Christmas Collection

Summary:  A seasonal Bonanza story

Rated: K (1,965 words)

Christmas Bells

The fast falling snow swirled and eddied around the young boy as he trudged wearily through the trees, trying desperately to get his bearings. Joe Cartwright was cold and tired but, more importantly, he was lost. Just a couple of short hours had passed since he’d been with his family, happily searching the woods for the perfect Christmas tree. When an acceptable pine had been found his brothers’ had set to felling it while Joe tramped the woods nearby, seeking evergreen shrubs to decorate the Ponderosa ranch house.

 

 

 

His father had warned him not to stray too far, to keep within hailing distance of the others. Joe, however, was determined to find the greenest branches, the lushest berries that the woods could provide and his search had led him further and further away.

 

 

 

He hadn’t worried when he’d finally realised how far he’d wandered. Though only ten years of age, Joe reckoned he knew every inch of the Ponderosa. It seemed an easy task to retrace his steps back to the clearing where he’d last seen his family.

 

 

 

What he’d not considered was the sudden onset of a snowstorm. Swift falling snow, blown by an icy wind, began to settle on the ground almost within moments, disguising the familiar viewpoints and making the woods an alien landscape. Joe wasn’t quite sure how he got turned around but it seemed that’s what had happened for he’d walked for a very long time now and found no sign of his father and brothers.

 

 

 

Apprehensive, Joe began to call for his family, shouting until his voice grew hoarse and his throat sore. There was no answering call and the youngster gradually found himself growing fearful. The light would be fading soon as evening approached and the snow showed no sign of abating. It settled on Joe’s hat and jacket, turning him as white as the ground underfoot. Snowflakes blew into his face and eyes, melting where they touched warm skin, making trickles of icy water that chilled the boy all the more.

 

 

 

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“There’s no sign of him, Pa.” Hoss peered uneasily into the snow clad woods, straining to see through the blizzard.

 

 

 

“I told him to stay within earshot,” Ben grumbled, though his words held more worry than annoyance.

 

 

 

“I’ll give the signal,” Adam said tersely, reaching for his pistol as he spoke and firing three times into the air.

 

 

 

As the shots echoed around the clearing where they stood, the three Cartwrights held their breath, waiting anxiously for some response. But there was nothing, no answering cry broke the silence.

 

 

 

“Did either of you see which way he went?” Ben asked, fear beginning to grip him as the minutes passed with no sign of Joe.

 

 

 

“I saw him head off in that direction,” Hoss pointed into the woods. “Said he was gonna find the best greenery we ever had. We gotta go find him Pa.”

 

 

 

“He’ll be okay,” Adam’s voice was steady as he sought to calm his younger brother and reassure his father. “We just need to go a little way into the woods and fire again. He’s sure to hear. He can’t be that far away.”

 

 

 

“D’you recall when it was we last saw him?” Hoss asked hotly, angry with himself for not keeping a better watch on Joe. “Cause seems to me it was long ‘bout two hours ago. He coulda walked miles in that time.”

 

 

 

Ben shook his head.  “I’m sure he’d have started back as soon as the snow began to fall,” he said, with an encouraging smile for his middle son. “Your brother’s right. We just need to go a little way into the woods and I’m sure we’ll find him.”

 

 

 

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Joe rubbed his hands together, wishing he hadn’t left his gloves back at the buckboard. It was so cold that his teeth chattered and his legs were beginning to feel numb from the icy wind blowing through the thin cloth of his pants. He was tired too, so very tired that he didn’t know how much longer he could keep walking. It was Christmas Eve; he should be home by the fire, decorating the tree, not out here in the wintry cold of the snowy woods. At the thought of home Joe bit his lip hard, fighting back tears. He longed to be there, safe with his family. So weary now that he found it hard to put one foot before the other, his eyelids grew heavy and his gaze drifted downward to the snow beneath his feet. With a sudden despairing gasp he stopped walking. In the faint glimmer of late afternoon light he could quite clearly see his own footprints before him. He’d walked in a circle.

 

 

 

Disheartened and fearful, he leaned against the nearest tree and closed his eyes. Home seemed very far away and he felt that he just couldn’t walk any further. Perhaps if he rested for a little while he’d feel better. He could just lie down in the soft snow and sleep for a while.

 

 

 

At that moment the snow seemed to ease a little and faintly, borne on the wind, Joe heard a strange sound. The pealing of a church bell. Puzzled, he opened his eyes and looked around him. The nearest church was in Virginia City, and there was no way the sound could travel that far. So what was it? Intrigued, he somehow summoned up the energy to follow the sound of the bell.

 

 

 

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Hoss stopped walking so abruptly that his father and brother all but collided with him. “We ain’t never gonna find him,” he said miserably. “We’ve been searchin’ for ages, firing and firing the guns. We just ain’t gonna find him.”

 

 

 

Adam cast a quick glance at his father. He could only just make out the older man’s features in the dim light but could see the impact Hoss’ words had on him. “Don’t talk like that,” he said curtly. “Of course we’ll find him. We have to.”

 

 

 

“And if we don’t?” Hoss’ voice quivered on the question, fear beginning to get the better of the youth.

 

 

 

“Hoss, we will. I promise we will.”

 

 

 

“How can you promise? We been searchin’ and searchin’ and we ain’t seen hide nor hair of him.”

 

 

 

“Perhaps Hoss is right,” Ben’s voice was bleak and Adam realised that his father was beginning to give up hope. Ben had known so much loss in his life that it must seem almost inevitable that it could happen again.

 

 

 

“No!” Adam insisted. “We will find him. We – ” he broke off as faintly, through the trees, came the sound of a church bell.

 

 

 

Distracted by the sound, Hoss turned to his father. “Ain’t no church out here. Is there Pa?”

 

 

 

Ben shook his head. “Not now.”

 

 

 

“Not now? You mean there was?”

 

 

 

“The beginnings of one,” Ben held up a hand to silence Hoss, listening intently to the bell.

 

 

 

“You think Joe might of heard that?” Adam asked, turning in the direction of the sound. “Could be he followed the noise. He wouldn’t have been able to see too well through the snow but he’d have been able to follow the bell.”

 

 

 

“But it makes no sense,” Ben protested. “It can’t be a bell. It just can’t.”

 

 

 

“Well, whatever it is, I say we go take a look.” Not waiting for his father and brother’s agreement Adam started walking toward the sound of the bell as the short winter day began to turn to dusk and the snow at last stopped falling.

 

 

 

It was Ben who first spotted the fire, its flames clearly visible through the trees. His pace quickened, walk turning to run as he burst from the woods into a small clearing, closely followed by Adam and Hoss. In the middle of the clearing sat a large flat stone, cleared of snow, on which the fire blazed brightly. And sat beside the fire, warmly wrapped in a woollen blanket, was Little Joe.

 

 

 

“Joseph!” Ben’s heartfelt cry of relief brought the boy to his feet, grinning with happiness as he saw his family approach.

 

 

 

“Hey Pa,” he called as Ben drew near. “You found me!”

 

 

 

“We sure did son,” Ben gathered Joe into his arms, casting an admiring look at the fire as he did so. “Though looks like you were managing pretty well. How did you start that fire?”

 

 

 

Joe shook his head, yawning widely before answering. “Mr Delaney lit it for me.”

 

 

 

“Who’s Mr Delaney?” Hoss asked, looking around the empty clearing, “and where is he now?”

 

 

 

“I don’t know.” Joe yawned again, too tired to talk much. “He gave me this cloak and lit the fire and then he went. He said Pa knew him.”

 

 

 

Ben looked again at what he had thought was a blanket around Joe. In fact, he saw now, it was a heavy woollen cloak. “I don’t understand all this,” he said with a shake of his head. “But whatever’s going on can wait for now. The most important thing is to get Joe back to the Ponderosa.”

 

 

 

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Late that night, safely back at the ranch house, warm and snug before the fire, Ben told his sons what he knew of Delaney.

 

 

 

“He was odd man,” he said. “What one might call an eccentric I guess. I met him about eleven years ago, not long before Joe was born. He had this idea to build a church up there in the woods. I’d forgotten all about it until this happened.”

 

 

 

Adam looked up from the glass of brandy he was sipping, “I remember meeting him once or twice,” he said. “A tall man, skinny and bearded. Nobody ever knew his first name, he just got called Delaney.”

 

 

 

Ben nodded, “That’s right. People scoffed of course, at the idea of building a church. Asked him who would go out there to services. Truth is I don’t think he cared whether there was a congregation or not. His church was going to be somewhere to worship God’s creations, the trees and the land, as much as his word. That big stone the fire was on was going to be his pulpit and he had this wild idea of building a bell tower and bringing church bells all the way from Sacramento.”

 

 

 

“But he never did?” Hoss asked.

 

 

 

“No, he never did. He got sick. I helped him out, loaned him the money to go and see the doctor, and a specialist doctor in San Francisco, but they couldn’t help.”

 

 

 

“You mean he died?” Hoss said, eyes widening at the thought. “Then just who did Joe see? Who started that fire and where’d the cloak come from? And the bells?”

 

 

 

Ben didn’t answer immediately, instead bending over the settee and picking up Joe, who had fallen asleep almost as soon as they’d started talking, weariness finally overcoming him. Standing up, his youngest held securely in his arms he looked over at Adam and Hoss and shook his head. “I just don’t know,” he said softly.

 

 

 

Later, Joe safely deposited in bed, Ben came down the stairs to find his other two sons erecting the pine tree they had felled, in the great room. He watched them for a while, smiling as he anticipated how fine the tree would look in the morning when they opened their gifts beneath it. His gaze fell on the cloak that had covered Joe in the clearing, now neatly folded on the settee. Picking it up Ben fingered the rough woollen cloth almost reverently. He didn’t understand what exactly had happened that afternoon but somehow he felt that Delaney had found a way to repay his loan. And for that he was eternally grateful.

 

THE END