The cup overflowed for James Stone. "I swear," he said, looking around desperately, "I swear that all of this is enough to make you want to sell your soul to the Devil! And I would gladly sell it for two cents!"

The story was first published in the newspaper The Saturday Evening Post (October 24, 1936), released in book form the following year by the publishing house Farrar & Rinehart, and won the O. Henry Award (an award that has also honored great writers such as William Faulkner, John Cheever, Raymond Carver, and others).