(Strip Number 4338, Original Publication Date, 18 June 1983)
Panel 1: Having told Elly what happened, Mike asks her if she's mad at him for letting Gordon havin'four of his dollars?
Panel 2: Instead of doing what a sane person would do and offering to march down to Gordon's house and get him to cough up the dough, Learning-Impaired Elly tells him that it was his money and that he probably learned a lesson.
Panel 3: Since she can't resist the overweening urge to be a jerk, she then tells him that for some reason, money seems to burn a hole in his pockets.
Panel 4: Lizzie looks in his pockets and says that all she sees is dirt.
Summary: Knowing that Gordon's mother was the one who did the right thing by making him give the cash back adds to the irritation that I already feel. First off, Elly's response is to do nothing because she believes that interceding on his behalf would somehow make her his slave or some such nonsense. Second, reminding him that everything bad is his fault teaches him the lesson that he cannot win and cannot expect sympathy. Third, I'm looking at the reason he's not good with money. It lectures him with its back turned to him with its eyes closed. It also does five loads of laundry a day every day and thinks nothing of tricking its offsprings into eating foods they hate so that it can crow about how they like them after all.
