from today?

TIPPY. All right, all right. When you have learned six thousand
more verbs, each with a hundred irregular forms, then you can read
it in Pravda.

[TIPPY _carries board out to kitchen_, MARTIN _sits at table,_ KEN
_with him_. MARTIN _finds place in book and points to a word._]

KEN. [_Slowly, pronouncing all syllables in monotone, as_ TIPPY
_enters._] Al-yek-tree-feet-see-row-von-nuim ...

MARTIN. [_In disgust._] Stuck on the first word. [_Starts thumbing
dictionary._]

TIPPY. Word? It sounded to me like a derogatory sentence.

[_Knock on the door_, TIPPY _sees envelope that was stuck under it
and picks it up. He is opening envelope when knock is repeated. He
opens door and_ KATE _enters._]

KATE. Hello, Tippy.

TIPPY. Hello, Kate.

KATE. Hi, Ted.

TED. [_Closing book._] Hello, Kate.

KATE. [_Starts toward him but stops at table._] Hello, you bums.
How's the Red Army?

KEN. [_Rising, glad of chance to get away from book._] Tippy just
put it under the table.

KATE. Good for Tippy! He's the only real American among you.

TIPPY. The only real American by conviction. Ted's American by
innocence. He won't know there was a Russian revolution until it
becomes a classic.

KATE. [_Fondly_] That makes him very English. [_Takes_ TED'S
_book._] Is it Chaucer? Or just dear old Ben Jonson?

TED. No such luck. It's a first edition of Hemingway's "The Sun
Also Rises." For a man who wanted it, it's worth ten dollars.

KATE. How much did you pay for it?

TED. Fifty cents.

KATE. _Swell_!

TED. As long as ignorant people go into the secondhand book
business ... It's a tedious business, but if you look over enough
stalls, you're bound to pick up something.

TIPPY. I'm sorry to be sordid in this literary atmosphere, but if
you really have a book worth ten bucks, you'd better sell it.

TED. I will if I can find the right man.

TIPPY. Well--the landlord informs us that he has a more desirable
tenant who wants these quarters. He gives us till tomorrow morning
to raise the rent or he will out us kick.

[KEN _turns away and putters with his drawing instruments_, TED
_goes into bedroom._]

MARTIN. [_Who has been absorbed in dictionary._] Hell, it means
electrification!

TIPPY. Then would I shock you by telling you that the landlord
means business?

MARTIN. Huh? Oh rent! All right, I have my share. Here, take it
now.

[_Hands_ TIPPY _eight dollars_, KATE _takes money out of her
purse_, TIPPY _t