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for the gas. Guess there wasn’t anything else, was there, men?”
    Uncle Sagamore took a ten dollar bill out of his purse and handed it to him. Then he looked down, shuffling his feet. “Uh—them recapped tahrs you mentioned. What you figger you could let ’em go for?”
    Curly had started into the office, but he stopped. “What’s that? Oh, those tires?” He studied about it. “Why, let’s see—Ordinarily, they sell for twenty dollars apiece. But since they was ordered for Jack—and, well, I wouldn’t even dream of wanting to make any profit on a thing like that, I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You can have ’em both for thirty-five dollars.”
    “Well sir, that’s real nice of you,” Uncle Sagamore says. “Howsoever, though, you name yourself a fair price. I ain’t never been one to take advantage of a man’s grief—”
    “Well, now,” Pop says, “the least I can do is get the gas. You let me.” He grabbed the ten dollar bill out of Curly’s hand and give it back to Uncle Sagamore, and then give Curly a five out of his own wallet. They went into the office. I went in after them.
    Curly put the five down on the shelf of the cash register and punched the keys to open the drawer, but just then Uncle Sagamore says, “Here, Sam, I can’t let you do that.” He grabbed the five, give it back to Pop, and put down the ten.
    “Now, about them tahrs—” he says. “Does that include the tubes, or is that just the casin’s?”
    “Just the tires,” Curly says. “But I can show you some tubes real cheap—” He started to make change, but Pop grabbed the ten dollar bill again.
    “No, sir,” he says to Uncle Sagamore. “I’m goin’ to pay for that gas. Here, I’ve got the right change.” He pulled some one-dollar bills out of his wallet. “No. Wait. I only got two. Here,” he says to Curly. “I know. Just give me five ones for this.”
    “No, we’ll split it, if you just got to,” Uncle Sagamore says. He pulled some ones out of his purse.
    “Then make that four ones and two halves,” Pop says to Curly. “Give three of the ones to him—”
    It seemed like they was all confused now. Everybody had money, passing it back and forth. Curly took five ones out of the register, put one of them back, and took out two halves, give three ones to Uncle Sagamore, and then some to Pop. Pop passed a couple of bills to Uncle Sagamore, and Uncle Sagamore took the five and handed it back to Pop with another dollar bill.
    “No, no, no,” Pop says. “Don’t you see? It’s as simple as anything. The gas was only three dollars. Three out of five leaves two. You give me one too many. Now there’s your ten—”
    “Sam, you’re just gettin’ me all mixed up,” Uncle Sagamore says. “Now, look. You take the ten and give me the five and two ones. Seven from ten leaves three—”
    Curly begin to look sort of dazed. They was standing on each side of him in front of the register, and he kept turning his head while they handed money back and forth in front of him. They had me mixed up too, because I couldn’t see where they ever give him any money at all; it seemed like he just kept taking it out of the register and giving it to them.
    “Now, look,” Pop says, “we got it all straight. Stop right there. Keep what you’ve got in your hand. The man gives the two dollars change to you instead of to me, and we’re square. You see?”
    He started to turn around to come out, but when he stepped back his foot hit a case of empty coke bottles that was tilted against the wall. “Damn!” he says. He waved his arms, and fell on the floor.
    Curly and Uncle Sagamore jumped to help him up. “You all right?” they both asked at once.
    “Sure, I’m okay,” Pop says. He stood up, but seemed to have a little trouble getting his back straight. He was sort of canted over to one side above the hips. He brushed the dust off his clothes. “Now we finally got that gas money cleared up,” he says to Uncle Sagamore,