“Ain’t you got some cheaper kind a meat?”

“Soup bones,” he said. “Ten cents a pound.”

“But them’s jus’ bones.”

“Them’s jes’ bones,” he said. “Make nice soup. Jes’ bones.”

“Got any boilin’ beef?”

“Oh, yeah! Sure. That’s two bits a poun’.”

“Maybe I can’t get no meat,” Ma said. “But they want meat. They said they wanted meat.”

“Ever’body wants meat—needs meat. That hamburg is purty nice stuff. Use the grease that comes out a her for gravy. Purty nice. No waste. Don’t throw no bone away.”

“How—how much is side-meat?”

“Well, now you’re gettin’ into fancy stuff. Christmas stuff. Thanksgivin’ stuff. Thirty-five cents a poun’. I could sell you turkey cheaper, if I had some turkey.”