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    Youth
    Youth
    Youth
    Ebook45 pages41 minutes

    Youth

    By Isaac Asimov

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    About this ebook

    Youth is an early Asimov story written in 1952. It is a short story, lots of fun with a surprising twist at the end. Safe for kids to read too. Youth is one of the rare Asimov stories with alien characters. Slim is a boy whose astronomer father is visiting the country estate of an important industrialist. The industrialists son, Red, has found two strange animals, and he enlists Slim in a plan to turn the animals into a circus act. The astronomer, meanwhile, tells the industrialist that he has been in contact with space aliens who want to open up their world to interstellar trade. Their world needs help, the astronomer says; ever since the atomic wars that destroyed their old civilization, the world has been regressing. Unless something is done, their culture may be facing total collapse.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJovian Press
    Release dateOct 29, 2016
    ISBN9781537803654
    Youth
    Author

    Isaac Asimov

    Isaac Asimov was the Grand Master of the Science Fiction Writers of America, the founder of robot ethics, the world’s most prolific author of fiction and non-fiction. The Good Doctor’s fiction has been enjoyed by millions for more than half a century.

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      Book preview

      Youth - Isaac Asimov

      YOUTH

      Isaac Asimov

      JOVIAN PRESS

      Thank you for reading. If you enjoy this book, please leave a review.

      All rights reserved. Aside from brief quotations for media coverage and reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced or distributed in any form without the author’s permission. Thank you for supporting authors and a diverse, creative culture by purchasing this book and complying with copyright laws.

      Copyright © 2016 by Isaac Asimov

      Published by Jovian Press

      Interior design by Pronoun

      Distribution by Pronoun

      ISBN: 9781537803654

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      YOUTH

      YOUTH

      ~

      I

      THERE WAS A SPATTER OF pebbles against the window and the youngster stirred in his sleep. Another, and he was awake.

      He sat up stiffly in bed. Seconds passed while he interpreted his strange surroundings. He wasn’t in his own home, of course. This was out in the country. It was colder than it should be and there was green at the window.

      Slim!

      The call was a hoarse, urgent whisper, and the youngster bounded to the open window.

      Slim wasn’t his real name, but the new friend he had met the day before had needed only one look at his slight figure to say, You’re Slim. He added, I’m Red.

      Red wasn’t his real name, either, but its appropriateness was obvious. They were friends instantly with the quick unquestioning friendship of young ones not yet quite in adolescence, before even the first stains of adulthood began to make their appearance.

      Slim cried, Hi, Red! and waved cheerfully, still blinking the sleep out of himself.

      Red kept to his croaking whisper, Quiet! You want to wake somebody?

      Slim noticed all at once that the sun scarcely topped the low hills in the east, that the shadows were long and soft, and that the grass was wet.

      Slim said, more softly, What’s the matter?

      Red only waved for him to come out.

      Slim dressed quickly, gladly confining his morning wash to the momentary sprinkle of a little lukewarm water. He let the air dry the exposed portions of his body as he ran out, while bare skin grew wet against the dewy grass.

      Red said, You’ve got to be quiet. If Mom wakes up or Dad or your Dad or even any of the hands then it’ll be ‘Come on in or you’ll catch your death of cold.’

      He mimicked voice and tone faithfully, so that Slim laughed and thought that there had never been so funny a fellow as Red.

      Slim said, eagerly, Do you come out here every day like this, Red? Real early? It’s like the whole world is just yours, isn’t it, Red? No one else around and all like that. He felt proud at being allowed entrance into this private world.

      Red stared at him sidelong. He said carelessly, I’ve been up for hours. Didn’t you hear it last night?

      Hear what?

      Thunder.

      Was there a thunderstorm? Slim never slept through a thunderstorm.

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