Chapter 5   The Lily Pad Misadventure

            Grabbing his son’s arm as he walked, Ben was upset that Joe had gone to see Mr. Fenster without him. Ben had ridden to town in a hurry when he realized that evening that all of them were gone. They were supposed to be outside talking, or at least that was what they said they were going to be doing. They neglected to mention that the talking would be on the way to town as they tried to defuse a situation they had created. He had been angry, and then worried, as he saddled up Buck and then took the long ride into town. Once there, he had to go to the Sheriff’s office to get Joe released from jail. Hoss and Adam had been sitting inside waiting. He had asked why one of them had not come home to get him, and Adam had said that when they didn’t return, they knew that would get him to town. In fact, he had of course been on the way when all the trouble had started. When he asked what happened, Roy pointed at Joe and said he had the story, so Joe explained that he had gone to see Mr. Fenster and had been unarmed.

“Joseph, that wasn’t a very smart thing to do going to see him unarmed.”

“Pa, I had Adam and Hoss there to back me up. They had their guns, and you know how good they are with them. I wasn’t worried about that part.”

“But there was still a big risk in what you did.”

“Pa, Marlene’s father said he’d shoot me if he ever saw me again. I figured if I showed up without my pistol though, he wouldn’t just shoot me down, and maybe I’d get a chance to explain. I never meant to hurt his daughter.”

“Why didn’t you ask me to come with you? I had nothing to do with it, and he might have been willing to let me talk about why my youngest son was buck naked and jumped out of the lake scaring his daughter and her friend.”

“Well it kinda was partly Adam’s fault and Hoss too, so they felt like they oughta help.”

“Yes, I know what part they played in this.” Both of his older sons were favored with one of Ben’s ominous frowns then.

“Well, you see, Pa, then, it all makes sense.”

“Yes, it does, Joe, but not the part about you tackling him. Roy said you tackled Mr. Fenster and disarmed him.”

“Well, you see, Pa, he saw these two men lurking in the bushes he said, and he was gonna fire that shotgun in there. Now I couldn’t tell that to Adam and Hoss because they might have shot him if he was shooting at them. So I tackled him.”

“Did you get to explain at least before Roy got there?”

“Yeah, Pa, I did. He even had a little chuckle about the whole story until I got to the part where I jumped up out of the water and scared his daughter. I swear, Pa, I thought it was Adam bringing my clothes back. I had no idea his daughter was there with a friend to try to catch some fish. I mean we were on the Ponderosa. They were trespassing.”

“So you explained why you were completely naked when you jumped up out of the lily pads and frightened his daughter?”

“Yeah, I did. I told him my brothers stole my clothes when I was taking a swim. I never meant for her to fall like that, and it was just bad luck that those rocks were right there. It isn’t all that awful though. I mean the doc said she’ll be out of that cast in a month so her broken arm really wasn’t too bad.”

“Now, I understand all of that, but why were you hiding under the lily pads in the first place?”

“Well, you see, it’s like this. Hoss and Adam stole my clothes, and that was really mean. I was gonna hide under them lily pads so they wouldn’t see me anywhere. Hey, Pa, I used a hollow reed just like you taught me to do years ago.”

“Yes, Joseph, now what about the rest of the story?” Ben had a tendency to be impatient when Joe was telling a story because he seemed to have all this commentary that had nothing to do with the immediate event.

“Well, I thought Adam and Hoss would get really worried and think maybe that I had drowned or something and then they would feel really bad about me drowning and such because they stole my clothes, and then I was gonna jump up and scare them too. It only seemed fair after what they did to me. But Pa, from underwater, it’s real hard to see who’s walking up to the shore. I had no idea it was two girls, honest!”

“Joseph, did her father accepted your explanation?”

“Yes, he did, Pa, but when his daughter asked if I would take her to the lake for a picnic sometime, he got all mad again. That’s when Roy took me to the jail, and said he would only release me to you. He said I was a threat to the public safety, and you had to take me home.”

“And that young man is exactly where you’re going. There are a lot of chores to keep all of you busy so there won’t be a repeat any time soon of this kind of foolishness.” Three sets of shoulders dropped with that last comment, but there wasn’t much they could do about it.   Ben’s tone of voice left no room for argument. Adam and Hoss were sure that they were not going to be treated like boys and ordered around like Joe, or at least they hoped that wouldn’t happen. Hoss especially hoped it wouldn’t happen because when their Pa tried to do that with Adam, there was usually quite an argument and things got very tense around the place for days sometimes. Mealtimes were especially stressful when that happened, and that bothered Hoss as much as anything because it was difficult to eat a decent meal with all that anger in the air. Ben said no more so Hoss relaxed. At least all three of them had a great story to tell the next time they got together with their friends.