Poor Albert’s Almanack
$2.00 each
The apartment door was open, so I stood and waited. Presently Albert, my neighbor’s nine-year-old son, came out with a stack of small cards and a cup of water. “Oh, hi,” he said. “Would you like to buy a quote?”
“Okay,” I said.
“I’ll need two dollars,” he said, readying one of the cards.
“I don’t have two dollars,” I said. “I can give you a dollar in quarters.”
“Okay,” said Albert. He watched in high anticipation as I fished out the quarters. Then he looked up and down and around at the walls. At last he said, “It took a long time,” and handed me the card. I turned it over and read:
Theirs a sucker born every minute.
At which he laughed maniacally and, taking a pencil, wrote up on the sheet, “No refunds!”