LET'S MAKE A DEAL

One day Tom and Dewey decided to be best friends forever."" And they remain inseparable (and except for their color, indistinguishable) until Tom has to move to New Orleans and wins the right in a contest of affections to take their puppy Lucy with him. Despite his double loss, Dewey doesn't hold a grudge and when Lucy gets left behind he takes her on a bus to find Tom. . . and discovers that, since there's no room in Tom's ""nice and cozy"" apartment, he can keep Lucy after all. It's obvious that neither Tom nor Dewey comes from a well-off family and the neighborhood -- especially the old frame houses and a sagging comer drug store -- does surround their friendship with an aura of warmth. A slurpy story, but the pictures have enough specificity to carry it a little way along.