JASON AND THE MONEY TREE

We never quite figured out exactly what lesson Grandfather hoped to teach when he left Jason a ten dollar bill that sprouts into an honest-to-goodness money tree, but all that seed money causes Jason nothing but anxiety from the start. Jason wonders whether the tree's fruit is really legal tender and frantically seeks odd jobs so that he will be able to account for his growing wad of bills. His preoccupation neatly parallels his father's worries over the approaching bar exam and the family's overburdened budget, and his sense of guilt makes one wonder whether Jason knows more than we do about the money missing from his storekeeper friend's cash register which he secretly replenishes. After the tree dries up from several days without care, Jason realizes that his negligence was not entirely accidental. But that's only one articulated example of the free-floating psychological insights that make this more than just another dig at the root of all evil.