Need help identifying a short story (SF)

[Beanbag]

Need some help in identifying a short story I read many years ago. It was in some bound Sci-Fi anthology.

The storyline's simple (and humorous). A young boy in a family of witches spends all his time studying accounting. Dad and mom are worried, his teachers report that he's failing even the simpler spells. Dad tries reasoning with the kid, but he keeps adding up columns of figures and playing with an abacus. Dad brings in the spirit of his deceased father, who tries scaring the kid with various manifestations. When asked why he wasn't scared, the kid replies "It's just Grandad."

Left with no other choice, Dad summons the demon of children to punish the kid. The kid opens an accounting text and summons forth another mythological entity in the form of a wizened accountant, who dispatches the demon back to the netherworld. The accountant informs the stunned parents that the kid is his minion and learning to ensnare souls through numbers and accounting. The accountant disappears back into the netherworld after telling the kid what the next lesson would cover. Dad turns to Mom and makes some comment that if the kid really wanted to be an accountant that badly, then who was he to stand in his way?

I need the title and author, plus whatever anthology or book it appeared in.

Regards;
Beanbag

 

[Gord_in_Toronto]

When you find out, let me know. I'd like to read it.

 

[Jeff Corey]

I recall it, sort of. Robert Sheckley. The Accountant.
Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1954

 

[Beanbag]

I recall it, sort of. Robert Sheckley. The Accountant.
Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1954

Is that the magazine or an anthology book? The version I read was in a hardbound collection.

BTW, nice catch. Thanks.

Beanbag

 

[Jeff Corey]

That was the magazine. The story also appeared in his collection "Citizen in Space", Ballentine, 1955.
Those were the days of great humor/satire SF writers. Kornbluth( Padgett), and Sheckley were among the best.

 

[kleinjahr]

I remember that story, thought it was Bradbury.

 

[fuelair]

I recall it, sort of. Robert Sheckley. The Accountant.
Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1954

Well done Jeff - I knew I remembered the story (Should have - I have all F&SF through about 2 years ago and have read allthrough then)! Robert Sheckley is Great (and, as mentioned Kornbluth and Pratt and deCamp and Kuttner and....)
Fans of this type of thing could do worse than hunt down Tales from Gavagans' Bar, Tales from the White Hart (A. C. Clarke), Robots Have No Tails, etc. .

All are available at Amazon.

 

[Jeff Corey]

Pohl and Kornbluth's The Space Merchants (also 1953) had to be one of the most biting satires of the day.
Bester was pretty cynical, too.
"Tenser said the Censor..."
and 5271009.