Summary: Ben tells his grandchildren a Christmas Story.
Rating:  G  (1,375 words)

Bonanza
~*~*~ Advent Calendar ~*~*~
* Day 10 *

At the End of Their Rope

“What’s all this commotion? Santa doesn’t like it when children shout and pinch each other.”

“It’s not my fault!! He took my dolls, ALL of them, grandpa!  He’s put them somewhere  just when we were about to have tea party.

“Make him GIVE THEM BACK!!!

“Darling, Grandpa still needs his hearing, bad as it is. What do you know about this, Junior?”

“Never saw ‘em.”

“Junior …”

“See!  He’s the awfullest, most hateful person in the world. I wish he was lost somewhere instead of my dolls.”

“I’d suggest that you don’t really mean that, but I’m guessing you actually do.”

“Every word.”

“Tell you what.  If you two will sit down quietly, I’ll tell you a story about a time when your papa and his brothers were young and liked to shout at each other.”

“But my dolls!”

“And after the story, the three of us will find your dolls. Won’t we, Junior?”

“Yes, sir.”

XXXXXXXXXX

“It was just about this time of year on the Ponderosa. The herds had been moved to winter pastures, the garden had been harvested with every bean and potato stored in the cellar, and the roof, windows, and doors had been checked, fixed and sealed up for the winter. We were even ready for Christmas! There was only one thing left – time on our hands.”

“That’s good, isn’t it?”

“You’d think so. But sometimes, too little to do is worse for a person than too much to do. It can make a man touchy and quick to take offense. That’s how it was with me, your daddy, and his brothers. We were getting on each other’s nerves something awful We were so used to working together, we’d forgotten how to just be together.

“Did they pinch each other?”

“If they could think of something to do to each other, they found a way to do it. Let’s just say, there wasn’t a lot of Christmas spirit in the air. It got so bad, I needed to get out of the house. The problem was out of the house meant into the cold and snow. We’d had a few days of dreadful weather with icy winds blowing and curling around the mountains dumping another foot of snow onto the ground. Hardly the time to take a stroll.”

“We don’t have mountains around here.”

“No, you don’t. When I look outside that window, I see the undulating prairie is covered with pure white snow, glowing with dazzling brilliancy beneath the cold rays of the sun.”

“The ‘what’ prairie is doing what?”

“Never mind. I read that somewhere.”

“So, there I was, head throbbing and as cross as an old mule.  I wasn’t any better than my boys except that I hadn’t pinched anyone. I knew I needed space and time to cool off.

I bundled up ready to face the outside, opened the door, and then nearly changed my mind. Snow was everywhere, ice hung down from the roof, and a gusty breeze stung my cheeks. However, I had decided I wanted to take a walk, I had dressed for taking a walk, and I wasn’t going to let a little bit of winter make a liar out of me.  My sons were watching, eyeing me with little smirks to see if I would back down.

“That wasn’t very nice of them.”

“Well, we weren’t being very nice to each other that day, remember?

I jammed my hat tight against my head and wrapped a woolen scarf over that, tying it under my chin for good measure. I must have looked funny because all three boys cracked up at the sight of Pa in a Temper going out into the snow. Their laughter made me even madder, and I just about ran outside. Let me tell you there was no running that day.  The snow was already close to my knees and falling over the tops of my boots, wetting my socks before I had gotten off the porch.  It didn’t matter; I was taking a walk.

I pushed through that new snow, cutting a path between the house and the barn.  I thought I would head over to the corral and check out the boards. It took more out of me than I liked to admit just to struggle those few hundred yards, with my head down against the wind and my arms out for balance.

By and by, it occurred to me that I should have already reached the corral. Where was I? The icy wind had gone from somewhat uncomfortable to downright alarming, and I wasn’t able to pick out any landmarks. I stopped and made a slow turn in place. I couldn’t even see the corral, or the barn, or the house, or anything else other than snow.

Grandpa had gotten lost in his own backyard.”

“Were you afraid?”

“I wasn’t afraid. I simply couldn’t believe what had happened.  So, instead of making the wise decision to backtrack and go back to house, I got even more stubborn. I’d gone outside to visit the corral, and by gosh that was what I was going to do. I pointed myself in a likely direction and set off again.

I hadn’t gone more than a hundred paces before that devil wind had gotten so strong I could barely stand up. I couldn’t even see my own tracks in the snow. I was in real trouble, and it was my own fault.

You might say I was afraid then. When you live in those mountains, you know what can happen to folks who get caught in the snow. It doesn’t take long for the cold to get the best of a man.

Now, sweetheart, don’t cry. You see your old grandpa is fine. Come on up here into my lap.

Well, I shivered and shook with the cold and prayed with all my strength for God to forgive me my foolishness. I repented with all my heart the bad temper and poor judgment I showed. I prayed that no matter what happened to me that my boys would be all right.

It seemed that the Lord must have heard my prayers because you’ll never guess what happened next.”

“Did Papa and my uncles rescue you?”

“That is exactly what happened. Just at the point when I was feeling very sorry for getting myself in such a mess, I looked up and could see someone coming through the snow. It was your uncle Hoss. He had a rope wound around his waist and somehow, he knew right where to find me. The boys had figured out long before I had that going out for a walk in the snowstorm was a bad idea. They had tied rope to the hitching rail in front of the house and held onto it as they followed my tracks in the snow.  When they reached the end of the first rope, one of the boys held fast there while the next boy ventured out with another rope. Hoss was nearly at the end of the third rope when he found me. We followed that rope back to your daddy and then back to your uncle. We all kept our hands on that final rope clear back to the house where we tumbled through the front door, cold and covered in snow.

Hop Sing had us out of our wet clothes and covered in warm blankets before you could say, Merry Christmas. We drank hot cider and talked about what a dreadful Christmas it would have been to lose each other because we were out of sorts.

Come to think of it, that might have been the best Christmas we ever had. It’s not every day we get reminded so dramatically of how much we love each other.”

“That was a good story, Grandpa Ben. I … I think I know where we can find the dolls.”

“I’m proud of you, Junior. Let’s go and get them.”

“Ooh, wait! Do you think we can find some rope?”

XXXXXXXXXXC Merry Christmas XXXXXXXXXX

Prompt:  The undulating prairie is covered with pure white snow, glowing with dazzling brilliancy beneath the cold rays of the sun.

Link to the Bonanza Brand Advent Calendar – Day 11 – Drabble #1 – Timber! – DJK