nimble tore at the string and paper. And then an ecstatic scream of joy; and then, alas! a quick feminine change to hysterical tears and wails, necessitating the immediate employment of all the comforting powers of the lord of the flat.<\/p>\n
For there lay The Combs\u2014the set of combs, side and back, that Della had worshipped long in a Broadway window. Beautiful combs, pure tortoise shell, with jewelled rims\u2014just the shade to wear in the beautiful vanished hair. They were expensive combs, she knew, and her heart had simply craved and yearned over them without the least hope of possession. And now, they were hers, but the tresses that should have adorned the coveted adornments were gone.<\/p>\n
But she hugged them to her bosom, and at length she was able to look up with dim eyes and a smile and say: \u201cMy hair grows so fast, Jim!\u201d<\/p>\n
And then Della leaped up like a little singed cat and cried, \u201cOh, oh!\u201d<\/p>\n
Jim had not yet seen his beautiful present. She held it out to him eagerly upon her open palm. The dull precious metal seemed to flash with a reflection of her bright and ardent spirit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIsn\u2019t it a dandy, Jim? I hunted all over town to find it. You\u2019ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Instead of obeying, Jim tumbled down on the couch and put his hands under the back of his head and smiled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDell,\u201d said he, \u201clet\u2019s put our Christmas presents away and keep \u2019em a while. They\u2019re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money to buy your combs. And now suppose you put the chops on.\u201d<\/p>\n
The magi, as you know, were wise men\u2014wonderfully wise men\u2014who brought gifts to the Babe in the manger. They invented the art of giving Christmas presents. Being wise, their gifts were no doubt wise ones, possibly bearing the privilege of exchange in case of duplication. And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house. But in a last word to the wise of these days let it be said that of all who give gifts these two were the wisest. Of all who give and receive gifts, such as they are wisest. Everywhere they are wisest. They are the magi.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/biblioprofvs.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/the-gift-of-the-magi-o-henry-185x300.jpg\")
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\u0421\u0435\u0433\u043e\u0434\u043d\u044f \u0447\u0438\u0442\u0430\u0435\u043c \u0420\u0435\u0434\u044c\u044f\u0440\u0434 \u041a\u0438\u043f\u043b\u0438\u043d\u0433<\/strong> «\u041b\u0438\u0441\u043f\u0435\u0442» («Lispeth»). <\/strong>\u0420\u0430\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437 \u0420. \u041a\u0438\u043f\u043b\u0438\u043d\u0433\u0430 \u00ab\u041b\u0438\u0441\u043f\u0435\u0442\u00bb (Lispeth, 1886) \u0438\u0437 \u0441\u0431\u043e\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430 \u00ab\u041d\u0435\u0437\u0430\u043c\u044b\u0441\u043b\u043e\u0432\u0430\u0442\u044b\u0435 \u0440\u0430\u0441\u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u044b \u0441 \u0433\u043e\u0440\u00bb (Plain tales from the Hills), \u0432\u044b\u0448\u0435\u0434\u0448\u0435\u0433\u043e \u0432 1888.\u00a0 «\u0418\u043d\u0434\u0438\u0439\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435» \u0440\u0430\u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u044b \u041a\u0438\u043f\u043b\u0438\u043d\u0433\u0430, \u0441\u0443\u043c\u0435\u0432\u0448\u0435\u0433\u043e \u043f\u043e\u043a\u0430\u0437\u0430\u0442\u044c \u0444\u0430\u0442\u0430\u043b\u044c\u043d\u043e\u0435 \u0440\u0430\u0437\u043b\u0438\u0447\u0438\u0435 \u043a\u0443\u043b\u044c\u0442\u0443\u0440 \u0447\u043e\u043f\u043e\u0440\u043d\u043e\u0439 \u0410\u043d\u0433\u043b\u0438\u0438 \u0438 «\u0434\u0438\u043a\u0430\u0440\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439» \u0418\u043d\u0434\u0438\u0438 \u043d\u0430 \u0444\u043e\u043d\u0435 \u0442\u0440\u0430\u0433\u0435\u0434\u0438\u0438 \u043e\u0431\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0443\u0442\u044b\u0445 \u043e\u0436\u0438\u0434\u0430\u043d\u0438\u0439 \u0438 \u0440\u0430\u0437\u0431\u0438\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0441\u0435\u0440\u0434\u0446\u0430 \u0436\u0435\u043d\u0449\u0438\u043d\u044b, \u0447\u044c\u044f \u043d\u0435\u0445\u0438\u0442\u0440\u0430\u044f, \u043d\u043e \u043e\u0434\u043d\u043e\u0432\u0440\u0435\u043c\u0435\u043d\u043d\u043e \u0442\u0440\u043e\u0433\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0438 \u0436\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043e\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u044f \u043e\u0442 \u043c\u043b\u0430\u0434\u0435\u043d\u0447\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0432\u0430 \u0434\u043e \u0441\u0442\u0430\u0440\u043e\u0441\u0442\u0438.<\/p>\n LISPETH She was the daughter of Sonoo, a Hill-man, and Jadeh his wife. One year their maize failed, and two bears spent the night in their only poppy-field just above the Sutlej Valley on the Kotgarth side; so, next season, they turned Christian, and brought their baby to the Mission to be baptized. The Kotgarth Chaplain christened her Elizabeth, and \u201cLispeth\u201d is the Hill or pahari pronunciation.<\/p>\n Later, cholera came into the Kotgarth Valley and carried off Sonoo and Jadeh, and Lispeth became half-servant, half-companion to the wife of the then Chaplain of Kotgarth. This was after the reign of the Moravian missionaries, but before Kotgarth had quite forgotten her title of \u201cMistress of the Northern Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether Christianity improved Lispeth, or whether the gods of her own people would have done as much for her under any circumstances, I do not know; but she grew very lovely. When a Hill girl grows lovely, she is worth traveling fifty miles over bad ground to look upon. Lispeth had a Greek face\u2014one of those faces people paint so often, and see so seldom. She was of a pale, ivory color and, for her race, extremely tall. Also, she possessed eyes that were wonderful; and, had she not been dressed in the abominable print-cloths affected by Missions, you would, meeting her on the hill-side unexpectedly, have thought her the original Diana of the Romans going out to slay.<\/p>\n Lispeth took to Christianity readily, and did not abandon it when she reached womanhood, as do some Hill girls. Her own people hated her because she had, they said, become a memsahib and washed herself daily; and the Chaplain’s wife did not know what to do with her. Somehow, one cannot ask a stately goddess, five foot ten in her shoes, to clean plates and dishes. So she played with the Chaplain’s children and took classes in the Sunday School, and read all the books in the house, and grew more and more beautiful, like the Princesses in fairy tales. The Chaplain’s wife said that the girl ought to take service in Simla as a nurse or something \u201cgenteel.\u201d But Lispeth did not want to take service. She was very happy where she was.<\/p>\n When travellers\u2014there were not many in those years\u2014came to Kotgarth, Lispeth used to lock herself into her own room for fear they might take her away to Simla, or somewhere out into the unknown world.<\/p>\n One day, a few months after she was seventeen years old, Lispeth went out for a walk. She did not walk in the manner of English ladies\u2014a mile and a half out, and a ride back again. She covered between twenty and thirty miles in her little constitutionals, all about and about, between Kotgarth and Narkunda. This time she came back at full dusk, stepping down the breakneck descent into Kotgarth with something heavy in her arms. The Chaplain’s wife was dozing in the drawing-room when Lispeth came in breathing hard and very exhausted with her burden. Lispeth put it down on the sofa, and said simply:<\/p>\n \u201cThis is my husband. I found him on the Bagi Road. He has hurt himself. We will nurse him, and when he is well, your husband shall marry him to me.\u201d<\/p>\n This was the first mention Lispeth had ever made of her matrimonial views, and the Chaplain’s wife shrieked with horror. However, the man on the sofa needed attention first. He was a young Englishman, and his head had been cut to the bone by something jagged. Lispeth said she had found him down the khud, so she had brought him in. He was breathing queerly and was unconscious.<\/p>\n He was put to bed and tended by the Chaplain, who knew something of medicine; and Lispeth waited outside the door in case she could be useful. She explained to the Chaplain that this was the man she meant to marry; and the Chaplain and his wife lectured her severely on the impropriety of her conduct. Lispeth listened quietly, and repeated her first proposition. It takes a great deal of Christianity to wipe out uncivilized Eastern instincts, such as falling in love at first sight. Lispeth, having found the man she worshipped, did not see why she should keep silent as to her choice. She had no intention of being sent away, either. She was going to nurse that Englishman until he was well enough to marry her. This was her little programme.<\/p>\n After a fortnight of slight fever and inflammation, the Englishman recovered coherence and thanked the Chaplain and his wife, and Lispeth\u2014especially Lispeth\u2014for their kindness. He was a traveller in the East, he said\u2014they never talked about \u201cglobe-trotters\u201d\u00a0in those days, when the P. & O. fleet was young and small\u2014and had come from Dehra Dun to hunt for plants and butterflies among the Simla hills. No one at Simla, therefore, knew anything about him. He fancied he must have fallen over the cliff while stalking a fern on a rotten tree-trunk, and that his coolies must have stolen his baggage and fled. He thought he would go back to Simla when he was a little stronger. He desired no more mountaineering.<\/p>\n He made small haste to go away, and recovered his strength slowly. Lispeth objected to being advised either by the Chaplain or his wife; so the latter spoke to the Englishman, and told him how matters stood in Lispeth’s heart. He laughed a good deal, and said it was very pretty and romantic, a perfect idyl of the Himalayas; but, as he was engaged to a girl at Home, he fancied that nothing would happen. Certainly he would behave with discretion. He did that. Still he found it very pleasant to talk to Lispeth, and walk with Lispeth, and say nice things to her, and call her pet names while he was getting strong enough to go away. It meant nothing at all to him, and everything in the world to Lispeth. She was very happy while the fortnight lasted, because she had found a man to love.<\/p>\n Being a savage by birth, she took no trouble to hide her feelings, and the Englishman was amused. When he went away, Lispeth walked with him, up the Hill as far as Narkunda, very troubled and very miserable. The Chaplain’s wife, being a good Christian and disliking anything in the shape of fuss or scandal\u2014Lispeth was beyond her management entirely\u2014had told the Englishman to tell Lispeth that he was coming back to marry her. \u201cShe is but a child, you know, and, I fear, at heart a heathen,\u201d said the Chaplain’s wife. So all the twelve miles up the hill the Englishman, with his arm around Lispeth’s waist, was assuring the girl that he would come back and marry her; and Lispeth made him promise over and over again. She wept on the Narkunda Ridge till he had passed out of sight along the Muttiani path.<\/p>\n Then she dried her tears and went in to Kotgarth again, and said to the Chaplain’s wife: \u201cHe will come back and marry me. He has gone to his own people to tell them so.\u201d And the Chaplain’s wife soothed Lispeth and said: \u201cHe will come back.\u201d At the end of two months, Lispeth grew impatient, and was told that the Englishman had gone over the seas to England. She knew where England was, because she had read little geography primers; but, of course, she had no conception of the nature of the sea, being a Hill girl. There was an old puzzle-map of the World in the House. Lispeth had played with it when she was a child. She unearthed it again, and put it together of evenings, and cried to herself, and tried to imagine where her Englishman was. As she had no ideas of distance or steamboats, her notions were somewhat erroneous. It would not have made the least difference had she been perfectly correct; for the Englishman had no intention of coming back to marry a Hill girl. He forgot all about her by the time he was butterfly-hunting in Assam. He wrote a book on the East afterwards. Lispeth’s name did not appear.<\/p>\n At the end of three months, Lispeth made daily pilgrimage to Narkunda to see if her Englishman was coming along the road. It gave her comfort, and the Chaplain’s wife, finding her happier, thought that she was getting over her \u201cbarbarous and most indelicate folly.\u201d A little later the walks ceased to help Lispeth and her temper grew very bad. The Chaplain’s wife thought this a profitable time to let her know the real state of affairs\u2014that the Englishman had only promised his love to keep her quiet\u2014that he had never meant anything, and that it was \u201cwrong and improper\u201d of Lispeth to think of marriage with an Englishman, who was of a superior clay, besides being promised in marriage to a girl of his own people. Lispeth said that all this was clearly impossible, because he had said he loved her, and the Chaplain’s wife had, with her own lips, asserted that the Englishman was coming back.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can what he and you said be untrue?\u201d asked Lispeth.<\/p>\n \u201cWe said it as an excuse to keep you quiet, child,\u201d said the Chaplain’s wife.<\/p>\n \u201cThen you have lied to me,\u201d said Lispeth, \u201cyou and he?\u201d<\/p>\n The Chaplain’s wife bowed her head, and said nothing. Lispeth was silent, too for a little time; then she went out down the valley, and returned in the dress of a Hill girl\u2014infamously dirty, but without the nose and ear rings. She had her hair braided into the long pig-tail, helped out with black thread, that Hill women wear.<\/p>\n \u201cI am going back to my own people,\u201d said she. \u201cYou have killed Lispeth. There is only left old Jadeh’s daughter\u2014the daughter of a pahari and the servant of Tarka Devi. You are all liars, you English.\u201d<\/p>\n By the time that the Chaplain’s wife had recovered from the shock of the announcement that Lispeth had ‘verted to her mother’s gods, the girl had gone; and she never came back.<\/p>\n She took to her own unclean people savagely, as if to make up the arrears of the life she had stepped out of; and, in a little time, she married a wood-cutter who beat her, after the manner of paharis, and her beauty faded soon.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no law whereby you can account for the vagaries of the heathen,\u201d said the Chaplain’s wife, \u201cand I believe that Lispeth was always at heart an infidel.\u201d Seeing she had been taken into the Church of England at the mature age of five weeks, this statement does not do credit to the Chaplain’s wife.<\/p>\n Lispeth was a very old woman when she died. She always had a perfect command of English, and when she was sufficiently drunk, could sometimes be induced to tell the story of her first love-affair.<\/p>\n It was hard then to realize that the bleared, wrinkled creature, so like a wisp of charred rag, could ever have been \u201cLispeth of the Kotgarth Mission.\u201d<\/p>\n \u0418\u043d\u0442\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u0430\u044f, \u0445\u043e\u0442\u044c \u0438 \u0433\u0440\u0443\u0441\u0442\u043d\u0430\u044f \u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u044f, \u043d\u0435 \u043f\u0440\u0430\u0432\u0434\u0430 \u043b\u0438?.. <\/p>\n \u041a 100 \u043b\u0435\u0442\u0438\u044e\u00a0 <\/strong>\u0441\u043e \u0434\u043d\u044f \u0440\u043e\u0436\u0434\u0435\u043d\u0438\u044f \u0430\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0438\u043a\u0430\u043d\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044f-\u0444\u0430\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0441\u0442\u0430 \u0427. \u0410. \u041b\u043b\u043e\u0439\u0434\u0430 (1924\u20132007)<\/p>\n \u0410\u043c\u0435\u0440\u0438\u043a\u0430\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0439 \u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u044c, \u043e\u0434\u0438\u043d \u0438\u0437 \u0432\u0435\u0434\u0443\u0449\u0438\u0445 \u0430\u0432\u0442\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0432 \u043a\u043b\u0430\u0441\u0441\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0444\u044d\u043d\u0442\u0435\u0437\u0438, \u0438\u0437\u0432\u0435\u0441\u0442\u043d\u044b\u0439 \u043f\u0440\u0435\u0436\u0434\u0435 \u0432\u0441\u0435\u0433\u043e \u0446\u0438\u043a\u043b\u043e\u043c \u00ab\u0425\u0440\u043e\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0438 \u041f\u0440\u0430\u0439\u0434\u0435\u043d\u0430\u00bb. \u041e\u0434\u0438\u043d \u0438\u0437 \u0441\u043e\u0437\u0434\u0430\u0442\u0435\u043b\u0435\u0439 \u0438 \u043f\u043e\u0441\u0442\u043e\u044f\u043d\u043d\u044b\u0445 \u0430\u0432\u0442\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0432 \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0436\u0443\u0440\u043d\u0430\u043b\u0430 \u00ab\u0421\u0432\u0435\u0440\u0447\u043e\u043a\u00bb (Cricket<\/i>).<\/p>\n \u0410\u043b\u0435\u043a\u0441\u0430\u043d\u0434\u0435\u0440 \u043b\u044e\u0431\u0438\u043b \u043a\u043e\u0448\u0435\u043a. \u041e \u0441\u0432\u043e\u0438\u0445 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u0430\u0445 \u043e\u043d \u043d\u0430\u043f\u0438\u0441\u0430\u043b \u0434\u0432\u0435 \u043a\u043d\u0438\u0433\u0438, \u043e\u0434\u043d\u0443 \u0438\u0437 \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0432\u044b\u0445 \u2014 \u00ab\u041f\u044f\u0442\u044c \u043c\u043e\u0438\u0445 \u0442\u0438\u0433\u0440\u043e\u0432\u00bb (My Five Tigers<\/i>), \u0438 \u043e\u0434\u043d\u0443 \u0438\u0437 \u043f\u043e\u0437\u0434\u043d\u0438\u0445 \u2014 \u00ab\u041c\u043e\u0438 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u044b \u0438 \u044f\u00bb (My Cats and Me<\/i>). \u0413\u043e\u0432\u043e\u0440\u044f\u0449\u0438\u0435 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u044b, \u043f\u043e\u043c\u043e\u0433\u0430\u044e\u0449\u0438\u0435 \u043b\u044e\u0434\u044f\u043c \u2014 \u0447\u0430\u0441\u0442\u044b\u0435 \u0433\u0435\u0440\u043e\u0438 \u0435\u0433\u043e \u043a\u043d\u0438\u0433, \u0432 \u0442\u043e\u043c \u0447\u0438\u0441\u043b\u0435 \u043f\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0444\u0430\u043d\u0442\u0430\u0441\u0442\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0433\u043e \u0440\u043e\u043c\u0430\u043d\u0430 \u00ab\u0412\u0440\u0435\u043c\u0435\u043d\u043d\u043e\u0439 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u00bb (Time Cat<\/i>), \u0434\u0435\u0442\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439 \u043f\u043e\u0432\u0435\u0441\u0442\u0438 \u00ab\u0426\u044b\u0433\u0430\u043d\u043a\u0430 \u0420\u0438\u0437\u043a\u0430\u00bb (Gypsy Rizka<\/i>), \u0438\u0441\u0442\u043e\u0440\u0438\u0447\u0435\u0441\u043a\u043e\u0439 \u0444\u044d\u043d\u0442\u0435\u0437\u0438 \u00ab\u042f\u0448\u043c\u043e\u0432\u044b\u0439 \u0421\u043e\u043d\u00bb (Dream-of-Jade<\/i>), \u0432\u0441\u0435\u0445 \u0441\u043a\u0430\u0437\u043e\u043a \u0441\u0431\u043e\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430 \u00ab\u0413\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u044b\u00bb (The Town Cats<\/i>).<\/p>\n \u041f\u0440\u0435\u0434\u043b\u0430\u0433\u0430\u0435\u043c \u043e\u0442\u0440\u044b\u0432\u043e\u043a \u0438\u0437 \u0441\u0431\u043e\u0440\u043d\u0438\u043a\u0430 \u00ab\u0413\u043e\u0440\u043e\u0434\u0441\u043a\u0438\u0435 \u043a\u043e\u0442\u044b\u00bb (The Town Cats<\/i>).<\/p>\n Meet<\/span>\u00a0Baraka<\/span>,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0cat<\/span>\u00a0who<\/span>\u00a0play<\/span>\u00a0chess<\/span>\u00a0more<\/span>\u00a0cunningly<\/span>\u00a0than<\/span>\u00a0any<\/span>\u00a0human<\/span>;<\/span>\u00a0Pescato<\/span>,\u00a0who<\/span>\u00a0becomes<\/span>\u00a0mayor<\/span>\u00a0for<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0day<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0dupes<\/span>\u00a0royalty<\/span>;<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0other<\/span>\u00a0cats<\/span>\u00a0who<\/span>\u00a0befriend<\/span>,\u00a0aid<\/span>,\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0outwit<\/span>\u00a0their<\/span>\u00a0human<\/span>\u00a0companions<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Brought<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0life<\/span>\u00a0with<\/span>\u00a0all<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Lloyd<\/span>\u00a0Alexander\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0trademark<\/span>\u00a0wit<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0style<\/span>,\u00a0these<\/span>\u00a0felines<\/span>\u00a0will<\/span>\u00a0make<\/span>\u00a0sure<\/span>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0you<\/span>\u00a0never<\/span>\u00a0look<\/span>\u00a0at<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0cat<\/span>\u00a0in<\/span>\u00a0quite<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0same<\/span>\u00a0way<\/span>!<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cBrilliant<\/span>\u00a0storytelling<\/span>\u00a0with<\/span>\u00a0an<\/span>\u00a0old-world<\/span>\u00a0flavor<\/span>.<\/span>\u201d\u00a0\u2014Booklist<\/span>,\u00a0<\/i>starred<\/span>\u00a0review<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Valdoro<\/span>\u00a0was<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0smallest<\/span>\u00a0town<\/span>\u00a0in<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0farthest<\/span>\u00a0corner<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0Kingdom<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Mondragone<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Its<\/span>\u00a0people<\/span>\u00a0being<\/span>\u00a0honest<\/span>,\u00a0sensible<\/span>,\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0prudent<\/span>,\u00a0it<\/span>\u00a0boasted<\/span>\u00a0no<\/span>\u00a0great<\/span>\u00a0men<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0state<\/span>,\u00a0scholarship<\/span>,\u00a0or<\/span>\u00a0military<\/span>\u00a0glory<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0The<\/span>\u00a0town<\/span>\u00a0council<\/span>\u00a0once<\/span>\u00a0had<\/span>\u00a0given<\/span>\u00a0thought<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0raising<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0statue<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0its<\/span>\u00a0most<\/span>\u00a0distinguished<\/span>\u00a0citizen<\/span>;<\/span>\u00a0but<\/span>,\u00a0as<\/span>\u00a0no<\/span>\u00a0accord<\/span>\u00a0could<\/span>\u00a0be<\/span>\u00a0reached<\/span>\u00a0on<\/span>\u00a0whom<\/span>\u00a0this<\/span>\u00a0might<\/span>\u00a0be<\/span>,\u00a0or<\/span>\u00a0if<\/span>\u00a0indeed<\/span>\u00a0there<\/span>\u00a0was<\/span>\u00a0one<\/span>,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0pedestal<\/span>\u00a0in<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0square<\/span>\u00a0stood<\/span>\u00a0empty<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Valdoro<\/span>,\u00a0thus<\/span>,\u00a0for<\/span>\u00a0many<\/span>\u00a0years<\/span>\u00a0went<\/span>\u00a0happily<\/span>\u00a0unknown<\/span>,\u00a0unnoticed<\/span>,\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0ignored<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n One<\/span>\u00a0day<\/span>,\u00a0however<\/span>,\u00a0Ser<\/span>\u00a0Basilio<\/span>,\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0mayor<\/span>,\u00a0received<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0document<\/span>\u00a0from<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0Directorate<\/span>\u00a0of<\/span>\u00a0Provincial<\/span>\u00a0Affairs<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0It<\/span>\u00a0stated<\/span>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0Deputy<\/span>\u00a0Provincial<\/span>\u00a0Commissioner<\/span>,\u00a0one<\/span>\u00a0Ser<\/span>\u00a0Malocchio<\/span>,\u00a0would<\/span>\u00a0arrive<\/span>\u00a0that<\/span>\u00a0very<\/span>\u00a0afternoon<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0obtain<\/span>\u00a0permanent<\/span>\u00a0residence<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0to<\/span>\u00a0supervise<\/span>\u00a0all<\/span>\u00a0local<\/span>\u00a0activities<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0Henceforth<\/span>,\u00a0following<\/span>\u00a0the<\/span>\u00a0recommendations<\/span>\u00a0
\n…<\/p>\n
\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/biblioprofvs.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/Plaintalesfromthehills-197x300.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe<\/span>\u00a0Town<\/span>\u00a0Cats<\/span>\u00a0and<\/span>\u00a0Other<\/span>\u00a0Tales<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/h2>\n
By<\/span>\u00a0Lloyd<\/span>\u00a0Alexander<\/span><\/span><\/h3>\n
Never<\/span>\u00a0take<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0cat<\/span>\u00a0for<\/span>\u00a0granted<\/span>!<\/b><\/h4>\n
The<\/span>\u00a0Town<\/span>\u00a0Cats<\/span><\/h4>\n