Summary:  Could Hoss’ behavior ever give cause for Ben to take him on the Grand Swing through the Ponderosa?
Rated PG
Word Count: 26,900

Chapter 1

Two fourteen-year-old and two fifteen-year-old boys were hiding behind the big tree past the outhouse of the school, giggling and laughing like girls. One of the boys had found some tiny, but rough drawings his father had hidden in one of his tool boxes in his barn and brought them to school.  As boys have from time immemorial, they wanted to see the things their parents had forbidden them to see.  The crude drawings, consisting of varying stages of nude women were certainly things of interest to the budding young men, and they were simultaneously intrigued and fearful. Intrigued, certainly, by what they were viewing. Fearful for the consequences should they be found out.  One boy, however, kept wondering if he really wanted to participate.  He knew his father wouldn’t approve, and he himself wasn’t all that keen on what they were doing.  But he didn’t want to be odd man out, and he didn’t want to incur their derision and teasing, so he went along, laughing when they laughed and basically just following the crowd.

When they heard the bell ringing, signaling the end of recess, the pages containing the tiny, crude images were given back to their rightful owner, who folded them and put them into the pocket of his vest, as the boys gathered their own belongings and headed back to the schoolhouse.  They jostled and laughed as they went, feeling more like “men” in their exploration of the fairer sex while trying to maintain some semblance of normalcy and not bring attention to the enormous deception they felt they had just perpetrated on their schoolmaster and parents.  One large boy, however, felt some semblance of shame and deceit for his behavior, but continued to hide that from his classmates.

For his part, Professor Thornton – that’s what he expected to be called:  Professor – was a hard, but fair man. He was well into middle-age, was fairly tall at almost six feet, slightly overweight, with a large bulging belly and his ever increasingly greying head was balding badly – a condition he himself loathed. He had never married but instead had traveled to every corner of the country after extensive studies in some of the most prestigious schools in Europe. Following that adventure he taught in the ever-expanding United States and expected everyone to acknowledge his professorial accomplishments. He had been teaching in the small one-room schoolhouse for those in and around Eagle Station for about three years. In his mind, it seemed to fit with his ideas of “expanding his horizons while simultaneously enriching the lives of his back-water students” as he eloquently explained to anyone who wondered about his current station in life.  He was making his way to the great Pacific Ocean and points beyond.  His reputation as a fair and competent teacher earned him rave reviews with the parents of all the students who attended his school.

Prof. Thornton sensed all was not well as the boys came bounding in with large smiles, joshing and shoving each other, but barely acknowledging him. Ordinarily, they would be most solemn, anticipating a dreary afternoon of more reading lessons and even more excruciating mathematics problems.  Instead, each seemed in a most jovial mood and eagerly skipped or hopped up the steps and into their seats – which were fairly close together in the back of the room, given their large sizes, compared to the younger, smaller students in the front of the class.

Even as Professor Thornton droned on about Shakespeare and iambic pentameter, the boys would occasionally break out in smirks and giggles, causing the other children to turn and look about. It seemed to Professor Thornton as though the boys could not control their mirth. Several times, he stopped his lecture and called to the boys for quiet.  They maintained it for approximately four minutes at a time before one or another of them would start giggling again, and the others would follow suit.  Finally, out of sheer frustration, Prof. Thornton asked the boys to stand, all of them.  Then, walking slowly and deliberately toward them, he asked what the problem was.  Of course, they each shook their heads and said that there was no problem at all.  One boy, Josh Bridger even going so far as to proclaim, “Can’t we just be happy we is in school?”  which cause deeper laughter from the other three and confused looks from the other eighteen children in the room.

Finally, when it appeared that even the intimidation tactic of making them all stand in front of the entire class did not deter them, and after another several attempts to preserve quiet and maintain order in his classroom, Professor Thornton dismissed the younger children to be dismissed.

“Children, school is almost over for the day.  You will be allowed to be dismissed now. If your parents want to know why I dismissed school early today, have them see me on Monday or write me and I will be happy to explain everything. Everyone is dismissed for the week-end, with the exception of these four individuals:  Joshua Bridger, Harper Stolter, Erik Cartwright, and Baylor Sanderson. If you are the younger sibling to one of these individuals, you may wait outside until I am finished talking with them and they will be dismissed to go home with you.”

When the children heard the names of the four oldest boys in the school being kept after, no one loitered. They did not want to be anywhere near the school when those four got into trouble! So the oldest boys watched as everyone else marched past them and out the doors in the rear of the schoolhouse.  Each of the younger children attempted to make eye contact with one or more of the bigger boys. Younger siblings especially tried to get the attention of their older brothers to figure out what was going on, but the boys were mostly looking at their desk tops or the floor. One or another of the older boys would on occasion stick a foot out to trip one of those leaving the room, usually their own younger sibling.

When the room was emptied, Professor Thornton walked to the back of the room and stood between the boys, who sat two in one desk on the left side of the aisle and two on the right side. He looked left to right and back again.  All the boys managed to avoid eye contact.

Finally, he spoke, “Would someone care to volunteer to tell me what is going on today?”

No one spoke, most just shook their heads, and one shrugged his shoulders.

He turned to Hoss.  “Master Cartwright, would you like to explain your behavior today?”

Hoss quickly looked at the other boys, and then at the teacher.  Hoss opened his mouth to speak but could only shrug.  Hoss’ face turned beet red and he looked around at his classmates, hoping for some back-up.  Professor Thornton had said nothing, but continued standing there, looking at him for a long time. Seeing no further response from the large boy, he stepped over next to Harper.

“Mr. Stolter?  Perhaps you can enlighten me?”

Harper just shook his head, which set his bright white hair to shake like wheat in a windy field.  Harper was so pale, his skin looked translucent and his bright white hair didn’t just lay down on his head, it kind of “flew” all over the top of it!  His only answer was, “No, sir.”

Professor Thornton then turned to look at Josh Bridger.  Josh was the one boy who looked the most like a sad soul.  He was gruff and motley, his hair very short, his father shaving it off every two weeks or so, probably to prevent having to wash it often.  He usually wore the same trousers and one or two shirts to school most days.  Prof. Thornton reasoned that with as many siblings as he had, cloth for new clothes was a luxury at their home and Josh being one of the oldest siblings there were probably no hand-me-downs for him.

“Master Bridger, do you have anything to say?”

“Can’t say I do,” Josh answered while slouching at his desk, his arms stretched across the front of the desktop, his eyes focusing on the blackboard at the front of the room.

The other boys tittered over that smug answer. Professor Thornton knew he needed to quickly take control of the boys and the conversation. He slammed his hand down on the desk, “ENOUGH!  I have put up with this disrespect all afternoon, and it will end now.”

The boys all jumped at his hand slamming, and all stopped smirking and smiling.

Then Professor Thornton deliberately and slowly walked to Bay Sanderson’s desk.  He stopped and looked down at him. Bay looked like a boy who had a chance to become someone influential…if only he would apply himself.  He was quite good looking, with alert, hazel eyes and light brown hair that wasn’t too long or too short.  With his well-built physique his clothes looked as though a tailor made them exclusively for him…probably a talent his mother had mastered.  He was as tall as Professor Thornton himself, the tallest of the four boys, except for Hoss Cartwright, of course.  Professor Thornton theorized that Bay was probably beginning to discover the beauties and mysteries of the fairer sex, which – if not kept in check – would cause the boy to abandon any chance at all he may have to succeed in anything long lasting.  He had seen the boy approaching several of the older girls to tease or whisper in their ears. Some seemed to like it, others put off by the action.  Yes, Thornton thought to himself, Baylor Sanderson was just about to break out into a phase of “growing up” that could be painful for him – and his parents – for a time. At first Bay didn’t look up while being scrutinized by the teacher, but the professor stood there so long, he had no choice and his curiosity of what the professor was doing got the better of him. Once he looked up, Professor Thornton held out his hand.

Bay frowned and shook his head.

Professor Thornton spoke then.  “I would like to see what is in your vest pocket, Master Sanderson.”

The large boy began showing red on his neck and up into his face.  Beads of sweat began to appear on his forehead, but he tried to keep his composure.  “WHAT?!?! You ain’t got no right…”

Professor Thornton cut him off.  “….give me what is in that vest pocket, or I shall ride straight to your farm with you this instant and you can give it to your father.”

Bay’s face went white and he gulped hard.  All of the boys followed suit.  Then they all held their breaths. What would happen when he saw what they were looking at?  They knew they were caught, and suddenly no one found anything to smile or smirk about.

Bay reached into his vest pocket, pretending not to have found anything, until Professor Thornton swiftly reached into the pocket and pulled out the wadded up pieces of paper.  Bay looked away as Thornton unwadded the pages and looked over them.  The other boys appeared to look away but were intrigued and wanted to see if Professor Thornton found them to be as interesting as they themselves had.

He did not.

He quickly wadded them up again and walked back to the front of his desk.  He placed the wadded up pieces on his desk and then walked behind it, reached onto the wall for the paddle he had hanging there and brought it down and walked back to the place where the boys still sat.

Pointing back at his desk, where the pictures lie, he said, “That is unauthorized and illicit material. It has no place in my classroom. Each of you know the rule about such items, do you not? ”

Each boy squirmed and shifted side to side, but nodded ascent.

“Each of you know the consequences for breaking that rule, do you not?”

Each squirmed even more.

“Master Sanderson, since these disgusting images belong to you, I expect you will go first.  Please stand and place your hands upon your desk, sir.”

“Please, Professor Thornton. I didn’t mean no harm.  We were just curious, about, well, you know. Please don’t paddle me and tell my Pa.  I’ll get it twice as bad once I get home.”

“Master Sanderson, please do not grovel.  It isn’t attractive, and it certainly isn’t manly.  And since you boys have exhibited such urgency to become men, I expect you to act like men.  You have broken school rules and therefore you must accept your punishment.  You know what to do, so please assume the position.”

Bay Sanderson’s eyes began to water as he bent over his desk, and Professor Thornton just as quickly administered four swats to his backside.  It probably truly did not hurt his body as much as it hurt his pride.

When the swatting was completed, Professor Thornton announced, “You are free to leave now, Master Sanderson.  I’m sure your siblings will report to your father that you were kept late and I’ll leave any further explanation of the matter to you.  After that I’m sure he will handle it the way he sees fit.”

Bay could only mutter, “Yes, sir.” Then he quickly left the room, only slightly glancing back at his remaining compatriots.

This ritual was followed with each of the boys, until only Hoss Cartwright remained in the room with Professor Thornton.  This was done mainly because Hoss was the only one of the older students who did not have a younger sibling waiting outside.  His younger brother was just getting over a fever and had been at home for half the week.

Professor Thornton then charged Hoss to stand for his punishment. Instead, Hoss slowly leaned back and slid low in his chair, hands grasping the desk and declared, “I ain’t a’gonna do it.”

“What did you say, young man?”

Chapter 2

Hoss was in a dilemma now.  He didn’t want a paddling.  He truly felt his only crime was looking at the sketches and he hadn’t been all that comfortable doing that.  He hadn’t brought them to school and he’d only looked at them along with his friends so they wouldn’t call him a sissy or something else.  He didn’t feel his actions warranted a paddling.  He looked at Professor Thornton, really took his time looking him up and down slowly and deliberately.  His teacher waited, not entirely sure what the boy was thinking.  Finally Hoss said, “You know, Professor Thornton, I think I could take you.”

The Professor was shocked by that statement, but kept his composure.  He wasn’t sure how to take this comment.  Could be a threat, could be empty bravado.  In either case, he admired the boy’s gumption but knew he had to stem the rise of it.

He raised his eyebrows in shock.  “Oh?  Do you think so, Master Cartwright?”

“Yes, sir.  I figger I’m about 4 inches taller’n you and outweigh you by about thirty pounds. ‘Course, I’m sure I growed some since I last figgered it out, so mebbe I’m more.  Yes, sir, I think I could take you.”

“Well, what exactly does that mean for our present situation, Master Cartwright?”

“Well, sir, I don’t rightly know, but I don’t want no paddlin’, that’s fer shore, and I ain’t gonna take one.”

Thornton nodded.  He rubbed his chin.  He stood a long time just staring down at Hoss, unsure what his next course of action should be. Then he turned and began walking back toward his desk.  He sat down at his desk, looking to the back of the room at Hoss, his elbows on the desk and his hands steepled in front of his face, fingers touching his lips.  He stared at him a long time. In some small way he understood what the boy was trying to do, but it was so out of character for this “gentle giant” of a boy, the professor was taken aback and not sure how to proceed.

Hoss was churning and shaking on the inside.  He had just thrown down the biggest bluff of his life.  He couldn’t really believe he had done it.  Or that it might actually work!  He wasn’t usually the one who defied authority…that would be his little brother.  But this just seemed wrong to him.  After all, he was bigger than all the other kids – maybe not older, but bigger.  He knew his father wouldn’t approve of what they had been looking at, but what they had done just didn’t seem like something that warranted all of them being paddled. Maybe Professor Thornton should have just told their parents and let them handle it.  He knew he’d probably get a paddling by his father, if the Professor sent a note home, but after watching what he felt was the humiliating paddling of all his friends, he’d just made up his mind that he didn’t want to be paddled by his teacher.  This could end very badly for Hoss, to be sure, but he just wasn’t up to being paddled today, and so he decided this bold play was his only ticket.  He waited for Thornton to speak.

There was about two minutes of silence between them – although it felt longer –  Professor Thornton staring at Hoss sitting at the back of the room and Hoss staring at his desktop, afraid to look up. Thornton studied the large boy, and Hoss thought furiously about what he had said, studied his hands, folded atop his desk, and considered taking back his brave declaration.  Suddenly Professor Thornton stood.  The abrupt move startled Hoss, and he jumped, then jumped to his feet, too.

Professor Thornton motioned Hoss closer.  “Would you come to my desk, please, Master Cartwright?”

Hoss moved cautiously, slowly, in case Thornton was going to try to swat him even after what he’d said.  Hoss thought furiously about what he would do if that happened.

Once Hoss was standing close to the desk the professor came around from behind the desk and stood beside Hoss arms folded across his chest, sizing him up.  He nodded and humm’d to himself a few times.

“Yes, I see.  You certainly are quite a bit larger than I am, aren’t you, son?”

“Yessir.  And I jest don’t want a paddling for something I didn’t really wanna do anyway.”

“Possibly, but you did participate in an infraction against school rules, Erik.”

Hoss looked away, shrugging slightly. Then he muttered, “It weren’t me brought them pitures into tha school.”

“Hmm, no, that’s true. But you did participate, did you not?”

Hoss had to nod. “Kinda.”

Professor Thornton continued, “Have I been disrespectful to you at all, young man?”

Hoss shook his head.  Then he answered, “No sir, ‘cept for wantin’ to paddle me.”

“Because this is still an infraction of a school rule and you broke it, is that not true?”

Hoss thought a minute.  “I ain’t rightly sure I did.”

Thornton laughed.  “What about defying my effort to give you a just punishment for wrongful actions?”

Hoss ignored the part about his actions, “Well sir, I just don’t think I deserve that.”

“And you could ‘take me’ if it came to that.  Isn’t that what you said.”

“I did say that, yessir. What I meant was, I’d just sooner not be paddled, sir.”

“Yes, so you said.”  He nodded some more.  Then he turned and sat back down at his desk.  He pondered the large boy standing before him.  Hoss stood with his hands clasped in front of him looking down at his feet.  He fully expected Professor Thornton was now going to write a note to his father.  When that happened, well, he knew how that would end at home!

Instead Thornton spoke, “Well, then I supposed we’ve entered into some kind of impasse, haven’t we, Erik?”

“Huh?”

“Some might refer to it as an ‘Indian stand-off.”

Hoss nodded, “Ah!  Yeah, I suppose!”

“Well, then, I suppose you are free to go, Master Cartwright.”

Hoss almost couldn’t believe his ears! He gulped audibly and almost said out loud, ‘Do you really mean it!?  And no note to my Pa?!’  but then decided that would betray his bravado which had led to this amazing streak of luck he had just been blessed with.

“Yes, sir.  I reckon I’ll see you Monday, then.”

“Hmm. Yes, Monday it is, Master Cartwright. Good afternoon.”

Hoss then wheeled around on his heels and calmly walked down the center aisle of the schoolroom – although he wanted to jump up and race out – he left slowly and quietly.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Hoss didn’t even remember the ride home. In his mind, he kept replaying the scenario he had shared with Professor Thornton and won!  He didn’t even know what had possessed him to speak up in such a manner.  Then in the next thought, he was enormously proud of the fact that he had wormed himself out of a paddling!  Wait till his friends heard about that!  He’d intermittently laugh to himself and then worry about whether he’d pushed his luck too far.  Would it have really been so terrible to just take the paddling?  At the time he spoke up, yes, he thought it would be.  He just didn’t think it was fair to be paddled!  He had a whole litany of reasons for that:  he felt his part in the “infraction” wasn’t that serious, he wasn’t the one who brought the pictures in for the other boys to look at, he really hadn’t wanted to participate in the first place, he felt he was too old, and too big.  Yes, he was sure he was happy he’d spoken up. How would his friends feel about that stroke of luck?  Would they speak up and demand they never be paddled again?  Would they be angry Hoss had gotten out of it?  Would they tell their parents, and then his father would hear about it?  Oh, no!  He hadn’t really thought about what his father might think about his actions.  What if his father DID find out?  He only entertained that thought for a minute or two, then pushed it out of his mind.

Before he knew it, Hoss was home.  Once he rode into the yard, his little brother came running out, glad to have his beloved companion home again. Since their oldest brother Adam had left for college, the two younger Cartwright boys had become closer than ever. Now they relied on each other for all the strength Adam used to convey to them. Hoss jumped down and scooped the small boy up into his arms.  He swung the boy into his saddle and walked his horse into the barn.  Together they groomed, fed and watered the faithful animal, talking all the while about what had transpired at school.  Little Joe didn’t particularly care for school, much like Hoss himself, but when he wasn’t there to see it for himself, suddenly school activities were immensely interesting, especially since Little Joe had spent the past three days bed bound. Hoss was careful to omit anything that might lead to a discussion about his talk with Professor Thornton.

Once his horse was cared for, they walked together into the house, and Hoss all but forgot the entire incident for the remainder of the week-end.

Chapter 3

Monday morning found Little Joe healthy enough to go to school, but not particularly eager. Between Hoss and his father, they finally got the small boy prepared to leave for school.  Ben announced he would be traveling into town with them, as he had business to attend to, which made Little Joe much more acquiescent.

Since Ben didn’t trust Little Joe to safely ride a horse alone all the way to the town, he rode double behind Hoss.  The three of them made small talk, and Ben made some jokes to keep the mood light so Little Joe didn’t enter the schoolhouse in a dark mood.  He was hard enough to deal with in school without adding a bad mood to the mix.

Before the morning bell, the other older boys tried to get alone to talk and commiserate, and Hoss was secretly glad his little brother was acting very clingy.  This prevented him from answering their questions about how his paddling had gone.  He hadn’t thought about how he would answer them about that since he’d pushed the entire incident out of his mind all week-end.

At lunch, Little Joe tried to sit with Hoss, but he pushed him off onto some of the younger children, almost being slightly rude, because Hoss wanted to talk to his friends.  Well, he wanted to know how it had gone with them with their folks but wasn’t all that keen to talk about his own experience.  As they talked each had a horrible tale to tell about how their parents had taken the news. They were still sharing when lunchtime ended, making Hoss glad he hadn’t been asked yet.

Hoss spent much of the afternoon musing about what he would tell his friends about his time with Professor Thornton.  He wanted to tell them what he’d done, and its consequence, but he was afraid they’d all turn on him and tell their parents, and then it would go worse for him.  He was torn and spent much of his “study time” thinking through his dilemma.

During the afternoon recess Josh Bridger snuck up behind him and jumped out in front and asked him outright.  “What about you, Cartwright?  You don’t look none the worse for wear.  What’d your Pa say about your tanning.”

“None of yore business, Josh.”

“Why not?  All the rest of us shared.  It wasn’t so bad.  My Pa’s tanning was about as bad as Ole Man Thornton, meanin’ I didn’t even feel it!”

“Good fer you,” Hoss muttered as he tried to walk away.

Josh grabbed his arm.  “Whattya mean ‘good fer you?’  What happened when Thornton paddled ya?  Huh?  Did ya cry?  Is that why you won’t talk about it?  Oh!  I get it!  Ya cried like a baby all the way home to yer Pa and then HE paddled ya agin, and ya cried AGIN!! Ain’t that what happened?”

Hoss opened his mouth to speak, but the other two boys were now circled around him.

“Hey, Hoss!  Are ya a big baby?  Did ya cry like Josh said?”

Hoss looked around.  He was getting hot under the collar.  He didn’t want to tell them anything, but he knew he was probably trapped now.

“No, I didn’t cry.  Ok?  Is that it? Is that what you want’ta know? Let’s git back inside….”  He started to walk away.

“It ain’t time yet,” Bay said as he stepped in front of Josh and blocked Hoss’ way.  “Tell us.  Why haven’t ya told us?  It must be like Josh said. You must’a cried all the way home!  Wouldn’t think a fella as big as you would’a felt Thornton’s paddle.  But, he must’a, right fellas?”  Bay laughed and turned to look at the other 2 boys, who began to laugh then, too.

The bell then rang and it was time to go back inside for the afternoon session, so Hoss brushed past the three boys and took his seat inside.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Just a few minutes before 3:00, the back door of the schoolhouse opened and a man entered.  Hoss was busy trying to hurry and finish his sums after spending way too much time being angry at his friends and didn’t look up, but his little brother did.  When he saw his father, Little Joe forgot he was in school, and blurted out, “Hi, Pa!  Are ya here to ride home with us!?”

Then Hoss looked up at his father, still standing next to the front door.  He looked from his father to Professor Thornton.  Then he looked at his friends, who were giving him questioning looks as if to say, “What’s your Pa doing here?”

Hoss just shrugged, apparently completely ignorant of possible ramifications from the strange incident he and Professor Thornton had shared just three days ago.

Ben stood in the spot.  Professor Thornton then spoke.

“Joseph, please attend to your work and do not call out without permission.”  Then he addressed the entire class.  “Children.  School will be ending now.  Please collect your readers and slates.  You will file out in an orderly and quiet manner, please.  Master Joseph Cartwright, I believe it would be beneficial if you would move outside and wait on the steps, please.  Master Erik Cartwright, you may remain seated.”

Little Joe looked at Ben, then Hoss.  Hoss wasn’t looking anywhere except his hands, which were folded on his desk as illumination of his situation suddenly struck him.  Little Joe then looked back at Ben, who was just standing, out of the way of the children filing out of the schoolhouse, mostly saying nothing at all.

Little Joe walked down the aisle, stopping briefly in front of Hoss.  Then he walked back to his father.  “Pa?”

Ben never looked at him; he continued watching Hoss.  “You heard Professor Thornton, Little Joe.  Wait outside on the steps until Hoss and I are finished here.”

“But what’s happening, Pa? Why is Hoss just sittin’ there? Can I stay in here with you and him?”

“No, son.  Go outside and sit on the step and wait for us as you were instructed, please. We won’t be very long. Then we’ll all ride home together.”

Little Joe started to protest again, but something about the set of his father’s face told him he should just obey, so he did.

Once Little Joe closed the door behind him, Ben walked to the professor’s desk, where he was standing. They shook hands and then Ben turned and addressed Hoss.  “Hoss, would you come up here, please?”

Hoss gulped hard and laboriously lifted himself out of his desk and moved slowly to the front of the small classroom.  Once he was up front, he shoved his hands into his pockets and kept his eyes cast to the floor.

Ben looked from his son to Professor Thornton.  He then turned back to Hoss and addressed him. “Hoss?  Look at me, son.”

Hoss looked at his father.  It pained him and he tried to not hold his attention. He cast his eyes back down to the floor.

“Hoss, Professor Thornton told me a disturbing story about an incident that occurred Friday.  Would you care to tell me about it?”

“I don’t reckon I would, Pa.  I reckon you already know.”

“I’d like to hear your side of it, son,” Ben answered in a very calm, reassuring voice.

Hoss looked at his father.  Then he looked at Professor Thornton, who was looking at Ben.

“Well, sir.  Professor Thornton thought I should’a been paddled for somethin’ that happened, but I didn’t wanna….”

“Why did you have a paddling coming to you?”

Hoss’ face was even more pained now.  “Don’t you already know, Pa?”

“I want to hear you tell me, Hoss.”

Hoss looked like he wanted to cry.  “Me ‘n some fellers was looking at some – stuff – we shouldn’a’ been lookin’ at.”

“Such as?”

“Pa?  Don’t you know?”

“Go on, Hoss.”

“Well, one of the fellers had some pit-ures, of, uh, some ladies….”

Ben nodded.  “I see.  Is that something you think I would approve of?”

Hoss shrugged his shoulders.

Ben took a step closer to him.  “Son?  Is that something you think I would approve of?”  The words were more pointed now.

“No, I suppose not.”

“You SUPPOSE not?!?”

Hoss quickly reversed his answer.  “No, sir.  I don’t reckon you would approve.”

“No, I would not and I’m sure you know that, don’t you?  You knew it Friday, didn’t you?”

Hoss nodded.

Ben continued.  “And so when Professor Thornton found out – as was his duty – he attempted to dole out the punishment for your misdeed.”  It wasn’t a question.

“Did, did you ask me a question?”

“I don’t think I need to.  You already know the answer, don’t you?”

“Yes, sir.”

Ben continued.  “And then, you made things worse for yourself, didn’t you?”

Hoss could only nod miserably.

Ben continued.  “You made things worse for yourself by defying Professor Thornton and telling him you would TAKE HIM DOWN if he tried to paddle you?!?!”

Hoss looked up quickly.  “No, SIR!  I did not tell him no such of a thing!  I…I….”

“Then what did you say?  And what were you thinking when you said what you said, Hoss?”

“I said…I ccc…I’m not sure.”

Ben waited.  Finally, he turned to the professor.  “Professor Thornton, what did you infer by what my son said to you?”

“I wasn’t exactly sure what he meant, Mr. Cartwright.  I assumed I might be harmed if I tried to paddle him.”

Ben nodded.  “That’s how I would have taken it.” He turned to face Hoss again.

“Hoss, do you understand how bad that was?  To threaten your teacher?”

Hoss took a step forward.  “No, Pa!  I didn’t threaten him!  I didn’t mean to, anyways.  I just meant….I mean, I just meant….I just….”  He took a deep breath.  “Pa, I just didn’t want a paddling.  That’s all.  I….”  He took another deep breath and then just shrugged. He was trying very hard not to cry.

“What you said was extremely disrespectful, Hoss.  Surely you knew it then, and you know it now.  You were not raised to disrespect those in authority, were you?”

“No, Pa.”

“To threaten violence to a man in authority over you?  To disrespect him?!”

Ben walked behind Mr. Thornton’s desk and took the paddle from the hanger where it had been put back since last Friday.

“I think you need that paddling more than you realize.  Drop your trousers, son.”

Hoss looked up, startled, with a frightened look in his eyes.

“PA!  You ain’t gonna….I mean, I….I….Pa, please!”

“Drop your trousers, son.  You know you had it coming Friday, and it’s still due.”

“But, Pa.”  Hoss was fighting tears.  “I don’t wanna….I don’t….”

“Hoss, are you defying me, now?”

Hoss took a deep breath again in an effort to keep the tears from falling.  He shook his head.  He was afraid to speak.

“Drop ‘em, son.”

Ben stood and waited.  Hoss stood rod still, afraid to move, and humiliated. He dared not look at his father or Professor Thornton, who had now turned his head and looked away.

“Now, Hoss.”

Hoss started to undo his trouser buttons and tears were forming in his eyes. He dropped his trousers, and was standing with them around his ankles, but still wearing his long johns.  He hoped that was all his father would require.  He put his hands on the closest desk.  He wondered if his father really intended to paddle him right here in front of Prof….

THWACK!

The first swat came across his rear end with such ferocity that Hoss literally felt his breath taken out of his chest.  He saw stars and briefly saw the world turn red.  He couldn’t remember if his father had ever paddled him that hard. He fought to catch his breath. While he tried to catch his breath and determine how hard his backside hurt, there came a second smack.

THWACK!!

The next one was even harder than the first. This one lifted Hoss off his feet, and he couldn’t help himself.  He yelped out loud.  He closed his eyes, trying to manage the pain. He found himself hopping from one foot to the other to try to manage the burning, stinging pain searing through his entire backside.  He took another half breath and there came another swat.

THWACK!

This one didn’t feel as hard as the first or the second one, or maybe his backside had just gone so numb he couldn’t feel the pain get any worse.  Hoss braced himself, as there was so much pain, he wasn’t sure he could even tell what burned and what still didn’t.

Ben finally spoke.  “That’s all, son.  Pull up your trousers and fasten them.  Then, go out the back door and head toward home.  Little Joe and I will catch up with you.”

Hoss could only nod, as he was fighting tears as he buttoned up his pants.  As he walked past the professor, he muttered, “I’m real sorry, Professor Thornton.”  He kept walking.  He may not have even heard the professor say, “As am I, Erik.”

Once the door closed and Hoss was gone, Ben turned to Professor Thornton and again shook his hand.  “Thank you for letting me know, Professor.  Hoss was not raised to disrespect women in such a manner, nor his elders and those in authority. I doubt there will be any further need for my assistance.”

“Thank you, Mr. Cartwright. Yes, I’m sure there will be no further need to follow up. I’m truly sorry, too.  Erik is a kind hearted boy.  It appears he just had a few moments’ lapse of rationality, trying to fit in with his friends.”

“Probably, but I don’t want that to become a common occurrence.  He is being raised to be his own man, with his own mind, knowing right from wrong.”

They bid each other good-bye and Ben turned and walked out the front door where Little Joe still sat on the steps waiting for them.

Chapter 4

Little Joe jumped up off the step he was sitting on when the door opened and his father stepped out. Little Joe looked back at the door and was going to ask where Hoss was, but from the look on Ben’s face, Little Joe knew enough to know not to ask any questions.

Once Joe was seated on the front of Ben’s saddle and they began to ride, Little Joe’s curiosity could not stay contained any longer.  “Pa?”

“Yes?”

“What happened to Hoss?  His horse is gone but he didn’t come outside with you.  You didn’t leave him at the school, did you?”

“He’s already started for home.”

“Why?  I didn’t see him leave.”

“He went out the back door.  I wanted a few minutes with Professor Thornton alone.”

“But why didn’t Hoss come out to get me?  I didn’t see him leave…we could’a rode together.”

“I asked him to leave through the back.  We’ll catch up to him.”

“But why did he leave first….?”

Little Joe was still questioning his father about his brother’s whereabouts when they spotted him walking beside his horse a little ways ahead of them on the road toward their ranch.

“There he is!  Pa?  Why’s Hoss walking?  Is his horse lame?”

Ben said nothing.

They rode up to Hoss and he stopped walking.  He looked up at his father, then looked over at Little Joe.

“Did your horse come up lame, Hoss?”

Hoss shook his head.

“Mount up, son.  We’ll be very late if we have to walk all the way.”

“Pa?  Can’t I just walk home and get there late?”

“No.  You’ve got chores to do and it will be very late if you walk the whole way.”

Hoss only stood and looked at his father.  Maybe if he stood long enough, his father would reconsider his order.

“Mount up now, son.  We’re going to be late.”

Ben started to ride.  Little Joe was confused.  “Pa?  Why is Hoss walking?”  He turned back to look at his brother.  “Hoss? Are ya coming?  Mount up!  Come on!  Pa’s leaving.”  Then turned back to speak his father.  “Pa?  Can I ride with Hoss now?”

“No, you can stay on my horse with me.”

Before he could speak, Ben was riding off.  Little Joe turned to watch Hoss mount up, not noticing how gingerly Hoss hoisted himself into his saddle.  The burning pain was now accompanied by searing pain shooting all the way down his legs. Hoss tried to find a comfortable position to sit, but it was just not possible.

As they rode, Ben kept up a slow, steady pace, and Little Joe kept turning to look at Hoss, who tried to keep up, but each step brought more pain and burning to the affected areas.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

It was quite late when they reached home, as Ben had slowed the pace a bit for Hoss.  Ben dismounted and then set the small boy on the ground.  Then he walked his horse into the barn and had removed his saddle as Hoss arrived.  He turned to him.

“You and Little Joe can care for the horses.  Then, go see Hop Sing for some linament for your pain, son.”

Little Joe knew the word ‘pain.”  His head whirled around to look at his brother.

“You got pain, Hoss?  Where does it hurt?  Why didn’t ya tell us?  We could’a went slower, right Pa?”

Ben had already started walking into the house and didn’t respond.  Little Joe thought his father hadn’t heard the question, so he turned to ask Hoss.

“Hoss?  Didn’t ya tell Pa ya had pain?  He would’a went slower comin’ home.”

“It’s awright, Punkin.  It ain’t that bad.  Let’s get the horses bedded down, and then Hop Sing’ll help fix me up.”

Little Joe loved helping with the horses, so his attention was diverted rather quickly, “Okay!”

~  ~  ~ ~  ~  ~

The two boys pushed through the front door, well, the smaller one pushed through the door, with the larger one close behind.  Little Joe announced their arrival by bellowing for their beloved housekeeper.

“Hop Sing!  Hop Sing!  Where are you?”

Ben heard the commotion from his seat at his desk, and called to the boy, “Little Joe!  Hop Sing is where he always is at this time of the day.  He’s preparing supper, now stop yelling so loudly in the house.”

Hop Sing, as well, heard the boy bellowing.

“What little boy want?  Hop Sing busy, always busy fix food for hungry boys, and now you yell.  What you want?”

“Hop Sing, Hoss is got pain!  Can ya help him?”

Hop Sing rushed to Hoss.  “What wrong?  What happen?  Big boy fall off horse?”

Hoss grimaced as he tried to think of a way to explain where his pain was.

“Naw, Hop Sing, it ain’t that bad…..I….”

Ben interrupted.  “Little Joe, would you come here, please?”

He was not to be deterred from assisting his beloved brother, “But, Pa!  I gotta help Hoss get fixed up!”

But Ben did not want Little Joe involved in the assisting. He slammed his hands down on his desk and bellowed:  “Little Joe, unless you’ve earned a medical degree in the last 2 hours, your help is not needed. I want you to let them alone and come here.”

He was adamant.  “But, why, Pa?  Can’t I help them?  Hoss don’t seem in too much pain, but I better make sure….”

Ben stood up and came around the desk and pointed to it.  “Little Joe Cartwright, I said you need to come to see me right now, and unless you want some of what Hoss got this afternoon, I suggest you follow my instructions!”

Uh, oh!  The cat was out of the bag.  Little Joe now knew Hoss had gotten a paddling.  But how?  When?  And by whom?  Was it the professor?  Not Pa!  They’d not been home since morning, and Little Joe knew he hadn’t gotten a paddling before they left home.  Now things were even more confusing.  It wasn’t ‘pain.’  It was soreness from a paddling!  But how had that happened?  Little Joe knew he’d probably be better off not asking, but he just couldn’t help himself.

He wheeled around and looked at his big brother, who was gingerly making his way around the credenza, through the dining room and into the kitchen. “Hoss! Ya got paddled?!? How’d ya get paddled?  Did ole Professor Thornton do it?  Why?  What’d ya do?”

Hoss shook his head and opened his mouth, but Ben had walked over near the front door where they were standing and put his hand on Little Joe’s shoulder by then.

“Come with me now, please.  I’ve already asked you twice, and both times you’ve ignored my call.  I suggest you follow it now, or you will be paddled next for disobeying me.”

Little Joe was more than a little intrigued, but he knew that tone when his father used it, and he knew he’d better do what his father was requesting and do it quickly.

He turned and went to the big desk with his father, who kept his hand on his shoulder the whole way.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Hoss and Hop Sing headed into the kitchen, and the cabinet where Hop Sing kept all the miracle medications he used to keep the family safe and healthy.

As Hop Sing looked for liniment to take the burn out of a paddled backside, Hoss dropped his trousers and his long johns.  When Hop Sing turned to look at Hoss’ backside, he almost dropped the medication out of his hands.

He gasped some words in Chinese that Hoss did not know, but the tone of voice they were spoken in told Hoss that Hop Sing was shocked by what he saw.

Hoss looked up quickly.  “What!? What is it, Hop Sing?”

“Who do this?!?!”

“What do you mean?  I just got a paddling….”

“Very, very BAD paddling.  This bruised. This very hard paddle.”

“Yeah, I know, I was there….”

“WHO DO THIS?”

Hoss was torn.  He wanted to tell his friend, but he certainly didn’t want to tattle on his father.  Obviously, it was quite bruised and Hop Sing was upset, but Hoss knew he’d deserved what he had gotten.  He didn’t know it would bruise, but he knew it was bad, as he never remembered pain quite so severe from a paddling given by his father before.

“It don’t matter.  I deserved it, that’s all that matters.  The ride home on my horse prolly made it look worse.”

“It matter to Hop Sing.  This look cruel.”

“Aww, it ain’t nuthin’, Hop Sing.  It just looks bad, I guess.  Jest put the salve on it, and in a couple days, I’ll be fine.”  Hoss tried to sound jovial and make the injuries look trivial, but Hop Sing was outraged by what he saw.

Hop Sing gingerly treated the bruises and instructed Hoss on what he should do to ease some of the pain as well.  Hoss listened carefully and nodded with every instruction. Then he tenderly and slowly slipped his long johns and pants back on, careful not to rub off the liniment.

He tried to walk normally back into the big room where his father was sitting at his desk and Little Joe was nowhere to be seen.  As he drew closer to the settee, his father looked up and spoke to him.

“You may go to your room now, Hoss.  There will be no supper for you tonight.  I’ll see you in the morning.”

Hoss stood there a moment, torn between questioning his father about it without further contravention, quieting his empty, growling stomach, and not pushing his luck after the trouble he’d already stirred up today.

He nodded and headed up the stairs.

Ben kept his head down but watched from the corner of his eye as Hoss climbed the stairs.  He felt very bad for making such a proclamation, but he wanted Hoss to remember this lesson and never defy authority, think of women as playthings, or threaten someone because of his size advantage again.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~   ~

Once Hoss had ascended the stairs, Hop Sing came into the office and stood in front of the big desk where Ben appeared to be quite busy. He stood, Ben continued working.

Finally, Ben looked up at him.

“What is it, Hop Sing?”

“You know.  Why boy got such bad paddle.”

“Are you questioning my parenting skills?”

“Just ask question.  Injuries very bad.  Very bruised. Never before look so bad after paddle.”

“Hoss was quite insolent to his professor.”

“Venerable teacher do that to Hoss!?  Maybe not so venerable, maybe bad teacher.”

“No, it wasn’t his teacher.  I did that.  Hoss was very disrespectful to his teacher.”

Hop Sing was so taken aback about what had happened to Hoss, he forgot all protocol and ventured further.

“Hoss not bad boy.  Fatha never punish big boy so much before.  Why now?”

Ben began to wonder why he almost felt compelled to explain himself to their housekeeper. He knew the reason, deep down.  He knew Hop Sing cared for the boys deeply; as much as he did.  He debated with himself about explaining it all to Hop Sing. In the end, he decided he didn’t need to explain anything at all, because the more he thought about it, the guiltier he felt.  “I felt it was proper.”  Then Ben put his head down again and proceeded to begin writing in his ledger.

Hop Sing had never known Ben Cartwright to punish his boys in anger, so he had to believe the behavior was severe enough to warrant what he saw, but even that was hard to believe for it was Hoss they were talking about. Hoss!  The sweetest, most gentle, compliant child God ever placed on the earth. He stood for a long time and studied his beloved boss, but the boss did not look up.

Finally, Hop Sing made a sort of “huff” noise and turned and walked back into the kitchen.

After he had walked away, Ben looked up after him, then looked at the stairs.  Did he do the right thing?  Was the punishment too severe? Had he overreacted to Hoss’ behavior?  Had he hurt Hoss?  Or worse, had he caused Hoss to wonder at his father’s love, and consider that he had experienced “abuse?”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Suppertime brought another test of Ben’s patience.  Little Joe wanted to know why Hoss wasn’t allowed to eat.  Ben patiently explained that Hoss was being punished which brought another round of questions as to what Hoss had done to deserve such torturous actions. Ben then patiently explained that Hoss had been disrespectful to their teacher.  That brought a lecture, which Joe felt was undeserved as he had done nothing wrong, about how to behave in their classroom and toward all their future teachers.

It was obvious Little Joe wasn’t the only one who felt what Hoss was experiencing was unjust.  Every time Hop Sing came into the dining room, he looked a long time at Hoss’ place and muttered to himself in Chinese. Ben tried to ignore it until he could stand it no longer.

Ben angled his head toward Hop Sing and declared, loudly, “Hop Sing, I will handle my sons’ discipline my way, and you will either accept my decisions on these matters or you can search for other employment.”

Hop Sing wasn’t cowed.  “Maybe Hop Sing go.  Maybe go all way back to China. Huh!”

Little Joe became extraordinarily upset.

“NO!  Don’t go, Hop Sing!  Pa’s just worried about Hoss, right Pa?  You don’t want him to leave, do ya, Pa?  Hop Sing!  Me ‘n Hoss’d miss ya too much!  DON’T GO!!”

“Eat your supper, Little Joe.  Hop Sing’s just blowing off steam.  He’s not going to China.”

“Huh!  You think Hop Sing no can leave?  He go tonight.  He got cousins!  Cousins take Hop Sing in. Hop Sing leave for China tomorrow! Huh!”

Ben could take it no more.  He stood quickly threw his napkin onto his plate and stalked off through the main room and up the stairs.  Little Joe watched him go.  He wanted to cry.  What was going on?  Hop Sing knew the little boy was upset.

“Little Joe eat supper.  Then Hop Sing have nice dessert for little boy.”

“But, what about Hoss?  He ain’t had no supper.  Can he have dessert?”

“Father say no supper for Hoss.”  In a quieter voice, he added, “But he no say about dessert!  Maybe Hop Sing bring dessert later, if little boy can keep secret.”  Joe and he smiled conspiratorially to each other about the deception they would pull over on his boss, whom he was still angry at.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The quiet knock on his door startled Hoss.  He turned partly over onto his side, as he was lying on his stomach.

“Yeah?”

Ben stuck his head in the door.  “Can I come in, son?”

Hoss thought Little Joe was coming to console him.  He didn’t expect his father but didn’t really think he could have said no, so he nodded yes.

He stood up, as sitting was just as painful as lying on his back.

Ben walked in and hesitated before speaking.  “Hoss, you know why I had to paddle you today, don’t you?”

“I guess I was purty stupid, huh?”

“Well, you certainly were disrespectful.  And then dishonest by not telling me about the incident. Not to mention the original indiscretion that set this whole ordeal into action.”

“I didn’t mean to scare ole…I mean Professor Thornton.  You know I wouldn’t’a done nuthin’ bad to ‘im, doncha, Pa?”

“It doesn’t matter what your intent was, son.  The disrespect and the implication of violence toward anyone – whether someone in authority over you or any other human being – isn’t the type of person I want you to be.  You cannot think you can use your size to intimidate a person.  That’s not the kind of man I want you to be.”

“I just didn’t want a paddling, Pa.”

“Then you probably shouldn’t have broken a school rule.  Furthermore, I’m pretty sure you knew when you were with those other boys looking at those drawings, you might have had a moment or two where you knew I wouldn’t approve, nor would Professor Thornton.”

“I s’pose so.”

“Then you should have stood up and refused to go along with it.”

“That’s jest it, Pa!  I wanted to, I did.  But they would’a laughed at me, they might’a called me yella or somethin’.”

Ben looked at the large boy at the precipice of manhood for a long while.  Then he took a deep breath and shoved his hands deep into his pockets before he spoke again.  “Best decide the kind of man you want to be, Hoss.  Do you want to be carried away by the opinions of others, or stand up for right and wrong?”

“Don’t others wanna do the right thing?”

“Curiously, many times they don’t.  Sometimes one man can have a very bad idea and the ability to persuade others to follow that path of perdition.”

“It’s purty hard to be a man sometimes, ain’t it, Pa?”

“Sometimes it is. Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish right from wrong.  But this wasn’t a hard choice to make. Life will hand you many more lessons, much harder than this.  You need to know ahead of time the kind of person you want others to see. And that begins with following your own head and heart, knowing right from wrong and doing right.”

Hoss nodded and thought about the choices he’d made, and those he could have, or should have made. Then he asked his father, “Pa? Didn’t you never do nuthin’ like that before?”

“Going along with the choices of so-called ‘friends?’ Of course I have! The consequences of those decisions are what taught me I needed to be my own man, and make my own choices, and not let others influence me.  But the disrespect for the female of the species is what concerns me more.  Women are delicate creatures.  God created them from the man, for him to hold and protect and provide for.  When we start to see them as less than that, we can begin to treat them badly.”

Hoss nodded again.  He was silent and Ben waited.

Finally, Hoss took a deep breath and asked another question.  “Pa?”

“Yes, son?”

“Why’d you hafta paddle me right there in front of Professor Thornton? Couldn’t it’a waited till we was back home?”

“Because it was his rule you broke. You had a paddling coming, and it should have come from him.  I may have followed up with punishment at home, and that would have been the end of it. But I wanted him to know you had received the punishment he had proclaimed. And I wanted him to know I agreed with him about it.”

“But couldn’t you have just done it at home, and told him you done it?”

“I could have.  But you humiliated him somewhat by refusing to take your punishment.  I didn’t want him to feel intimidated by you or hold anything against you in the future. I want him to know that you were punished properly and now the incident is forgotten.”

“But, why’d ya hafta paddle me harder’n you ever did before?  Hop Sing says they’s some mighty bad bruises. And it hurts a whole lot.”

“I am sorry about the bruising, I guess that paddle is harder than the belt I use. If you would have allowed him to paddle you and then I did so at home, it might have come out the same, but what troubles me most isn’t the paddling — it’s the disrespect you showed your teacher, and then not telling me the truth about what happened. I shouldn’t have had to hear it from him first. I don’t ever want to see you defy an authority figure again. That never ends well.  It leads to lawlessness and haughtiness, like it says in the Good Book: ‘Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall’.”

“Hauty…what’s that, Pa?”

“I think it would be good if you looked it up.  It’s in Proverbs 16. Find it and read about it, why don’t you? Now, it’s time for bed. Try to get some sleep, Hoss. I love you.”

Ben turned and left, and Hoss reached for his Bible.

Chapter 5

By Tuesday morning Hoss figured his “friends” had forgotten all about him not sharing what happened when he went home Friday afternoon. In part that was true. In fact, now they were more interested in what his father was doing at school the previous afternoon.

At first recess, Bay walked toward Hoss, who was stooped over helping a littler child rehook his boot laces and didn’t see him coming.  Bay walked up behind him and pushed him down.  Hoss landed face first in the dirt.  He got up, dusted himself off and turned to look at Bay.  “What’s yer problem?  Leave me alone, would’ya?”

“I ain’t leaving nuthin’ alone, Cartwright.  I’m sure of it now, Yore a yella-belly.  Ya cried like a stuffed pig when Perfessor Thornton paddled ya and yore Pa came yesterday to threaten him if he ever did it to ya agin.  That’s the truth of it, ain’t it?”

“No, that ain’t the truth of it.  Jest git along and leave me be, why don’t’cha?”

“Cause me’n the others wanna know.  We told what happened to us when we got home, but you didn’t.  That means you prolly got it so bad yer afraid to say so cause yer Pa’ll give it to ya agin if anyone don’t think he’s such a good guy as he wants the whole town to think.”

“Think what you want.  I know my Pa’s a good man and all his friends know it, too.”

“Yeah?  I bet plenty of folks in town talk about him in a whole other way when he’s not around.”

“I don’t care what you or anybody else thinks about him, and that’s the truth.”

“I say yer yeller and yer Pa’s yeller too!  I say he came inta town and tole ole’ Thornton to lay off ya or next time yer Pa’ll give HIM the paddlin’!”

The other boys were laughing at Bay’s last comments.

Hoss started to say something, but the bell rang and – once again – it saved him from saying or doing something he knew his father wouldn’t approve of.

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Lunchtime brought another round of interrogations and derision.  While he tried to peacefully eat his lunch, Bay and his cohorts circled him and tried to goad him into a fight.  Hoss was determined to obey his father’ mandate.

“Hey, Cartwright,”  Harper called, “Bay says you tole him your ole man beat you twice as hard as ole Thornton did when ya got home.  Is that what really happened?”

Hoss just wanted to finish his lunch.  He didn’t want to have this conversation, or have a fight start over whatever he might answer.  He looked around for Little Joe.  Curious as it sounds, he wanted to “use” Little Joe as cover.  He could suggest he couldn’t fight around his little brother as the “little brat” would tell on him to their father…anything to prevent what he knew was inevitably going to happen.

Hoss turned and without any forethought whatsoever, he swung and knocked Bay to the ground.

The laughing stopped.  Bay got up and charged Hoss, but Harper grabbed him and held his shoulder.  The two boys stood glaring at each other when Little Joe ran up.

“Hey, Hoss, c’mon, Ole Man Thornton is comin’.  You guys better git inside quick.”

They stepped away from each other and started for the schoolhouse door, Hoss with his fists balled up and Bay rubbing his chin.

The rest of the afternoon, all four boys sat and glared at each other while they pretended to be working.  It was difficult to concentrate on their work, and the only consolation Hoss took was that Professor Thornton hadn’t seen the altercation and issued more punishment.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ ~

The next day at school led to another matter Hoss had to navigate.  His so-called friends still wanted to know what was going on.  They wanted to know what his father had been doing at school on Monday.  Two were of the opinion that Ben had gone to school to threaten Professor Thornton, angry that Hoss had gotten a paddling from him, but Bay Sanderson had said Hoss’ father was probably giving the professor a bribe to keep from paddling him!

Since Hoss was still not talking about it, Josh, Bay and Harper were ignoring Hoss for the most part. But Bay still hadn’t gotten over the fact that Hoss had punched him and vowed to get even.

During lunch on Wednesday, Bay decided to bring things to a head.  He ate quickly and then told his cohorts to watch how he handled ole Hoss.

He walked over and stood over Hoss, who was relegated to eating alone, since his friends had all but abandoned him.  “Hey, Cartwright!  You think yore such a big man.  You think cause yore Pa’s got a big ranch you can get away with anything in this town,”  Bay taunted. “My pa says he ain’t even sure you own all that land, prolly stole it from the Indians.” Hoss swallowed hard but ignored the biting words and kept eating.

Bay wasn’t going to let Hoss ignore him like that!  He kicked at Hoss’ boot, and the large boy’s sandwich fell out of his hand.  Hoss shot up straight and stared Bay down.  They stood like that, boring holes into each others’ eyes.  The other older boys sat at a distance and watched and sniggled together.  But Little Joe knew Hoss would face their father’s wrath again if anything came of this confrontation, so he ran to his brother’s side.

“Hoss!  Hoss, fergit about him.  He’s no good, and ugly to boot.”  Joe turned and stared at Bay the same way Hoss was.

Bay looked down at Joe for just a second, then back up at Hoss.

“Tell yer tappy little pipsqueak puppy to mind his own damn business, Cartwright.”

Hoss quickly jumped to his feet and confronted Bay  “He’s ma little brother and he kin say whatever he wants.”

“Yeah?  Well, I don’t like you and I really don’t like him.  Now, if’n you want, I’ll shut him up first and then start in on you.”

Hoss took a step toward Bay, causing the other boy to step back.  “You threaten to hurt my little brother and you’ll find out what happens next.”

“Oh!  I’m so scared, Cartwright.  In fact, I’m scare o’BOTH o’ya’s!”  He turned and walked away, laughing.

Hoss looked down at Little Joe, who was looking every bit as fierce as his three-foot-eight-inch tall self could, hands balled into fists and resting on his hips, his face frowning.  The other three boys were now grouped together and laughing as they pointed at the Cartwright brothers.

Hoss looked down at Little Joe and almost started laughing himself.  He couldn’t help it.  Little Joe mostly saw himself every bit as big and strong and tough as Hoss, his own size notwithstanding.

“Little Joe, you gotta jest let me fight my own battles.”

“I know.  I just…I just got all mad when he kicked ya and yer sandwich went flyin’ is all.  I mean, I know you was hungry…”

“I kin take care o’the likes of him.  Next time, just let me handle it, okay?”

“But what if they all three come at ya?  What if ya need my help?”

“Well, if’n I do, I’ll call for ya, how’ll that be?”

Little Joe nodded and put his arms down at his sides.  “Yeah, that’ll work.  Okay, Hoss, I’ll wait till ya ask fer my help.”

Hoss smiled, ruffled Little Joe’s curls as he started walking back toward the school house, “I’ll be glad to have it, too.”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

By the next morning, the three boys were even angrier at Hoss than they’d been the previous day!  Bay had intimated to them that Hoss Cartwright saw himself as mightier and more respectable.  Bay had gone on and on with all the things Hoss had threatened to do to all three of them, none of it true.  He was fostering bad feelings toward Hoss that he himself felt but didn’t want to have all alone.

Another face-down occurred at lunchtime, but this time a gauntlet was thrown:  Bay challenged Hoss to face him at the edge of the creek where the two roads they took home diverged.  There they could settle things “like gentlemen” and see who was in the right.  Hoss tried to talk his way out of it, but the more he talked about why it was a bad idea, the more Bay teased that it was all because Hoss was a chicken-livered yellow-belly.  To Little Joe, those WERE “fighting words,” and he totally backed the plan to meet Bay and take care of business once and for all!

When Hoss finally agreed, it sent shock waves all throughout the school.  It was all any of the students talked about, even the littler ones.  Hoss felt like he was being swept away in an hysteria that was not of his making.  He now felt he had no choice, unlike the “choices” his father had lectured him about just a few days before.  The more he tried to think of a way to get out of the fight, the less able he was to find anything that would dissuade the other boys.  Now all three of the other older boys were involved and all were looking for a confrontation;  one where the “high and mighty Hoss Cartwright” would finally get his come-uppance.

Even Little Joe seemed eager for a fight.  “You got this, Hoss.  You got height, weight, reach and smarts on that pipsqueak!  You’ll wipe the ground with him.”

Hoss didn’t lecture his little brother on any of his statements.  He was just getting sicker and sicker at the thought of having to fight, after his father had tried to warn him off of such behavior.  He had a really bad feeling this was going to end badly for him whether he won or lost the fight.

Things seemed to have settled down after the agreement to meet and fight, but it was only a temporary reprieve.  Hoss knew he had to show up for the fight after school or never show his face in school again!

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Apparently Bay felt as though he had achieved what he wanted, and was willing to wait until they faced off at each other to get his revenge.  So that afternoon once school had ended the boys started toward the creek to the scene of the fight.  There were many more children there than Hoss would have anticipated.  Many of them were kids who lived out of town, like he and Joe did, and would be on their way home down this road.  But some lived in town and had come out this far simply to watch two older boys duke it out so they wouldn’t be left out of the “fun.”

When Bay and his “posse” arrived it seemed to be with all the fanfare of a Presidential visit!  They squeezed Bay’s shoulders, held his hat, patted him on the back and generally kept whispering encouraging words in his ears.

Hoss had Joe, of course, but he couldn’t drown out the sick feeling in his stomach that he was going against something his conscience told him was wrong.

Finally, Bay strode over to the center of a clearing between the trees and stood waiting for Hoss.  Hoss still stood beside his horse, hands on his horse’s saddle pommel.  He did not want to do this.  He was still trying to find a way to end it before it came to fists.

“Bay, we don’t hafta do this.”

“I know’d you was chicken, Cartwright.  I knew you didn’t wanna fight me.  I’m even surprised you came at all!”  Bay continued to taunt.

The other children all joined in now.  They were chanting:  “Cartwright!  Cartwright!  Cartwright!”

Hoss saw no other option.  He walked toward Bay, his arms swinging at his side with each stride.  A big cheer came up from the crowd.  The boys squared off against each other.  Bay held his arms up to his chest, with fists tightly balled. Hoss stood with his arms at his side. They circled and circled, until someone in the crowd yelled out, “What’r’ya waitin’ for?  Rush him!”

And Bay did so.  He rushed in to punch Hoss in the chest, but Hoss side-stepped and pushed him down due to Bay’s own momentum.  Getting up off the ground, dusting himself off and putting his hands back up in a “fighting” position, Bay again attempted to rush Hoss.

Hoss tried to stop the fight.  “Bay, jest turn and walk away.  There ain’t no shame in it.”

“You’ll die first, Cartwright.  I ain’t fixin’ to walk away and give you braggin’ rights.”

“Is that all this is, Bay?  Braggin’ rights to who kin fight and who’s chicken?”

“No!  I want a piece of your ass, Cartwright, as high and mighty as you think you are.”

“Bay, I don’t think none o’that.  All this was yore idea.  I jest wanna git it done with and go home.  Now how about we call a truce and go home now?”

“YER A CHICKEN, YELLOW-BELLY, DIRTY ROTTEN BABY!”  And with those words, Bay rushed toward Hoss again, this time getting in a punch before Hoss landed one of his own.

It was on.

Hoss punched Bay in the stomach.  The boy doubled over, stood up again and punched Hoss in the face, which did nothing.  Hoss swung a right round-house at Bay which he quickly moved away from.

Then Bay tried a round-house on Hoss, which ended with him twirling himself so hard HE landed in the dirt for the second time.  Now Bay was angrier than at any time since he’d decided he needed to teach Hoss Cartwright a lesson.

Bay came out swinging again and never letting up.  Hoss decided the best defense was to put up little to none.  So he allowed Bay to punch him two to three times before Hoss swung on him again with a straight jab to his nose.  Once again, Hoss’ punch landed the other boy flat on the ground when his head flew back.  He landed flat back on his keister!  All the other kids laughed and Bay just jumped up, wiped off the seat of his pants and charged Hoss again.

This time Hoss grabbed him around the middle and held him against his own body.  He figured since he didn’t want to punch him anymore, he’d just hold Bay until the boy wore himself out trying to hurt Hoss.  It mostly worked.  Bay was weakening.

Suddenly a horse rode into the middle of the fracas and children who were circled around watching moved swiftly out of the way.

A loud voice declared, “What’s going on here??”

When everyone looked to see who the man was with “the voice” they were startled to see Professor Thronton.  The younger children who were merely spectators started moving away, many to their own homes.  The professor got down off his horse and moved toward the two fighters.  Not many of the children were left standing around now as most started departing when they heard the man’s voice. Just Bay, Hoss, Harper and Little Joe were left.

Hoss let go of Bay and Bay stepped back, and wiped his lip, which was bleeding.

The man stood between both boys and said again loudly, “I said what’s going on here?”

Bay spoke first.  “Ain’t none o’yore business, it’s outside of school.”

The man made a move toward Bay and the boy stepped back.  “I’m MAKING it my business.”

Bay decided he could turn the story to his advantage.

“This big galoot, here…” he pointed to Hoss, “…jumped me an’ started wailing on me!  It’s true!  Ask my friends….”  He turned to look at his friends but only saw Harper.  Everyone else had abandoned the goings-on.

“Harper….tell him.”

Before Harper could speak, Hoss spoke up.  “Tell the truth, Harper.”

Harper looked from one to the other, but before he could speak, Little Joe spoke up.

“He’s lyin’!!  He called my brother out and wanted to fight ‘im.  I don’t know why, cause jus’ look at him!”  Joe pointed to Hoss, then continued defending his brother with all he had in him, “WHY would anyone wanna fight him?!  If he wanted to, my brother could’a wiped the floor with him, but he wouldn’t fight ‘im.  THAT galoot wouldn’t quit!  What was my brother supposed to do?  Huh?”

Professor Thornton looked from one boy to the other.  It was true, Hoss was taller and broader than Bay.  Bay HAD taken the worst of the fight….but he still wasn’t sure what the truth was.  Was it as the little boy had said?  Was it the ‘loser’ who had instigated the fight?  After all, just a week ago, Hoss had threatened to take HIM on.”

He turned back to Harper.  “You?”

Harper jumped.  The teacher addressed him:  “Did you see all of this?”

“Yes, yessir.”

“Is Joseph tellin’ me the truth?  WAS Master Cartwright trying to not fight him?”

“Sort’a….”

“That isn’t actually an answer, Master Stolter.”

“Bay’s my friend.”

“So you’re going to defend him.  Is that it?”

“I…he’s my friend.”

“And you?”  He pointed to Hoss.  “Your little brother?  He’s defending you pretty vehemently.  Is what he said true?  You didn’t want to fight?”

“Uh, yeah, what he said is right.  I kept tryin’ to git Bay to quit, but he wouldn’t.”

Bay finally spoke up.  “Cause yore a CHICKEN, Cartwright!”

The professor had heard enough.  “Okay, that’s enough.  I think I’ve got the picture now.”

He took off his hat and wiped the brim, taking the time to think, while all the boys stood and watched him.

“This fight is over.  I don’t know what it was about….it really doesn’t matter.  No one was seriously hurt, which is a blessing in itself, and now it’s time to get about your business.  I suspect most of you have chores waiting at home and parents you’ll now have to lie to about why you’re late coming home.”

With only an angry glare back at each other, Hoss and Little Joe and then Bay and Harper mounted up and headed in opposite directions home.

Luckily, Bay had not landed any punches on Hoss that led to discoloration or bruising.  His father would not be the wiser concerning this business.

Chapter 6

An uneasy truce was declared at school on Friday.  Bay kept his mouth shut, his friends hardly speaking to either he or Hoss.  The declared fight had settled them all down enough to endure each others’ company for now.  That was all Hoss could hope for.  Since he WAS fourteen, he was hoping his father would soon see fit to allow him to stop attending school, but even if he didn’t, one or two of the older boys would be leaving at the end of the term and Hoss’ life would be infinitely more peaceful once that happened.

As happens with confrontations of this sort, time alone settled things down and the boys began to speak to each other, if only in short necessary sentences.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~   ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

When the Cartwright brothers arrived home from school on Friday afternoon, Ben was gathering some things together in a small pile near his big mahogany desk in his office.  As Little Joe and Hoss walked in they spied the pile and gravitated toward it.

“What’s all that, Pa?” ever inquisitive Little Joe wanted to know.

“I’ve got to take a business trip and I’m gathering my things so I don’t forget anything.”

Hoss asked his father, “When you leaving, Pa?”

“Tomorrow morning.  I’d like you to accompany me, son.  Why don’t you go pack up a few days’ clothing?”  Hoss turned and headed for the stairs to do as he was asked.

Of course, Little Joe wanted in on the fun, “Can I come, too, Pa?”

“No, I’m afraid not, son.”

“But why not?  I wanna be with you and Hoss!”

Ben stopped thumbing through his papers to face his small boy.  “Little Joe, whining does no good, and you know that.  I said you may not come with us and that should be the end of the matter. You will take a note to Professor Thornton telling him Hoss had to go with me for a few days.”  He turned to pick up his papers again.

Little Joe was insistent.  “But why not, Pa?  Where ya goin’ that I can’t come?  I wanna go, too.”

Ben was running out of patience.  “Little Joe, I told you, this isn’t a pleasure trip. I’ve business to attend to, and I can’t be worried about where you might wander off to or take the time to watch you.”

“But Hoss is goin’…..an’ he could watch me.”

Ben slapped the papers down on his desk and swiveled his chair back toward the small boy.  “Come sit down over here, son.”  Little Joe walked over to the chair beside his father’s big desk and sat quickly with a plop.  Ben ignored that behavior.  He addressed his youngest son.  “I said you are not going with us because Hoss and I have some things to discuss concerning his behavior in school last week. I think us talking it over together in private would be appropriate.  For that reason I will not be taking you with us.  Do you understand?”

“You mean about the fight?”

“WHAT fight??”

“Oh!  Yyy…you mean when he got paddled.”

“WHAT fight were you referring to, Joseph?”

“Uh, I don’t remember.”

“Joseph, what are you referring to?  When did this fight take place?”

“Uh, I’m not sure.  I, uh…”

Ben knew he’d have better luck with Hoss.  “Where is your brother?”

“Uh, I think he’s upstairs.”

“Go get him and tell him I want to talk to him.”

“Yessir.”  Little Joe got up quickly and ran up to Hoss’ room.  He felt a little guilty getting Hoss in trouble that way, but – well, better Hoss than HIM!

Joe ran until he reached his brother’s bedroom door.  Then he took a deep breath and calmed himself.  He didn’t want to arouse Hoss’ suspicions that anything was amiss. He slowly opened the door.

“Hoss?”

“Over here, punkin.”  Hoss was piling some clean shirts on his bed.

“Pa wants ta talk to ya.”

“Okay,” and he turned to walk away. “Any idear what he wants?”

“Huh?”  Joe turned.

“Do ya know what he wants?”

“Uh, not sure.” and he ran.

To himself, Hoss said, ‘I bet you ain’t’

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Hoss walked down the steps to the left to Ben’s study.  “Pa, Little Joe said you wanted to talk to me?”

“Yes, I want to ask you about this fight you supposedly had the other day?”

Hoss almost choked.  “What did Little Joe say?”

“What fight was he referring to, son?”

“Uh…”

Ben stood up and walked around his desk to stand before Hoss, legs apart and hands on his hips.  Hoss took a step back.

“What fight, Hoss?”

“Uh…well, it wasn’t what you think, Pa?”

“What do I think?”

“Uh, well, I didn’t start it, Pa.”

“Oh?  Who did?”

“Well, the way it was was:  Bay Sanderson kinda called me out.”

“And you fought him?!”

“Uh, we was fightin’, I guess….”

“You don’t know if you were fighting?”

“I wasn’t actually fighting him, Pa.  More like keepin’ HIM from fighting ME.”

“Oh?”

“It’s true.  You kin ask Little Joe.  I was barely hittin’ him at all.  He was trying to hit me, but I stopped him and….and…”

Ben put his head down and shook his head.  Then he put his hands on his hips and faced Hoss again.  “Hoss, I thought we just talked about this?”

“We did, Pa!  I tried all them things you said.  I told him I didn’t wanna fight him, I told him we wasn’t gonna fight, I…”

“And yet you ended up in a fight, anyway….”  Ben shook his head in unbelief.

He then walked back to his chair, picked up the list he was making, turned to Hoss and said, “Just make sure you’re ready to go early in the morning.”

“We’re still going?!?”  Hoss was sure the trip was off now because the fighting incident had gotten out.

“Oh, yes.  More so now.”

Hoss quietly turned and softly walked back upstairs, completely baffled by his father’s answer.

Chapter 7

Morning came early and Hoss and Ben were riding out before dawn.  The morning was crisp and clear.  There was a chill in the air, but then there usually was so high up in the mountains.  The fresh air felt good and the day promised to be pleasant.

They rode at a good lope for a couple of hours.  Hoss didn’t seem particularly moved by where they might be going.  He enjoyed the out of doors, and he enjoyed spending time with his father alone.  There didn’t seem to be much time to do so lately, as with Adam gone, his father seemed to be busier than ever.  And then there was the issue of Little Joe.  Since Adam had gone away to school, Little Joe clung to both his father and his older brother more tightly.  The loss of his mother had taken a toll on the small boy, and now some of those same feelings returned with the sense of “loss” of his oldest brother. Hoss tried to fill that empty feeling in the little boy but sometimes felt like his own world was getting suffocated.  Being out of doors, just riding for the enjoyment of it, and now spending this time with his father felt good.  It invigorated him!

Finally, at about noon time, they stopped beside a brook and unpacked some of the packages Hop Sing had given them to tide them over. One would think, from looking at the size of the packages, that they would surely starve to death in a day or two had Hop Sing not given up half his kitchen stores!

Hoss was now becoming curious as to their destination, as they hadn’t taken the usual route toward town.  “Pa?  Where we headed?”

“I’ve business with a few people over near Hangtown.  We’ll be out probably five or six days. We should arrive there sometime early the day after tomorrow.”

So they were going to Hangtown.  Hoss knew his father didn’t really like that place.  The name alone was enough to give a body nightmares!  It had derived its name from the obvious suggestion.  A rough and tumble place, it deserved to be forgotten.  Or abandoned entirely, or burned down, buried and THEN forgotten!  Nonetheless, Hangtown, here they came.

The two Cartwrights spent their first night on the trail at the southern-most line shack on the Ponderosa.  Ben checked the line shacks, or had one of his men check them, at least twice a year.  In this way, the little lean-to’s could be kept in good stead, ready for anyone needing a place of rest or respite because of weather or other conditions which might befall them.  This one was in pretty good shape and Ben was pleased.

Later, lying in his bedroll, Hoss asked his father, “Pa?  What kinda business you gotta do in Hangtown?  I didn’t rightly think you liked that place.”

“I don’t like that place.  Mainly for its reputation.  But there are a few people there who are decent, good people.  I like to see how my friends are doing from time to time.  This trip will give us a chance to meet up with them and catch up on their lives.  Most of the ones we’ll see don’t write letters, so the only way I have to see how they’re getting on is by riding over to see them.”  He didn’t add that one in particular didn’t write letters because he couldn’t write them.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The next morning found them continuing on toward Hangtown.  Breakfast was a hurried affair as Ben knew they would arrive in Hangtown in time to have a late breakfast if they wished, or lunch if that’s what they felt like.

True to his word, about the middle of the day Hoss and Ben rode into Hangtown.  Even though it was fairly early in the day, the bar was open and quite a few horses were milling around, tied to the hitching post. The soulful sounds that passed for music from some broken down player piano wafted out through the bat wing doors and onto the street as they rode past it.  They made their way to a small, non-descript house at the other edge of town.  It was a small one-story home, with bright window boxes and a short picket fence all around it.  Hoss had seen that same fence around many residences in Eagle Station.  The ladies who owned the homes always seemed to want to put that fence around, whether to stave off unwanted guests or make their home seem more “homey,” Hoss couldn’t discern.

They dismounted, tied the horses to the fence and went through the gate to knock on the door.  A bespeckled, but smallish lady about 50 years old opened the door.  She had an apron on, flour in her hair which was reddish sprinkled with grey, flour on her face and hands, as she swiped away at the stray hairs that had escaped the bun on her head.  Her greenish-grey eyes sparkled as she laid eyes on the duo.

“Land’s sakes, Ben Cartwright!  How are you?  It’s fine to see you!”  Then she swept her eyes over to Hoss.

Ben took her hand and they shook. “Martha.  Nice to see you, too.  This is my son, Erik, well, we call him Hoss.”

Martha smiled.  “Hoss, how sweet to meet you.”  She stuck out her hand after wiping it on her apron to wipe away the flour.

Hoss took her hand and shook.  “Ma’am.”  He smiled sweetly at her.  He liked her, she had a nice smile; warm and comforting, he thought.

“Come in!  Come in, don’t let me keep you standing on the stoop.”  She swept her hand as though the very action would carry them into the parlor.

She followed behind as they moved into the room.  It was neatly furnished, though not overly fraught with furniture.  In fact, Hoss thought there really wasn’t much furniture in the room at all.

“Sit right down, the both of you, and I’ll make us some refreshments.  Hoss, would you like a slice of pie?”  Before he could answer, she answered for him!  “Of course you would!  Never met a growing fella like you that didn’t!”  And then she turned and fairly glided out of the room.

Ben and Hoss sat next to each other on the settee, as the only other place to sit in the room was a high back chair, where – they surmised – Martha would sit when she returned.  The room was big enough for another chair or two, or even a settee, but there wasn’t another chair, just a table at the end of the settee and one beside the chair. It made the room feel “lopsided,” as there was plenty of room for more furniture, but there wasn’t any.

While she was gone making their refreshments, Hoss looked around the room.  Ben sat still but watched his son.  Hoss noticed the trophies and ribbons hanging on the walls and adorning the shelves built into the walls.  He was curious but did not stand and walk over to look closer.

Finally, Martha bustled into the room with a tray and their refreshment on it.  Coffee was served for the adults, and a glass of lemonade was set out for Hoss.  Each was then given a plate with a slice of rhubarb pie.  It was quite sweet, and Hoss enjoyed it while the adults “caught up” with talk of what had gone on since they’d last met….talk of “investments” and such.  It was too confusing for Hoss to follow, so he concentrated on his pie.

Finally, when his pie was consumed and there was a lull in the conversation, Hoss asked, “Ma’am?  Kin I ask a question?”

“Certainly, Hoss.”

“What are all these here trophies fer?”

Hoss saw Martha and Ben exchange glances.

“Well, Hoss, those belong to my husband.  You see, he used to be a champion boxer.”

“USED to be?  Is he dead?”

Ben was horrified.  “HOSS!”

“Oh, no, Ben, it’s all right.  I guess the way I phrased it, it might have sounded like that.”

“No, Hoss, he’s alive.  He just doesn’t box any more.”

“Why not, ma’am?”

Ben broke in before Martha could answer. “Uh, you’ll get to meet him before we leave, Hoss.  Why don’t we let him tell you his story?”

With that comment, he stood.  “Martha, thank you for the refreshment.  We’ll go get settled over at Mrs. Wilson’s boarding house and then why don’t we plan to see you later this evening?”

“That would be wonderful, Ben.  Plan to come around seven, and we’ll have supper!  I’ve been dying to try out my new chicken recipe on someone!”

“Well, I’ll be happy to be your next experiment!”  He laughed.

They left Martha’s house and went back toward the center of town and found Mrs. Wilson’s boarding house and brought their bedrolls into their room.  Then, they walked their horses to the livery stable to board them while they stayed in Hangtown.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Once they had settled in at the boarding house and the horses were boarded at the livery it was after two o’clock and Ben asked if Hoss was hungry.  Silly question, he knew!  After all, it’d been all of three hours since he’d had the piece of Rhubarb pie at Martha’s house. He had no idea why he’d bother asking if Hoss was hungry!  Once he’d received the affirmative answer he knew he’d get, he guided the way to a small, intimate restaurant beside the general store.

The atmosphere was pleasant and the front window looked out across the street to the school house which doubled as a church building on occasion.  As school had dismissed just a bit earlier no one should have been in the schoolhouse/church building.  A man was clearing up some debris which cluttered the entrance to the building in order to give a better appearance for arriving church goers the next evening.  He was a fairly young man, perhaps thirty years old.  His hair was dark. In fact, he resembled the eldest Cartwright son, Adam.  Medium build, fairly tall, with dark hair combed neatly and parted to one side.  Ben watched him work, without giving too much away, and secretly hoped he would still be working when they finished their meal.  As luck would have it, he was.

So, as they left the restaurant, Ben walked across the street.  He caught the preacher’s eye, who stood and waited for them to get close enough to talk.

He smiled when they were close enough to greet each other. “Ben Cartwright!  It’s been awhile!  How are you doing, sir?”

“I’m well, Jason.  How are you doing?”

“I’m better than I deserve, don’t ya know!”  He glanced at Hoss.

Ben introduced them and they shook hands.

“Still in the preaching business, I see.”

“Oh, yes!  I’m doing a circuit.  Hangtown’s one of five churches I serve.  I am in one each week and then repeat the circuit.  It’s a lot of traveling, and no real home of my own, but it’s interesting work, and I have plenty of good friends to keep me occupied.”

“That’s great, Jason.  Hopefully, one of the churches will decide one of these days to make your visits permanent.”

“I hope so, too.”  He looked over both of them.  “So?  What brings you to Hangtown?  Will you be here for prayer meeting tomorrow?”

“Well, business brought us here, but since you’re here this week, of course we’ll be in church tomorrow!”

Hoss spoke up now.  “But, Pa?  I didn’t know we was going to go to church in the middle of the week.  I didn’t bring no nice clothes.”

Jason laughed, “That’s all right, young man.  God looks on the heart, not the outward man, you know.  You’ll look just fine if you come in with the right heart attitude.”

Ben nodded.  “Yes, right you are Reverend, and we’ll have that.  Well, we’d best leave you to your cleaning up, or the OUTside of your church won’t look good enough to receive the INside of your parishioners tomorrow!”  Both men laughed.

Hoss wasn’t sure he understood the joke, but smiled and waved good-bye to the Reverend Jason Harness.

Chapter 8

Supper with Martha and her husband Dan was unlike anything Hoss had ever experienced.  Dan Bremmer was a giant of a man.  He was bigger than Hoss would ever be.  But he was in a wheelchair and couldn’t use his legs at all, which had made them atrophy.  They looked to Hoss like little sticks coming out from the bottoms of his trousers.  He had limited use of his arms, and not much more of his hands.

Martha had to cut his food and even feed him.

Hoss had been startled when he first saw him, but he knew it wasn’t polite to stare or even ask what had happened.  So he ate his meal in silence and tried not to stare.  The adults gave nothing away and conversed about town goings on as if this meal spectacle was normal.

Once the meal was consumed, the foursome made their way to the parlor once again.  Now it became apparent to Hoss why there was so little furniture. With the wheelchair in the room, everything became very close.  Martha was very attentive to Dan’s needs.  She stroked his face often and smiled at him at every turn.  Ben, Dan and Martha held lively discussions, shared a few jokes and laughed easily.  Hoss was uncomfortable and wondered how they could all be so “happy” in light of the man’s obvious disability, but he kept silent.

Finally, during a lull in the conversation, he decided he could speak up about something that wouldn’t focus on the obvious elephant in the room, he thought!

Hoss cleared his throat and then spoke up.  “Mr. Dan?  Kin you tell me about them there trophies and such? My Pa said you would.”

There was a hush in the room that was palpable.  Martha and Dan looked at each other and then each looked at Ben.  Ben gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head.

Dan locked his eyes on Hoss, and then he began to speak.  “Well, Hoss, as you can see from the trophies I used to box. I was quite a boxer in my day.  Yep.  I was a champ!  Got all the trophies and medals to prove it.” He smiled and stopped talking, looking over the trophies and then at Martha, who stroked his face again.

Then he wheeled to the fireplace.  Martha got up and walked beside him.  He nodded at one trophy and she took it down and looked at it.  Then they looked at each other, a silent message passed between them.  She turned and handed it to Hoss.

Dan spoke again.  “See that there date, Hoss?”

He took the trophy and read it.  “It says San Francisco, 1843.”

“Yep.  I fought and won that night, too.  It was my last fight ever.”

She turned his wheelchair to face the large teen now.

“I lost my ability to use my limbs that night, too.”

Hoss was stunned.  “In the fight?!” he blurted out.  He continued to stare at him, his mouth hung open.  He was too stunned to know what to ask, or how.

Dan shook his head to convey, no.  Then he got a far away look that caused him to look away for a long time.  A full minute or more. In the silence, Hoss stared at the trophy, looking perhaps for a clue as to what had happened.  Everyone sat dead still.  Only the ticking of the clock could be heard. Then Dan spoke again.

“It was right after the fight.  I went back to my room, to get cleaned up, you know?  I was gonna take my best girl out for the biggest steak dinner she’d ever enjoy.”  He looked over at Martha and she looked back at him with a large smile on his face, but tears were streaming down her face.

Hoss looked from one of them to the other.  And then he looked over at his father, who had not moved so much as a muscle since Dan had started talking.

“We were happy.  We were laughing, teasing, making plans for the future.  Children, a big house, money in the bank.  Security.  This was the biggest bout I had ever won.  I was the champion, and now I had the money and the trophy to prove it.”

He stopped speaking.  Hoss just watched him.  His demeanor changed but Hoss couldn’t explain what the mood was that came over the large man.  It was dark.  Almost frightened.  Frightening.  It was hard to read.

Dan started speaking again, after clearing his throat.  To Hoss, it sounded like Dan was trying hard not to cry.

“We were just crossing the street to enter the restaurant.  It was the fanciest place in San Francisco, remember Ben?  Near the wharf….”

“Yes.”

“As we walked, a man came out of the shadows.  He jostled against me.  I moved, said, ‘Excuse me,’ even though I knew I wasn’t the one who bumped him.  He turned around and jostled me again.  Deliberate like, this time.  I put myself between Martha and the man.  He was slightly smaller than you. I was taller than he was and outweighed him, but he didn’t seem to notice. Every time I moved, he moved.  By now I knew we had a problem.”

He turned to look at the boy to make certain Hoss was following the scene.  Hoss nodded.

“I tried to avoid him.  He moved when I moved.  Did that about three times.  Finally, I looked him straight in the eyes and asked, ‘Have we got a problem here, friend?’”

He replied, “ ‘You ain’t my friend.  You’re a fake and a liar.  And I don’t know why such a pretty little girl like her wants to be with you’.”  Dan cleared his throat and continued.  “He started saying things to Martha.  Things about how he could be good to her, things a gentleman doesn’t say to any woman, ever.

“I tried to redirect him to pay attention to me because he was looking at Martha a little strange, like he was going to grab her away or something.  I don’t know what his intention was, but I know it scared her.  She moved closer to me, grabbed my hand and stepped behind me a little.  Good thing the man was too drunk to notice that.  Then he turned his attention to me.  He seemed to get more agitated then.  Finally he spoke.

“He said, ‘You cost me a whole lotta money tonight. You wasn’t supposed to win’.”

“I shook my head.  I laughed a little and said, ‘I don’t know what that means, friend.  Anybody could have won.  I just had a better fight, that’s all.  Now if you’ll excuse me, my wife and I would like to go on with our evening and have some dinner’.”

“He just stood there and shook his head ‘No’.”

“We were kind of at a stand still.  So, finally, I took Martha’s hand and started to walk around him.  He flew into a rage, told me NOT to walk away from him; said she was going with him. Said even HE could have beat me and I must have cheated to win that fight.”

He stopped speaking and had a faraway look in his eyes, as if remembering everything.  Thinking, probably not for the first time, if there might have been something he could have done to prevent what was coming.

Martha reached out for his face and stroked his cheek.  He smiled back at her.

Then he continued the story, “I know enough to know when someone is looking for a fight.  I’d been a boxer for most of my adult life, and I know to stay out of situations that might lead to someone getting hurt.  I had been trained to box.  I know how to land a punch that would put an ordinary man into a coma.  This man wanted a fight, not to box. My fists are a lethal weapon.  I would have hurt him.  Badly.  And that could have landed me in jail for the rest of my life.  I just wanted to be on my way.  But he was also disrespecting my wife in a very uncomfortable way. Saying things a man should never say or even think about a woman.”

Again, he stopped speaking and cleared his throat.  Martha now went and brought a handkerchief to his eyes and wiped the tears away.

Hoss wanted to jump up and say he was sorry for even bringing the subject up!  It was almost more than he could bear to watch the big man being brought to tears, and then not even to wipe them away by himself.  Hoss himself felt tears forming in his eyes.

Ben spoke now.  “Dan, if you’d….”

Dan cut him off by turning quickly and interjecting, “NO!  Ben, I will tell him. I want to tell it all.”

He turned his face toward Hoss. “Hoss, the man wouldn’t give it up.  He continued talking garbage about my wife.  He’d sized me up and figured that if he riled me enough, I’d fight him.  I guess he had decided I wasn’t all that much to take on, or that I might have been tired out from the bout and he was planning to take me out.  I just wasn’t going to give him the chance. We turned to head back to the hotel then.  I thought maybe if we walked completely away, the man would settle down and head home, or somewhere else.”

Dan sat there shaking his head, as if even now trying to stop the situation from escalating.  It was silent for a long time.

Hoss was now concerned for their well-being, even though the event had happened years before. So, in a very small voice, the boy asked, “What happened then?  Did he leave you alone?  Did you make it back to the hotel?”

Dan looked him in the eyes.  “No, Hoss.  We didn’t.  The man started screaming at us.  At me.  He threatened me, threatened my wife. I turned back around. Prolly shouldn’t have, but I was angry then.  I walked right up to his face and said, ‘You need to go on your way, and take your loss.  It was your fault you lost money tonight, not mine.  Now don’t bother me again.’”

Before I could turn around again, the man said to me, “I could beat you.  I could take you down in a fight.  You ain’t nuthin’! You’re a cheat and a liar….”

“He was screaming, getting more and more hysterical, so I just turned away and walked back to where Martha was standing. A crowd had formed now, and some were calling on him to go on his way.  Others were screaming at me to beat him down.  I just wanted to get out of the situation safely, to keep Martha safe.  We were walking away, I was holding her hand.  I remember looking at her, squeezed her hand, as if to say, ‘We’ll be all right.’”

Again he stopped to remember the events of that night.  Then he spoke again.  “But we weren’t all right. The man was enraged.  I heard someone scream.  I didn’t turn to see why, but almost immediately I found out why.  I never heard the shot. I don’t remember anything other than falling.  My legs just seemed to go out from under me and  I went down.  Face down.  In the middle of the street.  The last thing I remember is Martha screaming for someone to get a doctor.”

Dan stopped talking.  He seemed to be breathing very heavily now. Once again, the only sound to be heard was the clock on the mantle as it ticked off the seconds.

Finally, after some soft sobbing, Martha picked up the story.  “Dan was shot by that man.  In the back. People were scuffling to hold him until the constable came.  I didn’t know what happened to him because I was just concerned about getting Dan to the doctor.  I thought he would die.”

She stopped talking and wiped her eyes, then continued.  “He lay in a coma for four days.  They didn’t know if he would live or die.  I never left his side.  I didn’t know anyone in San Francisco, but your father had seen what had happened.  He came to see us.  He brought me food and sat with Dan while I took short breaks to try to sleep or whatever else I needed to do while he was comatose….” She smiled over at Ben.  Hoss followed her gaze to his father, who smiled back at her.

Ben picked up the story now.  “Martha was very upset, understandably. But since they didn’t have any family or friends in town, I felt she couldn’t be left to deal with the situation on her own.  I had a day or two left to deal with my own business before I needed to head home, so I stayed to give whatever aid I could whenever I had a moment….”

“It was a God send, Ben.”

Ben and Martha smiled at each other again.

Ben continued. “When Dan came out of his coma, he was confronted with the news that the bullet had torn into his spinal column and he was paralyzed.  His arms and legs would never work again.”

Martha took up the story again.  “That man put an end to our lives.  Dan has spent all these years since then in this chair.  He cannot do what he used to do.  He’ll never walk again, he’ll never box again. But he’s alive, and for that I am eternally grateful.  He’s my husband, and I love him more than my own life.  I don’t know what I would have done if he’d died that night….”

Dan cut in. “I am grateful, too, that my wife stayed by my side.  A man who isn’t a whole man anymore?  Who would stay with a man like that?  My angel did. I guess I’d be dead now, or in one of those sanitoriums if she’d decided she didn’t want the likes of me anymore….I wouldn’t fight that man, knowing I could end up hurting him and landing me in jail, but I guess I ended up another kind of jail after all….”

Martha broke in again.  “Your father did more that week than sit by Dan’s side with me. Once we got the news that Dan would be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, your father helped me take the fight winnings and invest and diversify into several ventures that would ensure we had an income for the rest of our lives.”

Ben completed the story.  “The man who shot Dan was tried on charges of attempted murder and sentenced to fifteen years hard labor and ordered to pay for Dan’s care for the rest of his life. It was soon obvious the man didn’t have enough of an ‘estate’ to give them a guaranteed income to live on. A hard lesson for trying to be a braggard and taking on a situation he should have stayed out of. Of losing his temper over next to nothing.  I was just glad I had the connections to help in some small way so their future could be secure.”

Hoss certainly could see the injustice.  “Yeah, shootin’ a man in the back like that. Jest cause he wouldn’t fight for no reason…”

Dan summed it up completely and for all.  “Turned out there were no winners that night.”

After that, a dark quiet took over the room.  No one spoke for several minutes.  All that could be heard was the occasional sob from Martha.

Finally, Ben spoke.  “Dan?  Martha?  I think we’ve intruded quite enough on your evening….”

“Not an intrusion, Ben.  It’s always good to see you again.”

Ben stood up.  “It’s always my pleasure to see you again, nevertheless, I think the evening has come to an end.  I thank you, Martha, for another wonderful meal!  I enjoyed it, and I’m sure my son did as well.”  He smiled and looked over at Hoss.

Hoss nodded.  “Yes’m.  It was a right good recipe. I’m shore glad you tried it out on us!”

Everyone laughed and it was a good way to end the evening.  The Cartwrights bid their good nights and left the Bremmers’ home.

They were quiet on the walk back to the boarding house.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Once in their room and lying in their beds in the dark, Hoss had questions for his father.

“Pa?”

“Yes, son?”

“So, Dan cain’t use his arms or legs for nuthin’ at all?”

“Not much, no, he can’t.”

“You mean, Martha does everything for him?”

“Yes.”

“You mean everything??”

“Love is a beautiful thing, son.  When you make a vow of marriage, part of the vow is ‘For better or worse, in sickness and in health.’  Most people don’t really consider that it might actually come to that.  Martha is a very special woman.  As Dan said, a lot of women would have sent their family member to a sanitorium if they ended up in that condition.”

“That’s a whole lot of love. Did the man who shot him have a family, too?”

“He did.  But his wife left him because the judge ordered him to pay for Dan’s care.  His wife felt that with him in jail, and his ‘estate’ – meaning any money she made since she was his wife – ordered to go to Dan for his care and his housing; she left him.  She didn’t want to also pay for his crime.”

Hoss considered that sad consequence of that night.  “Then there really weren’t no winners that night, were there?”

“No, son, there weren’t.  As we’ve discussed before, a man’s actions may have long-standing consequences that can follow him the rest of his life. Part of the man’s issues were also that he thought things about Martha that led to him behaving quite inappropriately.”  Ben yawned.  “It’s been a long day Hoss, so I think we need to get some sleep now.  Good night.”

“Good night, Pa.”  But Hoss wasn’t tired now. He lay in bed for a long time thinking about Dan and Martha.  The images of that night, the conversations he’d been told that took place between Dan and the angry man, the thought of someone being so angry they would actually shoot someone in the back….and how a man and wife’s whole life was changed because of it.  He thought back to what his father had told him to look up in the Bible about a “haughty spirit,” and was sure it fit that man who shot Dan Bremmer that night.  Then he compared some of his actions lately to what he’d heard about how to treat and think about women and wondered if the man who had shot Dan had one day acted like he did when he was in school.  It all just swirled around in his head until he finally fell asleep.

Chapter 9

Hoss was gently shaken awake by his father.  He had finally fallen asleep, but his dreams hadn’t been relaxing at all.  Now it was time to get up.  Ben had business at the bank in Hangtown, he explained, then they’d have dinner and later in the day meet the Reverend Jason Harness for mid-week prayer services and study.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The reverend was very passionate!  His sermon was a lively affair. Hoss never took his eyes off the preacher.  Of course, it was hard to do so, as the man was very vocal, and often jumped up and shouted “AMEN!” or other praises.  Right in the middle of the service!  Hoss had never heard anyone preach like that.  Most of the preachers they had come through their town were very sedate and almost monotone enough to put one to sleep.  Except you didn’t want Pa to catch you sleeping in church!  Reverend Harness was different. And the message seemed to be directed only at Hoss!  The title was “A soft answer turneth away wrath,” and Hoss immediately thought of Dan Bremmer and how he’d tried that “soft answer” path.  All it got him was a bullet to the back that altered his life forever.  Hoss waited for the preacher to give an answer to his unvoiced question of how that “wrath” was turned away.

Soon enough, the sermon was over and Hoss never heard the answer he sought.  He was slightly disappointed, but not in the preacher himself.  He was certainly a charismatic enough fellow!  Ben stood in the middle of the church and visited with several people he knew.  They all asked how things were going….the usual type of things people who didn’t see each other often would say.  After several minutes of that and shaking hands and nodding ‘Hello’ to various strangers, Hoss was getting bored.  And hungry!  Just as he was trying to figure out how to ask his father when they were leaving, his father turned to him and said, “Well, son?  Are you hungry?  Are you ready for some dinner?”

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

They walked out the front door and met Reverend Harness.  He fell in step with them as they crossed the street over to the restaurant.  Most of the townsfolk had made their own way to their own homes.  Eating out at a restaurant was a luxury most people were not able to indulge in, so the place wasn’t overly crowded.  Just a few visitors and travelers, as they themselves were.

After sitting and ordering their food, the conversation shifted.  Reverend Harness asked Hoss how he enjoyed the sermon.  Hoss decided this was his opening to try to get an answer to his question.

“I kinda did, Rev. Harness, but I have a question you never did answer.”

“Oh?”  Jason looked over at Ben, who just shrugged.

“Yeah, I was wondering about that ‘soft answer’ thing.”

“What about it?  Did you find it in the scriptures?”

“Yeah, sure I kin find where God said that and all.  But I was wondering, well, I wanted to ask ya…how do ya do that?  I mean, a soft answer…”

Jason took a breath.  Ben sat back and watched the young preacher carefully.

Jason scratched the back of his neck.  He was thinking, and Hoss could tell that.  He appreciated that the reverend really wanted to give him the right answer to his question.  Hoss had his own reasons, but he never expected to hear the answer he got!

Jason took a deep breath and began to talk. “Well, Hoss, you see, that verse has become my life verse.  There was a time in my life when I did not use a ‘soft answer.’  A man died because of it.”  He stopped talking and looked over at Hoss and then at Ben.

Ben just sat and watched the preacher. Hoss did too and hoped the preacher would continue and tell the details of what that meant.

Before Jason could continue, the food was served, so they dove into their food and enjoyed their meal.  Hoss hoped the preacher would pick up his story after eating.  If he didn’t, Hoss was determined to make sure he didn’t forget to do so!

Hoss began to enjoy his meal so much, he almost forgot about the question, but Rev. Harness did not.  Once he cleaned his plate and pushed it away from in front of him, he leaned his arms on the table and looked over the table at Hoss.

“Hoss, a man died because I killed him.”

Hoss almost swallowed his mouthful of food whole!

“HUH??  But yer a preacher!”

Jason nodded.  “Yes, I am now.  But when I was younger, I killed a man.  I murdered him.  I was an angry young man. You see, my father was a drunk.  A mean drunk, he beat me from as young as I can remember.  Because he was so mean, my mother left him from before I can even remember her. I guess I was 3 or 4 years old. Some said he murdered her but they never found her body, so he never went to jail for it.  I couldn’t ever find out the truth.  After that it was only us two and I had to learn to be mean. It was easier to be mean than to just be a punching bag.  Once I was old enough, it kept him from hurting me too badly. I learned at a young age that if anyone angered you, you lashed out at them.  You hurt them, you beat them.  Whatever it took to make the anger in you go away and keep them from hurting you.”

“That don’t rightly sound like the sermon I heard today.”

Jason laughed.  “No, it’s not the message I preach today.  You see, I got meaner and meaner as I grew up.  I got even meaner when my father was killed one night because he tried to beat another man.  That man was able to overtake him and stab him to death.  He was found in the morning laying in a pool of his own blood in an alley next to his favorite saloon. I guess he would have lived if someone would have found him sooner.  But no one was looking for him, as he had no friends, and no one who cared where he was or what he was doing.  I was fourteen years old.  And I was all alone in the world.  And angry.”

He stopped talking and looked down at his hands.

The waitress came by and asked if they would like dessert.  Ben ordered dessert for all and she cleared the plates and left to bring the delicacies.

Jason looked up at Hoss, as though just then remembering what they were talking about.

“You see, Hoss, I was alone in the world and had had no training in how I was supposed to go through life.  All I knew was to fight, to hurt others, to be mean and angry. I was about your age.  You’re fifteen-sixteen?”

Hoss corrected him, “Fourteen.”  He tried to imagine his life if it was the one Rev. Harness was describing, rather than the one he and his brothers enjoyed.

“Yeah, so you can understand how I felt.  Would you like to suddenly be left all alone?  With no one to help you out?  It might sound funny, that my Pa would ‘help me out,’ when he was such a terrible person.  But he was all I had.  He was all I knew, and then he was gone, and I had no one else.”

“I wouldn’t like that….”

“Neither did I.  But it was my life.  So I rambled around for awhile, trying to figure things out.  I needed to find a way to make a living or get money.  I was getting tired of living in the loft of the nearest livery stable, always making sure to stay out of sight, for fear of getting caught and hauled out to jail or an orphanage, depending on who found me….”

During a break in his narrative, the dessert came, so the men ate their dessert.  As they ate, Jason continued.

“I even started stealing food so I could eat.  It’s hard to get work at fourteen.  I wasn’t big like you, I was scrawny cause I was always hungry growing up.  My Pa didn’t really provide very good for us.  He’d rather drink away the money he earned rather than pay for food for us.  Once I was on my own, I turned to stealing to get what I needed.  I ran away.  But it was the same in every other town.  No matter where I went, no one wanted to hire a scrawny, mean kid. I figured I’d had a bad deal, and it made me angrier and angrier.  And the angrier I got, the harder it was to get along.  I got caught too many times stealing. Some nice folks tried to help me have food, but they also wanted me to stay with them.  I didn’t want anyone else telling me what to do. I figured they’d beat me, too.  That’s all the way I knew folks treated their kids. After my Pa died, I figured I knew what was best for me, so I didn’t let anyone ‘take me in.’  I didn’t understand about love.  I guess some good folks wanted to love a poor orphaned son of a drunk, but I figured they were only doing it cause they must have felt guilty about not helping my Pa with a job or something.  I didn’t understand what it would have been like to have been loved and cared for.  After all, that wasn’t my experience.  So I just drifted around.”

Ben broke in.  “You see, son.  When someone grows up with one type of experience, they have no knowledge of how different things can be.  It also seems to be the case that they might actually be afraid to change things.  People don’t like change in their lives.  Even if the things in their lives are damaging to them.  It doesn’t make sense, and maybe someday some people will figure out why folks are made that way, but it seems it’s just how folks are.  They’d rather be around things they’re familiar with than try something different.”

Jason broke in again.  “I finally did find work!  Funny as it is, I got a job in a saloon.  As a swamper.”  He looked at Hoss.  “You know what a swamper is?”

Hoss shook his head.

“He’s the guy paid to clean up the saloon before it opens each day.  Usually the job starts pretty early in the day, because some saloons don’t really want to close at all.  See, some drunks would drink 24 hours a day if they could.  Good thing saloons are closed on Sundays!  Well, anyway, I was working as a swamper.  It’s miserable work.  The floors are often messy with spilled over spittoons, vomit, blood or spilled drinks.  They stink and sometimes the stuff might have been there for hours before you get to clean up.  But I figured it was honest work, and I could buy my food instead of stealing it.  I vowed to never drink, though, on account of my Pa.  But when you’re just a kid, and living in the shadows of life, and don’t have anything else to do except work a few hours a day, you’re bound to get into trouble.”

He finished his dessert and then continued speaking.

“I wasn’t really a trouble-maker.  I just didn’t know what to do with myself.  While my Pa was alive, I had school or chores, or taking care of him as much as I could.  Then, after he died, I didn’t have anything or anyone to answer to, so I kind of drifted in and out of trouble.  I still didn’t drink but had no problem hanging around in the saloon.  I even started gambling, but I didn’t always have a lot of cash to gamble with.  Good thing, I think now! Well, one night, it was a busy night in the saloon, so I thought it might be easier to clean up if I hung around and cleaned up as the messes were made.  Some drovers came into town to blow off steam after a cattle drive….they got good and drunk.  Once they spied me trying to stay ahead of their messes, they seemed to be deliberately spilling their drinks, spitting on the floors….laughing at me as I ran to clean it up.  It seemed like it became a game. It just made me plain mad!”

Jason stopped talking and Hoss commented.  “Sounds like things was getting bad.”

Jason nodded.  “Oh, yeah, but things got a lot worse.  After about an hour like this, I just threw down the bucket and mop.  All the drovers just laughed and laughed. They reminded me so much of what my pa had been like. Tully, the barkeep tried to settle them down.  He knew I was just about fed up, but they just laughed more and more.  He turned and told me to just go into the storeroom in back, where I slept and wait till they left.  But a couple of men blocked my way.  They were having way too much fun at my expense.  So they weren’t about to let me leave the game….”

Hoss, sweet Hoss, with his strong sense of right and wrong, was very offended.  “Why didn’t Tully or somebody stop ‘em?  Weren’t fair the way they was doin’ you!”

“I know.  I think instead of getting madder and madder, which only fed them, if I’d just laughed a little and found something else to do, well, things might have ended differently.  But I was a kid.  I was too mad at them – at the world – to think clearly.  Well, to tell ya the truth, I just didn’t know any better.  I didn’t know how to do anything other than get angry and mean and lash out at someone. Didn’t know about ‘a soft answer’ then.”

Jason stopped talking to take a drink of his coffee.

“So I lashed out. I threw myself at the biggest cowboy, who was standing against the bar and closest to me.  I grabbed hold of him.  I jumped on his back and started punching him with all my might.  But he was big, and strong.  And I was scrawny, and small.  I wasn’t hurting him at all.  And all his friends were really laughing hard now.  The more they laughed, the madder I got.”  He looked Hoss in the eye then.  “Honestly, Hoss, I don’t even know what happened then.  I was told I grabbed a bottle off the bar and smashed it over his head.  It broke, of course, and he staggered a little, but I was hanging onto his back.  I still had the neck of the broken bottle in my hand, so I smashed it against the man’s neck.  Straight into his neck.  He went down.  I fell off his back.  The others all stood up and I thought for sure I would die then. But the sheriff busted through the door and bellowed out to know who had started it.  Everyone pointed to me.  And there I stood, standing over the man with that bottle neck in my hand.  And he was on the floor, dead.”

Hoss was speechless.  Finally, he found his voice.  “Did you get arrested?”

“Yes, I did.  I was charged with murder.  I went through a trial.  They wanted to hang me.”  Jason had tears in his eyes.

Hoss had tears in his eyes, too!  “But they didn’t!”

Josh laughed, “No, they didn’t!”

Hoss wanted to know the rest of the story, so he asked,  “So what happened?”

“Well, I was put into the town’s jail.  The sheriff fought so I didn’t have to go to the penitentiary. He argued that I would probably be killed there, being as I was just a kid, and a scrawny, small-for-my-age kid at that.”

“So then what happened?” Hoss was trying to picture himself in that scenario and was scared witless!

“The sheriff waited for the circuit judge to show up.  He and I spent a lot of time talking.  I mean, he would set down outside that cell and we’d play checkers.  He taught me to play chess, too. We talked.  He said I needed goals.  I didn’t know what that meant but he talked and I listened cause I couldn’t really get away from him anyway.  He opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.  He was the first one who showed me that verse about ‘a soft answer…’  Well, after a few weeks, the circuit judge was due into town, and I got all worried that he was gonna send me to the prison, so I got all angry again.  Don’t know why.  I knew it was all my own fault that I was even in that mess. But once the judge came and the case was heard, I didn’t really know what happened, but I do now!  The sheriff spoke up for me, explained about how my life had been….if I’d known it I wouldn’t have let them say some of the things they said, but it came out all right, as the ‘court had mercy on me’ is how it was explained. So the town leaders got together and made a plan.  Mind you, no one asked ME what they should do with me.  ‘Course, if they had, I probably would have just said, ‘Send me to the prison.  I’m no good – no account.’ But in my case, they didn’t even ask me.  I guess cause I was just a kid, and a prisoner who was charged with murder.  So because of the sheriff asking the judge, or the court to have mercy….I was left in his care.  I stayed in the jail awhile more.  At first, I thought I was still being jailed because of the murder, but really, it was because the sheriff wanted me where he could keep me contained and get through my thick head with the good values he was feeding me.”

The young reverend laughed.  A laugh at the irony of his turn of circumstance.  Then he continued his narrative.

“Eventually, a preacher came to the jail, and I was introduced to him, and then I was sent to live with him and his wife.   I didn’t know them, but Sheriff Simmons said I needed to go and consider it my ‘jail time.’  Because by that time, I liked and respected him, I did what he said. They were real good folks.  I didn’t give them a hard time or get angry or anything.  I guess it had something to do with all the praying those folks did!  It seemed like they prayed – a lot!  I got used to it, though.  And after awhile, I kinda liked it.  It seemed to take away my anger.  They prayed about it, and one day I even prayed to forgive my father for how he had treated me.  And my mother for leaving the way she did.  After that, the reverend took me on his circuit route.  I listened to him preach.  And after a couple of years or so, he actually let me get up and speak once in awhile.  I guess I got the idea that I could be a preacher after that. It took me a long time to think I was ‘worthy’ to do that.  I still hadn’t forgiven myself!  I didn’t believe a murderer could preach to folks.  But that preacher and I talked a lot more, and he told me that God had forgiven me and I needed to forgive myself and if I could do that, God could do anything with me. I guess He is now, cause here I am!”

Jason sat back, as though his entire life story was now told.

Hoss just looked between him and his father.  He just didn’t know what to say.  It was quite a life story all right!

Ben spoke up now.

“Jason how are Reverend Milford and his wife?  Where are they living now?”

“Oh, they’re down in Tucker’s Grade.  He’s there permanent now. It’s better than traveling, especially at his age….”

Ben had to smile.  The reverend Milford wasn’t even Ben’s age, but he understood Jason’s sentiment.

“Well, send my regards next time you’re over that way.”

“I sure will, Mr. Cartwright. Next time you’re over that way be sure you visit them, too.”

Ben promised to do so, and then the men stood up, so Hoss stood, too.  They all shook hands and walked out of the restaurant. After saying their good-byes, Ben and Hoss walked to the livery to gather up their horses and head to their next destination.

Chapter 10

They rode for several hours in silence.  Hoss had a lot to think about.  Ben left him to his thoughts.  He knew Hoss had to mull a thing over in his mind quite a lot until it “jelled.”  Once it did, Ben knew Hoss would want to run his thoughts past his father. As they had left the restaurant quite late in the afternoon, they stopped a lot sooner than Ben had planned.

Their supper was a small affair, as they had eaten a big dinner at the restaurant later than usual.  After that, they bedded down near a small lake and built a fire for warmth.

Before falling asleep, Hoss decided he needed to discuss some of what he’d heard with his father.

“Pa?  Are you awake?”

“Yes, son.  What’s on your mind?”

“So, that feller Dan.  That guy that shot him was jest tryin’ him, weren’t he?  Wantin’ to see if he was tougher’n him?”

“I suppose it was partly that.  The man had bet heavily and lost a great deal of money as well.  I’m not saying it was all about that, but maybe the man thought Dan “owed” him something for the losses he had incurred.  Maybe he thought he’d take Martha with him to help “pay him back” for what he’d bet on the fight.  I’m not sure if he counted the price of taking a confrontation to that level.”

“Is that why you wanted me to meet Dan?  Did I sound like him when I said – what I said to Professor Thornton.”

“Do you think you sounded like him?”

“I don’t know.  Maybe some, now I think on it.  I didn’t really think it would come to nuthin’ like that, though.”

“Certainly the incident in school wouldn’t have escalated to what happened to Dan, but there may come a day when there may be another man, that would take you on, who WOULD ‘take it to that’. Someone could be killed.  I certainly don’t want that for you, son.  I am sorry that you were paddled so hard to cause bruising, Hoss.  I never meant to hurt you.  I suppose I was overreacting to the message I was given by Professor Thornton.  That just didn’t sound like you at all, and I was taken aback.  I will try to keep from overreacting from now on.”

“It’s ok, Pa.  I know I done a dumb thing and I guess I should’a expected somethin’ like that.”

“No, you shouldn’t have expected something like what you got.  I was very wrong.  Maybe I should have taken the paddling to our barn…forgive me, son.”

“Aw, Pa.  It’s over and forgot already.  Anyways, I guess I did deserve it. I really don’t know what made me say what I said to Professor Thornton.  It jest seemed like once I started in, I didn’t know where to stop.”

“You sound like your little brother now!”

They laughed together.  “Yeah, I guess I do!  I thought about how it was sumthin’ he would’a done on my way home that day.”

Then Ben got serious again.  “I just want you to know I feel like the punishment was harsh and I promise I won’t do that to you ever again.”

“You ain’t never punished us when we didn’t deserve it.”

“Your memory is probably very bad if you think that!”  Once again, Ben got serious.  They were having such a relaxed time, he wanted to make sure to drive home his point.

“I just don’t want you to ever take advantage of a situation because of your size.  It doesn’t always end well.  Nor would I want you to have to shoot someone to stay alive because of it.”

Hoss nodded his head.  “Yeah, I’m learning that, Pa.”

After a short silence, Hoss asked his father another question.

Hoss asked his next question, “You see the way Miss Martha’s always strokin’ Dan’s face?”

Ben answered, “Umm hmmmm.”

“Why’s she do that, you reckon?”

“That’s the only part of him he can still completely feel.  She wants him to FEEL her love through her fingers.”

“I don’t think I’d like to live like that.”

“Hoss, there’s no guarantee what your life will hold.  Only God has that knowledge.  All we can ask Him is to give us the grace to live the life He does plot out for us.”

“Yeah, speakin’ of God….”

“Yes?”

“About that Reverend.  Jason?”

“Yes, son?”

“I reckon his life didn’t go the way he figured it would, neither.”

“I’m not sure he had a plan of how it might go.  When you have no direction, or a parent with a problem, life is harder to figure out. It’s unfortunate when a child has to grow up in a sad situation like his.”

“What do you figure he would’a turned out like?  If’n he’d’a been sent to jail?”

“Well, like he told you, he was a small guy, small for his age.  And he was young…that’s not a good combination in prison.  He would certainly have been beaten and such by the other prisoners.  Maybe even some of the guards.  I’ve been in prisons where some of the guards should be locked up right next to the prisoners.”

“It might’a made him mean.  Meaner’n he was already, ya reckon?”

“I’m not sure.  Probably.  But more likely, he wouldn’t have survived in prison.  It’s a tough place, and it makes the men there tougher.  A young fella like he was would have had it bad with the other inmates.  Especially when the other prisoners found out he was in there for murder.  There’s some kind of ‘code’ among prisoners.  A system, I guess you could say….depending on your crime.  I guess they figure if you are tough enough to murder someone, you must be pretty tough and they want to see if they are tougher than you are.  I expect his temper would have made the situation worse for him.  Lucky for him, though, that sheriff knew he was just a mixed up kid and probably saved his life by persuading the judge to let him stay with him.”

“God again, huh?”

“I would say so.  I’m sure Jason thanks God every day for that sheriff taking him in the way he did.”

“And the Reverend Milford and his wife.  Like he said, he didn’t cotton to no one tellin’ him what to do at first.  You reckon why he changed his mind?”

“I think the sheriff had him in his jail for quite some time.  Maybe as long as 4 or 6 months.  That’s  a pretty long time to work on someone, help ‘convince’ them of trying a better way.  I suppose after all that time, you start to hear what a person is trying to tell you that is for your own good.  And I’m sure he grew up a lot after he faced the fact that he killed someone with his bare hands.  That’s a burden he has to carry the rest of his life.”

“Yeah.  I reckon me and my brothers don’t thank you enough fer….you know….fer bein’ our Pa. Fer being how you is….”

Ben was glad it was dark out because he had to wipe his eyes before he answered.  “Thank you, son. It’s my job before God to mold you and make you into good, faithful, honest, productive men.  Hasn’t always been easy!  But I’m glad you’re my son, too, and I thank God every day for the three of you and how you are turning out.  Now, it’s getting late and we have a long ride tomorrow. I love you, son. Good night.”

“ ‘Night, Pa.”

Regardless of all they’d seen and heard, both Cartwrights slept soundly that night.

Chapter 11

After rising early and enjoying a breakfast of hot coffee, beans, biscuits and bacon, they headed out.  They had a lot of miles to cover this day.  They were headed to a few more of their line shacks to check on the condition of each. Before winter each year, the line shacks had to be checked, repaired if needed, and restocked.  No one would ever want to take shelter from a blizzard or other danger in a line shack just to find it empty and unable to give respite to the traveler.

Another long day of simply riding.  Hoss and Ben discussed many topics.  It seemed to Ben that Hoss was finding the answers from their encounters in Hangtown that he needed.  Occasionally Ben would offer some insight, but mostly, Hoss was figuring things out for himself.  Ben knew this was the best option, because if all he did was lecture the lesson to Hoss, much of it would be lost.  If Hoss figured it out for himself, it would stay with him so much longer.

Other topics came up.  The upcoming winter – were they prepared?  What still needed to be done for their stock and at the ranch house.  How soon did Hoss think the first storm would arrive?  He seemed to have a knack for knowing things like that!  They discussed what they could do to keep Little Joe occupied during a blizzard.  After all, this was the first winter that Adam would be away, and Little Joe would be out of sorts with yet another change….considering this was a very big change – almost as big as right after his mother had perished.  This would be the next challenge for the little boy who was adjusting to his life without his mother, now without his oldest brother.

They had so much to discuss and they arrived at the first line shack before either realized they had traveled that far and had not stopped to eat dinner!  They found this line shack in fairly good shape.  It had a stack of wood beside the barn and inside next to the fireplace.  No holes in the roof of the lean-to built to protect the animals; no holes in the shack roof.  They only needed to sweep out the chimney, for squirrels had taken up residence there! They shook out the linens and beat the mattress.  Then they took inventory of the food stores they found there.  If anything seemed to be low, Ben would make a list and arrange to have it delivered back to this place once they got home.

Once the work was done, they settled down, ate some of the stores themselves, then bedded down.  In the morning, they would straighten up and move north to the next line shack on their property line.

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

The next morning, after assuring everything was in top shape and they had marked down what did need to be brought to this place, they left it and moved to the next shack.

This one needed a little more work, which irritated Ben.  In fact, it irritated him a whole lot!  Hoss wasn’t sure why he was so upset over this.  It happened.  People stay in these shelters, and stores get used and have to be replaced.

After they had nailed down a few loose shingles the roof, took inventory of what stores needed replaced and fixed the hinges on the lean-to for the animals, Ben and Hoss sat down to have their dinner.  It was obvious Ben was still quite irritated.

Hoss spoke first.  “Pa?  Why are you so upset that there’s little supplies here?  We’ll jest replace them, won’t we?  We done it before….”

“It’s not the idea that the supplies are low, son.  It’s that I got a report from a man that this shack was good to go, and now I find that it’s not.  Someone didn’t do their job here. It was not only the food stores, the roof on the lean-to was rotted, too.  What if it didn’t get repaired before winter came? What if a blizzard had blown in here before we repaired it?  Someone could have lost their animals out there without those repairs.  I had counted on all this being completed by now, and without their animals, they might not be able to get to the nearest town for safety.”

“Wal, I don’t know why that roof has holes, but maybe someone hadda stay here.  Maybe it had supplies, but they got used?”

Ben nodded and thought to himself, ‘Yeah, maybe that’s it.  But that doesn’t explain the repairs are not done on the roof, and there’s no wood stacked.’

They had to cut a tree or two to shave materials to make shingles for the lean-to roof, which was a time-consuming activity, and took all afternoon. It was obvious Ben was not happy with the state of this place.  Hoss wondered at his father’s bad mood, as repairing line shacks was just part of maintaining such structures.  Kind of “came with the territory.”

Once Ben felt the repairs would hold through the coming winter they prepared their supper.  This meal consisted of canned preserves and biscuits and jerky.  Once it was dark, they bedded down inside the line shack.  It was nice enough outside to have slept under the stars, but as he aged, Ben found it was more pleasant to stay in a bed than to sleep on the hard ground!

In the morning they worked together to chop wood and stock a fairly high stack of firewood in the cabin next to the fireplace and a stack out back in the lean-to.  The bedding was shook out and the animal shelter mucked out.  They checked on the barrel to keep water beside the shack and found a small hole about halfway up!  It wouldn’t have held enough water for more than half a day in its present condition, so Ben made a note to send someone up who could either repair it or have it replaced.

Once he was satisfied this line shack was safe enough to be used as a shelter, Ben and Hoss rode out for the next line shack.  This would be the last one they would visit, and then they would be heading home!  Hoss had already missed two days of school and would also miss two more.  It wasn’t that he missed school, but that Prof. Thornton would expect him to make up the missed work.  That would mean double assignments until he caught up!

They arrived at the last line shack of this trip in fairly good time.  Once again, it wasn’t up to the standard Ben wanted.  He was quite irritated now!  It was becoming obvious someone hadn’t done their job.

They spoke little as they worked.  Hoss could see that his father was very irritated, and he didn’t want to poke that bear!  The window was secured, as it had broken loose in a wind storm, parts of the rotted wood on one wall of the cabin had to be replaced, so that meant another tree felled and the logs shaped to fit into the wall.  Chinking had to be mixed from mud in the creek to put between the logs and added to the brick fireplace to keep the weather out.

The two Cartwrights sat in silence and ate their dinner.  Finally, Hoss thought he’d try again to assuage his father’s bad mood.

“Pa?  Maybe these shacks are jest too far gone to keep up?”

“That’s not an option, son.  We need these line shacks to be maintained, and they serve well if they are.  They must be checked out every year before winter sets in.  Everything we just did, someone was paid to do a few months ago. Someone’s not doing their job.”

“That’s the second time you said that.  You got any idear who ain’t getting’ it done?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact I do.  I sent a man up here to repair all the things we just did and bring stocks up to the shacks.  Now here we are, it hasn’t been done and we’ve had to do it.  I expect to have a man do a job if I pay him to do it.”

“Who didn’t do it?”

“Beecher Young.”

Hoss thought a few minutes.  He couldn’t actually place that name.  “How long has he worked at the Ponderosa?  I cain’t quite place him.”

“He’s been with us for a few months now, I think.  Come to think of it, I can’t remember the last time I saw him either.”

“Maybe he quit?”

“If he did, I’ll find him and take the salary I paid him out of his hide!”

“Pa?  Why you so hepped up over this feller?”

“Hoss, a man is only as good as his word.  I trusted Beecher to do this job.  It’s a lonely job.  It’s a hard job because you do work alone.  No one would really know if you did the job or not until disaster struck.  That’s why the person you hire to do this job has to be trustworthy.  Obviously, Beecher has proven himself not to be such a man.”

Hoss thought a few minutes before he spoke again.

“You put high store in a man’s word bein’ worth somethin’ doncha, Pa?”

Ben nodded.  “A man’s word, his honor, is really all he has, son.  If you are trustworthy, people know they can trust you, they like you.  If you are not trustworthy, you’ll find men tend to steer clear of you or watch you with a distrusting eye.  I don’t find that an attractive trait….to be the kind no one wants to turn their back on.  Reminds me of a rattlesnake.”

“I can see that!  I shore wouldn’t turn my back on a rattlesnake!”

“Exactly my point,” Ben grumbled.

They finished their dinner and set out to complete the other repairs: shaking the sheets and mattress out, as well as the small carpet by the fireplace, then inventory the food stuffs, as well as clean pots and pans and the buckets in the lean-to and in the house.  The fireplace had been checked for squirrel or rats’ nests before they’d cooked their supper in the shack.  They would spend the night here and move on in the morning.

Chapter 12

The next day, satisfied the shack would serve well if needed through the coming winter, they rode until they reached a point where a marker had been set down to “mark” the northernmost border of their property.  There was a tree line above, just below the rim leading to the high country.  Ben dismounted and stood looking down at the marker. Hoss rode his horse to stand beside his father.  Ben pointed to the marker.

“Here is where the northern property line starts.  Adam and I placed this marker here to help us know where our property starts. Ben pointed toward the tree line, to the west. There are several more to help us know where our property line is.  It helps keep trespassers out, too, if they notice it.”

Just a few yards off from the marker, there was one lone tree.  After he pointed the marker out to Hoss, Ben walked closer to the tree.  He stood looking at it for a long time.  Hoss dismounted and followed.  He had no idea what his father was looking at.  It was just a tree!  Almost as if Ben could “hear” his thoughts, he motioned for Hoss to come closer.

“Son, this tree is right near our marker back there, where our property starts to the north and west.  It tells all who see it that this is the first pine on the Ponderosa ranch.”

Hoss nodded.  He then looked at his father.  Ben placed his hand gently on the bark. Hoss looked where his father was touching and saw his brother Adam’s name!

“Pa?  Does that say ‘Adam’?”

“It does.”

“What’s Adam’s name doing there?”

“This tree is a type of ‘Remembrance Tree.’”

“A remembrance tree?  What’s that?  What’s that got to do with Adam?”

Ben smiled.  “I brought your brother here when he was a little younger than you.  Now it’s your turn.”

Hoss took a long time looking at Adam’s name.  Then he turned and faced his father.  “Did he git to fightin’ too, Pa?”

Ben laughed,  “No, it wasn’t that.  He had his infractions, though.”

“What’d he do?”

“You’ll have to ask him.”

Hoss just nodded, then looked again at the tree and Adam’s name on it.  He tried to imagine Adam taking this trip with his father.  As he did, Ben stood there, kicking the ground around the tree, his hand still resting against the bark.  After a short while, he addressed Hoss.

“Did you enjoy our trip, Hoss?”

Hoss nodded.

“Did you learn anything?”

Hoss nodded again.

“Tell me what you learned, son.”

Hoss walked closer.  He kicked the ground, too.  He thought about what to tell his father.  Where to start?  He shoved his hands deep into his pockets and looked into his father’s eyes.

“I learnt it don’t make ya a big man to call somebody out fer no reason. I learned I gotta watch my temper.  I learned there’s always somebody bigger’n me.”

He stopped talking.  He kicked the ground some more.  Ben reached over with an outstretched arm and leaned on the tree and waited.  Then Hoss started talking again.

“I learned to give a soft answer….”  He thought some more.  Ben waited.

Hoss sighed.  “I learned I ain’t no better’n no other body.  But I gotta earn trust by bein’ trustworthy.  I want to be a man of my word, Pa.  And I want that word to be a good word.  I don’t wanna be like Reverend Jason’s Pa, a mean man who bullies people.  I don’t wanna be like the man who shot Dan.  I like Dan, but I don’t wanna be a feller other fellers wanna try, so’s I gotta fight….”

Ben stepped in now.

“I don’t think you could ever be the kind of man to start a fight, son.  You’re just too kind-hearted for that.  But I don’t want you to think your size works in your favor, either.  Because sometimes it doesn’t.  It might work against you, and you’ve got to work hard to make sure that doesn’t happen.  Learn to give a soft answer and many situations will just sort themselves out.”

“How do I know to do that, Pa?”

“You’re a lot further along that path than most, Hoss, just because of your personality.  You’re already a soft-spoken person, most of the time.  Your gentle way puts most folks at ease. But you’ll always be bigger than most men, I expect, so you’ve got to remember that your size alone might intimidate some people.  You’ll have to take care not to let that be an excuse for bad behavior.”

“Yessir.”  Hoss thought a minute, looking out over the empty plain they had just ridden to get to their present spot. Then he asked, “Pa?”

“Yes, son?”

“I sure don’t wanna be like that feller Beecher, neither.  Someone who says they’ll do a job and then don’t do it.  A man of his word wouldn’t do somethin’ like that, would he?”

“No, I expect he wouldn’t.”

“I wanna be worth my word, and a man who kin stand on his own two feet and say no to anyone who wants ‘em to do somethin’ they know is wrong.”

Hoss looked away, at the far away mountains before he spoke again. “Mostly, I wanna be a man you’re proud of, Pa,” then he turned to look at his father.

“I’m proud of you and your brothers every day, son.” Ben shuffled his feet in the dirt a little bit, then looked into Hoss’ eyes and spoke again. “I’ll tell you what I want.”

“What’s that, Pa?”

“I want the Cartwright name to be known for integrity, and for honesty.  I want my sons to be men whose word is their bond.”

“I want that too, Pa.”

Ben stepped forward and gave Hoss’ shoulder a squeeze.

“Learn anything else, son?”

Hoss swallowed hard and nodded.  “Yeah, I did.”

Ben waited.

Hoss looked up at the sky, seeming to form his words.  Then he turned and looked at his father and spoke.  “I don’t wanna be a man who disrespects a woman. Them’s delicate creatures that God made and men should respect ‘em. It ain’t right to be lookin’ a wimmin in that’a way. I shouldn’t’a been lookin’ at them pitures, with them other fellers. I should’a walked away, no matter what kinda names they called me.  I was afraid they’d call me chicken and be mad at me and all.  Turns out all that happened anyways!”

Ben smiled and nodded at him. “I’m glad you realize that, son.  Sometimes the ramifications for one’s unpopular actions happen no matter how hard to try to prevent them.” Then he took a step closer to Hoss.  “Would you like to put your name here, on the Remembrance Tree with your brother’s?”

Hoss smiled large then and nodded vigorously.

“If’n I can, I would, Pa.  I won’t forget them lessons, neither.”

“I know you won’t, son.  Once you’re finished there, let’s head home.  You’ve got chores and school tomorrow!”

Hoss moaned, “Aw, Pa!”

Ben laughed a hearty laugh then.

The End

Author’s Notes: This story was borne out of a real life incident I heard from a man I met recently. Most of the incidents in the first two chapters are fashioned after what I was told really happened to the gentleman, and I immediately thought it sounded like something Hoss would do! In fact, the man I met is big and powerful, like Hoss, a gentle and fine human being. From his recounting of the incident, his father sounded a lot like Ben Cartwright, too!