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"Hold on! Wait a minute, One Punch," rumbled the Hill Bluffer. "You know and
I know that even if One Man and More Jam do go aroundsaying they're old and
feeble nowdays, no one in his right mind is going to take either one of them
at their word and risk finding out if it is true."
"Think so if you like, Postman," said One Punch, shaking his head mournfully.
"Believe that if you want to. But when you're my age, you'll know it's just
wisdom, plain, pure wisdom, makes men like them and me so peaceful. Besides,
Gentle," he went on, turning again to his granddaughter, "you've got a fine
young champion in Iron Bender "
"Iron Bender!" exploded Gentle Maiden. "That lump! That obstinate,
leatherheaded strap-cutter! That "
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"Come to think of it, Gentle," interrupted the Hill Bluffer, "how come Iron
Bender isn't here? I'd have thought you'd have brought him along instead of
these imitation Grandfathers "
"There, now," sighed One Punch, staring off at the mountains beyond the other
side of the valley. "That bit about imitations That's the sort of remark I
might've taken a bit of offense at, back in the days before I developed
wisdom. But does it trouble me nowdays?"
"No offense meant, One Punch," said the Bluffer. "You know I didn't mean
that."
"None taken. You see, Granddaughter?" said One Punch. "The postman here never
meant a bit of offense; and in the old days I wouldn't have seen it until it
was too late."
"Oh, you make me sick!" blazed Gentle Maiden. "You all make me sick. Iron
Bender makes me sick, saying he won't have anything against this Law-Twister
Shorty until the Law-Twister tries twisting the Clan law that says those three
poor little orphans belong to me now!" She glared at the Bluffer and Mal.
"Iron Bender said the Shorty can come find him, any time he really wanted to,
down at the harness shop!"
"He'll be right down," promised the Bluffer.
"Hey " began Mal. But nobody was paying any attention to him.
"Now, Granddaughter," One Punch was saying, reprovingly. "The Bender didn't
exactly ask you to name him your protector, you know."
"What difference does that make?" snapped Gentle Maiden. "I had to pick the
toughest man in the Clan to protect me that's just common sense; even if heis
stubborn as an I-don't-know-what and thick-headed as a log wall! I know my
rights. He's got to defend me; and there " she wheeled and pointed to the
large boulder lying on the grass, " there's the stone of Mighty Grappler, and
here's all three of you, one of who's got to be a Grandfather by next Clan
meeting and you mean to tell me none of you'll even say a word to help me turn
this postman and this Shorty around and get them out of here?"
The three elderly Dilbian males looked back at her without speaking.
"All right!" roared Gentle Maiden, stamping about to turn her back on all of
them. "You'll be sorry! All of you!"
With that, she marched off down the slope of the valley toward the village of
log houses.
"Well," said the individual whom the Hill Bluffer had called Grandpa Tricky,
"guess that's that, until she thinks up something more. I might as well be
ambling back down to the house, myself. How about you, Forty Winks?"
"Guess I might as well, too," said Forty Winks.
They went off after Gentle Maiden, leaving Mal still on the Hill Bluffer's
back staring down at One Punch, from just behind the Bluffer's reddish-furred
right ear.
"What," asked Mal, "has the stone of what's-his-name got to do with it?"
"The stone of Mighty Grappler?" asked One Punch. "You mean you don't know
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about that stone, over there?"
"Law-Twister here's just a Shorty," said the Bluffer, apologetically. "You
know how Shorties are tough, but pretty ignorant."
"Somesay they're tough," said One Punch, squinting up at Mal, speculatively.
"Now, wait a minute, One Punch!" the Hill Bluffer's bass voice dropped
ominously an additional half-octave. "Maybe there's something we ought to get
straight right now! This isn't just any plain private citizen you're talking
to, it's the official postman speaking. AndI say the Shorties're tough.I say I
was there when the Half-Pint Posted took the Streamside Terror; and also when
Pick-and-Shovel wiped up Bone Breaker in a sword-and-shield duel. Now, no
disrespect, but if you're questioning the official word of a government mail
carrier "
"Now, Bluffer," said One Punch, "I never doubted you personally for a minute.
It's just everybody knows the Terror and Bone Breaker weren't either of them
pushovers. But you know I'm not the biggest man around, by a long shot; and
now and then during my time I can remember laying out some pretty good-sized
scrappers, myself when my temper got away from me, that is. So I know from
personal experience not every man's as tough as the next and why shouldn't
that work for Shorties as well as real men? Maybe those two you carried before
were tough; but how can anybody tell about this Shorty? No offense, up there,
Law-Twister, by the way. Just using a bit of my wisdom and asking."
Mal opened his mouth and shut it again.
"Well?" growled the Bluffer underneath him. "Speak up, Law-Twister."
Suddenly, there was a dangerous feeling of tension in the air. Mal swallowed.
How, he thought, would a Dilbian answer a question like that?"
Any way but with a straight answer, came back the reply from the hypnotrained
section of his mind.
"Well er," said Mal, "how can I tell you how tough I am? I mean, what's tough
by the standards of you real men? As far as we Shorties go, it might be one
thing. For you real men, it might be something else completely. It's too bad I
didn't ever know this Half-Pint Posted, or Pick-and-Shovel, or else I could
kind of measure myself by them for you. But I never heard of them until now."
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Dobre pomysły nie mają przeszłości, mają tylko przyszłość. Robert Mallet
De minimis - o najmniejszych rzeczach.
Dobroć jest ważniejsza niż mądrość, a uznanie tej prawdy to pierwszy krok do mądrości. Theodore Isaac Rubin
Dobro to tylko to, co szlachetne, zło to tylko to, co haniebne.
Dla człowieka nie tylko świat otaczający jest zagadką; jest on nią sam dla siebie. I z obu tajemnic bardziej dręczącą wydaje się ta druga. Antoni Kępiński (1918-1972)
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