Summary: Little Joe overhears a conversation between his Pa and big brother and misunderstands it completely.
Rating:  G  Words: 1755

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A Misunderstanding

Author’s Note:  Special thanks to JC for her terrific beta! This is my first Bonanza fic so I hope you like it.

~*~

Little Joe sat on his bed clutching his well worn, one-eyed bear and sighed as only a small boy can. “Mr. Beans, what am I gonna do with you?” He tossed the toy into the air and caught it close as he lay down on his back, frowning. With another sigh that seemed to come from the depths of his little being, Joe looked at the bear longingly, his green eyes misting with tears. 

“This is just terrible!”

The faded yellow bear was Joe’s best friend in the whole wide world, but that friendship suddenly seemed in danger. There comes a time in every man’s life, he sadly discovered, when he has to accept the fact that he’s too old for bedtime toys. He didn’t want to, no sirreee bob. Joe was happy sharing his nighttime dreams with Beans, but he’d overheard Adam say he was getting too old. The words were shocking and he still couldn’t believe his big brother had said them.

Joe looked at his bear and crossed his heart with a finger. He swore he hadn’t been eavesdropping. “I was just listening accidentally, that was all.” If Adam said it, then it must be true. Little Joe was too old to sleep with Mr. Beans!

His eyes watered and he sniffed at the memory of the treacherous words. “Poor Beans! Adam just doesn’t understand you!” In a show of loyalty, he hugged his old friend closer to his chest, not bothering to wipe away the disobedient tears that rolled down his cheek. He loved Mr. Beans but he loved Adam more, and that meant no more sleeping with a stuffed bear with only one eye and half an ear.

“Guess I’m just gonna have to be a man!”

~*~

Mr. Beans was very old. He had belonged to Joe’s Mama and come all the way from New Orleans, and when she gave him to her little boy he was a mighty fine looking bear. Two bright blue glass bead eyes, a fancy waistcoat made of checkered silk and on top of his head a small green hat. Very smart indeed. Mama had loved him dearly, and naturally, so did Joe. Sometimes he loved him a little too much, as time began to tell. 

One day Joe was sitting on his bed telling Beans all about the new kittens in the barn, when he noticed something awful. “Oh no, Mr. Beans! You can’t hear me any more cuz you’re blinded!” 

He wasn’t exactly sure how Mr. Beans lost his eye; the glass bead popped out one day and rolled away with the dust bunnies never to be seen again. Joe was heartbroken. Mama consoled him and promised to sew another one on just as soon as she could. But Mama went away right after that. Mr. Beans and Joe snuggled together at the top of the stairs and watched the sad people coming and going, and they both decided one good eye was good enough.

Of course, Joe was sad too and missed his Mama very much, but his natural enthusiasm coupled with the resilience of the very young soon led him into mischief, with Mr. Beans along for his many hairbrained adventures. Despite all his heartfelt promises to behave, he would occasionally accidentally forget. “I can’t be expected to mind everyone, Mr. Beans! There’s plain too many of ‘em bossing me around!”

It was sometimes hard for him to remember Pa’s warnings not to take Mr. Beans outside. After all, how much fun could he have without his best friend close by? They were sitting on the step eating the cookies Hop Sing would have given him had he been around to ask when one of the ranch hand’s dogs came sniffing. Joe made the mistake of teasing him with a cookie. The dog was hungry and growled a warning in his throat, frightening Joe and sending him scrambling backwards. He screamed as the dog lunged and snatched Mr. Beans before loping away to hide. Horrified by the attempted bear-icide, he threw the cookies to the ground and yelled at the top of his voice for help. 

“Paaaaa!” Little Joe tried his best to stun the dog with his impressive vocal range. “Aaddammm! Hossssssssssss!”

Though the opportunistic dog paid no attention to his high pitched wailing, his family certainly did, answering the distress call in true Cartwright style. If Joe hadn’t been so upset he might have laughed at their clumsy antics as they chased the unruly creature all around the yard until they finally cornered him, thus rescuing Beans from his slobbery fate. A tearful and contrite Little Joe wailed in earnest when he surveyed his beloved bear’s condition. Mr. Beans was in bad shape, and Doctor Hop Sing was enlisted to fix him up. 

“I fix!” Hop Sing nodded his head, determination etched into his kindly face.

Hop Sing was true to his word, washing, repairing, and duly returning the bear to his grateful owner, though he gently explained he couldn’t save the right ear. Joe’s unsinkable optimism once again shone through. “Mr. Beans don’t mind, Hop Sing! Honest he don’t!” He patted his friend’s arm, assuring him that a brave bear from New Orleans didn’t really need two eyes and two good ears! He took Mr. Beans and kissed him tenderly while scratching at the sewn up wound. “He’s gonna be okay, Hop Sing! He has Joe Cartwright looking out for him!” 

He thought he heard his brothers chuckling behind him, but he couldn’t be sure. 

It wasn’t long before another terrible tragedy befall the luckless Mr. Beans, and once again, the evidence pointed to his best ever friend, Little Joe Cartwright. Somehow, and Joe swore he didn’t know how, the bear’s smart silk waistcoat and dapper green hat, ended up buried in the chicken coop. Pa asked him if he had gone into the chicken coop without permission, but Joe had shook his head fiercely. “No,” he said, voice melting with just the right amount of innocence, “one of those naughty ole chickens must have kidnapped that stupid jacket and dumb hat when I wasn’t lookin’!”

Pa growled. Adam snorted. Hoss sighed. Not one of them believed Joe’s tale. Apparently, chickens just weren’t that smart. Cause and effect were swift, and as Little Joe rubbed his bottom, he smiled heroically between his tears. A few smacks and no dessert for a week for telling whoppers was a small price to pay for freeing Beans from looking like a sissy!

The unclad, hatless, one eyed bear with the chewed right ear hadn’t finished with his run of bad luck. Nope, with Little Joe as his protector his existence was always going to be precarious. The weather was plenty hot for swimming, but no one had time to take him so he improvised. Eyeing the water trough gave him an idea. At least Mr. Beans could be cool. He dropped him into the trough and tried very hard to teach him how to swim, just in case Adam came back and took them to the pond after all. Rescued this time by a scolding Hop Sing, Beans was dried out and returned to Joe’s bed with strict instructions swimming lessons were over. 

“For an inside toy,” he overheard Hoss say, “Beans spends a whole mess of time outside.”

~*~

Joe hopped off his bed and paced his room, inspecting all his toys and treasures carefully. “This is more than terrible,” he moaned. “It’s plain awful!” He loved his room and everything in it, and Beans belonged here as much as he did. Still, he scolded himself, Joseph Francis Cartwright, no more bedtime toys for you!

But his resolve wavered. What happened if the old tree near his window scratched late at night? Who would be there to tell him it was just a stupid old branch? What if he had a belly ache from eating too many of the lemon drops he accidentally found in his brother’s top draw hidden under his socks? He couldn’t call for Hoss because he’d ask all number of pesky questions. He wouldn’t want to ask Adam, because he’d make him apologize to Hoss for accidentally taking what didn’t belong to him. Pa? Nope, that was out of the question. Pa had already told him what he’d do if he found out he was taking things from his brothers. The only one he could confide in was Mr. Beans, but now he was too old for him. According to Adam, anyway.

Joe sat down on the floor and began to cry. Growing up sure was hard sometimes. 

Sniffing and wiping his nose with his sleeve, he was startled to see Adam standing over him. Joe hadn’t heard him come in.

Adam knelt down beside him. “Hey buddy,” he said gently. “What’s wrong? Why the tears?” 

Feeling miserable and desperate, Joe confessed he’d overheard him tell Pa he was too old for Mr. Beans. “I heard ya, Adam! You want me to get rid of him!”

Adam’s lips twitched and one eyebrow arched. “That a fact? What does Pa say about little boys listening to conversations that don’t concern them?”

Joe blinked. “Huh?”

“I never said you were too old for Mr. Beans, Little Joe! What I said was that Beans is getting mighty old. We were discussing what you might like for a birthday present and I thought you might like another bear to sleep with!”

“Oh!”

It had all been a big misunderstanding, then! Joe jumped to his feet and threw his arms around his bemused brother’s neck. “Boy! Adam, next time, you should make yourself clearer!” His brow wrinkled in annoyance as he wagged a stern finger under his brother’s nose. “Mr. Beans has been real worried!”

“I’m sorry. What was I thinking?” Adam rolled his eyes and grinned.

“That’s okay. You’ll know better next time, so I won’t tell Pa this time, okay?”

Snuggling into his brother’s neck, Joe mimicked the expression he’d heard that morning after he’d broken Hoss’s tie clasp. “I know you didn’t mean to, but I might not be so forgivin’ next time!”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Adam promised. “Would you and Mr. Beans like to come downstairs for supper? Hop Sing made your favorite.”

“Oh boy, yessirreee bob!”