Summary:  Little Joe should have known he couldn’t get anything past Hop Sing.  This story was written for the 2025 2^nd Quarter Chaps and Spurs Challenge.

Rating: G

Word Count: 889 words

“You think Hop Sing big fool?” the irate cook demanded, hitting the central kitchen island with his ladle for emphasis.

Little Joe Cartwright flinched, and quickly said, “No, no, of course not,” because it was true and also obviously the only thing to say.  He liked to think he wasn’t scared of much, but in his ten years of life he’d learned to always take it seriously when Pa’s eyes got stern or when Hop Sing started wielding his ladle.

“But you think Hop Sing not notice when cookies and donuts start disappearing from kitchen?”  Another whack with the ladle against the counter.

“Well, the way Hoss eats ‘em…”

The cook’s eyebrows shot up to his hat.  “Little Joe blame big brother?  That not make better!”

“No, no, I didn’t mean it like that, I just…”  Joe trailed off, unable to find a safe route through this very rocky field.  He hadn’t thought Hop Sing would notice.  Ever since his last birthday, Hoss had been putting away food like he was starving all the time.  Pa said he was growing, even though Hoss already seemed plenty big to Joe.  He hoped he wouldn’t have to wait until sixteen to grow some more himself.

“Civilization built on trust,” Hop Sing lectured, pointing at Joe with the ladle.  “No one happy if cannot trust family or neighbor.  Very uncomfortable living.  And stealing breaks trust.”

“It wasn’t stealing, it was just…I was just…”  Joe sighed.  “I don’t know, I didn’t think about it that way.  I’m sorry, Hop Sing.”

“Why you do this?  Why you want to take Hop Sing’s baking?”

Joe shrugged one shoulder.  “I was selling them to the other kids.”  Maybe time for an artful compliment?  “Everyone knows you make the best cookies and donuts, Hop Sing.”

The cook snorted.  “You save flattery for pretty girls someday.  Still not make this right.”

“You’re gonna tell Pa, aren’t you?”

Hop Sing was silent for a moment, then finally said, “You always been good boy, Little Joe.”

“Miss Jones doesn’t think so,” Joe muttered.

“Eh, what she know?” Hop Sing said with airy dismissal.  “Little Joe tell Hop Sing – why want to sell cookies?”

Joe scuffed the toe of one boot along the ground.  “Oh, it’s dumb…”

“Save to buy horse?” Hop Sing guessed.  “Or new detective novel?”

“No, nothing like that.”  As if he thought he could buy a horse from the pennies he got selling cookies.

All right, he may have calculated that out, putting more effort in than he usually did for Miss Jones’ math assignments, reaching the depressing conclusion that it would take years to earn enough for a horse.  But anyway, that was just a side thing, not the real reason behind all this.

“Then what else Little Joe want you not already have?” Hop Sing demanded, waving a hand as if to encompass the house, the ranch, everything.

“It’s just…Adam’s coming home from college next month,” Joe finally admitted.  Boston was so far away that it seemed downright mythical, and oldest brother had been gone so long he seemed almost like a figure from a legend, like Hercules or Samson.  “I just…sorta…wanted to buy him something, to say welcome home.”  He didn’t even know what.  Just something, and had figured he’d go to the general store once he had whatever money he could scrape together.

Hop Sing’s brow puckered.  “That nice idea.  Why not go to father for money?”

Joe groaned.  “Because that’d ruin the whole thing – then it’d just be from Pa – and little kids ask for money like that.”  That was really the heart of it all.  If Adam had gone murky and vague for him, it had occurred to him that he was probably murky to Adam – that Adam might have some wrong-headed notion that he was still the little tiny kid he’d been when oldest brother left.  He’d been hoping for weeks that Hoss’ growth spurt would be contagious, but no luck so far, and he needed a different way to prove how grown up he was now.

Hop Sing was silent for a long moment.  Then he set down the ladle finally, and reached into a cupboard to bring out his biggest mixing bowl.  “All right.  Hop Sing make extra cookies.”

This was completely unexpected.  “You will?”

“But Little Joe help with baking,” Hop Sing continued, pointing one finger at him.

Joe nodded vigorously.  “I can do that.  Sure.  I can help.”

“And Hop Sing get ten percent of revenue from future sales.”

Joe wasn’t actually sure how much that would cut into his profits, but he figured he could try to figure that math out later.  Now wasn’t the moment.  “Sure, yeah, all right.  And Hop Sing, can we make molasses cookies?  Those are Sarah’s favorites.  Oh, and Johnny likes nuts in his cookies – and can we put powdered sugar on the donuts?  Seth says naked donuts are an abomination.”

“Little Joe have demanding friends.”

“Oh – no, not really.”  Maybe it was a moment for his winning smile.  “Just trying to meet what the customers want.”

“Hmph.  Hop Sing still have to tell Little Joe’s father about this.”

Joe deflated.  “Oh.”

“But no worry,” Hop Sing said, assembling flour and sugar from the depths of more cupboards.  “Hop Sing make it sound good.  Stealing wrong, but enterprising spirit builds civilization.”

The End

Author’s Note: The five required words for this challenge were Abomination, Civilization, Revenue, Molasses, and Naked.