Jesse's a Workin' Man

Jesse woke up this morning with making money on his mind.  He spotted a "spy" phone in Wal-Mart the other day, so he is anxious to earn some money to go and get it.  He got up early, and was already making his bed when I walked in his room to wake he and Rhett up.  He quickly asked if he would get a $20 bill for making his bed.  While I told him 'no', I did give him several other jobs he could do to earn some money.  He jumped right in and worked hard this morning, completing one of them, which was to clean the basketball court on the side of the house for $6.  It involved scraping a bunch of caked on dirt loose, sweeping the dirt up, cleaning up the leaves and other junk, and just doing an all-around tidy-up job.  It took him a little more than an hour, but he worked hard and stayed at it (though I must say I did get called out to look at it every five minutes or so to see if he was done).

Later in the day, he figured he might try a little "con" to expand his newly gotten riches.  I was walking to the office when he came down the stairs and stopped me with a proposition.  He had his $1 bill in his hand from having been paid $6 earlier in the day.  His proposition was simple:  "Dad, I want to trade you this dollar bill for a $20 dollar bill."  Well, he had such a sweet look on his face that I almost gave in, but had to tell him 'no,' again.  I did remind him that there were a few other jobs that we could do to help him stretch that piggy bank.