We'll have to get the boss to cash our pay tickets
first."
There came the trouble. The tickets would be cashed when harvest
was done, not before. Grandma sagged when she heard. "I ain't
sick," she said, "but I'm played out. If we could get where it
was cooler and cleaner. . . ."
"Well, we haven't such a lot of pay checks left." Grandpa looked
at her anxiously. "Looks like, with prices at the company store
so high, if we stayed another month we'd owe them instead of
them owing us. We might cash our tickets in groceries and hop
along."
"Hop along is right," agreed Daddy. "Those tires were a poor buy.
We haven't money for tires and gas both."
"We'll go as fast as we can, and maybe we can get there before
the tires bust," said Grandpa, trying to be gay.
Jimmie didn't try. "I liked it here," he mumbled. "I bet Pedro'll
cry if we go away. He can print his first name now, but how's he
ever going to learn 'Serafini'?"
9: SETH THOMAS STRIKES TWELVE
At once Daddy and Grandpa set to work on the Reo. It was an
"orphan" car, no longer made, and its parts were hard to replace;
so the men were always watching the junkyards for other old Reos.
They had learned a great deal about the car in these months, and
they soon had it on the road again.
"Give you long enough," said Grandma, "and you'll cobble new
soles on its tires and patch its innards.
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