{"id":16007,"date":"2018-02-20T20:04:13","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T01:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=16007"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:40:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T19:40:31","slug":"me-first-mcfair_58","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=16007","title":{"rendered":"Me First (by McFair_58)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>A missing scene for the episode ‘A Matter of Circumstance’, which is one of my favorites. Left alone in the house with what may be a dying Joe, Hoss has a conversation with himself and makes a promise.<\/p>\n

Rated G\u00a0 \u00a0Word count: 2912<\/p>\n

Me First<\/strong><\/p>\n

I can remember the firs time I held my baby brother.\u00a0 I was just a little squirt, \u2018bout six years old.\u00a0 My hands were so big and he was just so gosh darn small.\u00a0 Mama made me hold them big ol\u2019 hands of mine out and she put him in them, and then she told me to think of Little Joe like any other<\/em> little critter.\u00a0 Mama said she knew I loved them all and would be real gentle with him just like I was with them.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m bein\u2019 gentle with him now.<\/p>\n

I been through a lot with this here boy.\u00a0 After Mama died, well, it seemed for a while that it was just the two of us.\u00a0 When Pa took off after Mama\u2019s fall, that left older brother in charge.\u00a0 Adam was only a kid himself.\u00a0 Heck, now, when I think about someone who hadn\u2019t seen the high side of eighteen doin\u2019 what he had to do \u2013 takin\u2019 on runnin\u2019 the ranch and lookin\u2019 after baby brother and me \u2013 he never got to be<\/em> a kid.\u00a0 Not like Joe.\u00a0 Little brother, he works and he plays hard, but he ain\u2019t never known the kind of want and worry older brother did.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m worried.\u00a0 Real <\/em>worried.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoe?\u201d I try again.\u00a0 \u201cLittle Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n

I know Joe\u2019s in real <\/em>trouble when he don\u2019t rear up and punch me in the nose for sayin\u2019 that.\u00a0 I don\u2019t call him \u2018Little\u2019 Joe anymore less I want to rile him.\u00a0 Heck, I mean, I guess I gotta admit that he ain\u2019t so little <\/em>anymore.\u00a0 Fact is, the boy\u2019s nigh onto thirty and all them years of ranch work have put more muscle on that skinny frame of his than I got between my ears.\u00a0 Made him tough as those nails we hammer day and night, layin\u2019 shingles and mendin\u2019 fences and fixin\u2019 up the barn.<\/p>\n

When I close my eyes,\u00a0 I can see that barn.<\/p>\n

There was so much blood it near stopped my heart.\u00a0 I was sure when I first seen it that I\u2019d find Joe lyin\u2019 in one of them stalls shot in the gut by some bad man and all bled out.\u00a0 But he weren\u2019t there.\u00a0 Joe wasn\u2019t anywhere<\/em>.\u00a0 You know, it was a funny thing.\u00a0 Lookin\u2019 at all that blood took me right past Joe and straight back to mama.\u00a0 Only this time she wasn\u2019t smilin\u2019.\u00a0 This time she was lyin\u2019 there in a pool of that same red stuff, dyin\u2019.\u00a0 Pa\u2019s there beside her.\u00a0 He\u2019s holdin\u2019 her hand and talkin\u2019 soft to her.<\/p>\n

Just like I been talkin\u2019 soft to Little Joe.<\/p>\n

Now, everyone will tell you I\u2019m a tracker, and a good one at that.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of a natural instinct with me like it is with one of them there bloodhounds.\u00a0 It took me a minute, but I realized quick enough as I moved around the barn that it weren\u2019t no bad man what done this to my brother.\u00a0 Joe didn\u2019t try to do nothin\u2019 to hide his tracks.\u00a0 As I followed the trail of rusty red from one room to another, I could see \u00a0he was hurt right bad.\u00a0 He was movin\u2019 on his belly, draggin\u2019 one leg and an arm, and he kept fallin\u2019 down \u2013 and then gettin\u2019 up \u2013 and then fallin\u2019 down again.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my little brother.\u00a0 He\u2019s so tough he\u2019d eat off a plate with a rattler.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hear me, Joe?\u201d I whisper as I brush one of them silver curls back from his ear and lean in real<\/em> close. \u00a0\u201cYou\u2019re tough<\/em>.\u00a0 You\u2019re gonna make it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe.<\/p>\n

You gotta<\/em> make it.<\/p>\n

The house is so quiet I can hear the clock all the way in there by the front door tickin\u2019 away.\u00a0 That there\u2019s a sound I been hearin\u2019 since before I know when.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost a part of me, if you know what I mean.\u00a0 There\u2019s another sound that\u2019s a part of me.\u00a0 I can feel it under my fingers.\u00a0 I ain\u2019t usin\u2019 my ears, but touch is another kind of hearin\u2019, ain\u2019t it? \u00a0Leastwise that\u2019s what that old blind veteran who sits outside the saloon on summer nights tells me.\u00a0 The sound ain\u2019t so strong as it ought to be and it\u2019s runnin\u2019 wild. \u00a0Makes me think of that old clock in the foyer again and the time I wound it up so tight it near stopped.<\/p>\n

If Joe\u2019s heart stops , it won\u2019t be the only one.<\/p>\n

That\u2019ll be the end of us.<\/p>\n

I know it.<\/p>\n

I need to shift.\u00a0 Little brother ain\u2019t that heavy, but he\u2019s lyin\u2019 across my legs and he ain\u2019t movin\u2019.\u00a0 Now I tell you, it ain\u2019t easy bein\u2019 big as a moose and sittin\u2019 all hunched up on the floor with a sick man on your lap, a table to one side, and a great big old stove on the other and \u2013 Lordy! \u2013 what a mess in-between.\u00a0 When I first come \u2018round the corner into the kitchen after followin\u2019 that trail of blood from the barn to the house, I just stopped.\u00a0 Pa was in the middle of the room bendin\u2019 over Joe.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t see baby brother\u2019s face, but what I could see of him \u2013 an arm that looked like a grizzly\u2019d done chewed it and spit it back out, his leg bound up with reins and the back slats of a chair, with blood and muck and mud coatin\u2019 every inch of him….<\/p>\n

I was sure little brother was dead right then and there.<\/p>\n

It shames me to say it, but it near done me in.\u00a0 I heard of men sayin\u2019 their legs went to jelly.\u00a0 \u2018Course I never believed it.<\/p>\n

I believe it now.<\/p>\n

It weren\u2019t until Pa started callin\u2019 my name that I thought to ask if Joe was livin\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018He\u2019s alive,\u2019 Pa said for I could.<\/p>\n

Alive.<\/p>\n

Now, there\u2019s a word with a lot of hope in it.<\/p>\n

And a whole <\/em>world of worry.<\/p>\n

You see, I got a way with wounded things.\u00a0 Anyone will tell you that.\u00a0 Makes a lot of people laugh \u2013 Big old Hoss Cartwright lookin\u2019 out for the littlest things God created.\u00a0 Well, this here \u2018little\u2019 thing in my big old hands is the one I done promised to look out for until the day I die. \u00a0People laugh at me a lot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care.\u00a0 Don\u2019t make me no nevermind like it does little brother.\u00a0 I guess when you been laughed at your whole life you got two choices \u2013 you get mad and mean, or you learn to laugh with them.\u00a0 People laugh at me and my little brother too \u2018cause we\u2019re so close and we watch out for one another.\u00a0 Made Joe spit nails the last time it happened.\u00a0 One of the wranglers working for Pa said I oughta wear an apron.\u00a0 That way I\u2019d have some strings to tie the boy to.<\/p>\n

Thing is, I don\u2019t need no apron strings.\u00a0 Joe and me, we\u2019s already tied tighter than old Dick\u2019s hatband.<\/p>\n

You gotta understand, I got me this here \u00a0intuition<\/em> when it comes to my little brother.\u00a0 Kind of like an itch.\u00a0 It works like them telegraph wires.\u00a0 You know, I still can\u2019t figure how them dang things can send messages across the miles, but they sure enough do.\u00a0 It\u2019s the same with Joe and me.\u00a0 It\u2019s like one of them there wires is stretched between us.<\/p>\n

I gotta admit, \u00a0it weren\u2019t at first that I knew he was in trouble.\u00a0 Heck, at first I was sore with Joe for bein\u2019 the one pulled the short straw to get the cushy job of stayin\u2019 home and waitin\u2019 for the cook.\u00a0 Like I told Candy, I could just see him sittin\u2019 in pa\u2019s chair by the fire, sippin\u2019 brandy and snortin\u2019 like a puppy whiles we was all freezin\u2019 our tails off sleepin\u2019 \u2018neath the stars.\u00a0 No, at first I was kinda upset.\u00a0 Then, the next mornin’, I was just plain mad when Joe didn\u2019t show up with the cook and the grub.\u00a0 It don\u2019t take a genius to know little brother would do just about anythin\u2019 to get out of a round-up.\u00a0 When he didn\u2019t show, Pa and I traded a few words \u2013 ninety of them had somethin\u2019 to do with baby brother bein\u2019 carefree and careless, and about ten said maybe we should head home and see what was up.<\/p>\n

Then I got that itch.<\/p>\n

Persistent, Adam would have called it.\u00a0 Dogged me all day to scratch it. \u00a0\u2018Course, I kept tellin\u2019 myself all the things Pa\u2019d say if I brung it up.\u00a0 I know them so well I can say them with him.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s not a boy anymore.\u00a0 Your younger brother can look out for himself.\u00a0 He\u2019ll be mad as a wet hen if he thinks we think otherwise.<\/em><\/p>\n

Come on, Joe.\u00a0 Be mad at me.<\/p>\n

Spit fire, boy!<\/p>\n

Nothin\u2019.<\/p>\n

I steel myself and look down at him.\u00a0 I feel kind of guilty when I do \u2018cause I ain\u2019t looked at him for a while.<\/p>\n

It just hurts too<\/em> much.<\/p>\n

My fingers comb through that pretty hair of his, tryin\u2019 to pull out some bits of straw.\u00a0 Ain\u2019t worth nothin\u2019, I know, but it\u2019s somethin\u2019 I can do.\u00a0 I can tell you, I\u2019ve been right jealous of that hair all my life.\u00a0 Seems God got mixed up somehow and gave Joe most of what I was owed.\u00a0 Only Joe\u2019s hair ain\u2019t so pretty now.\u00a0 It\u2019s matted with muck from the stall, mixed with blood and sweat \u2013<\/p>\n

And tears.<\/p>\n

It stabs like a knife \u2013 the truth behind them tears.\u00a0 I keep thinkin\u2019 of Joe bein\u2019 here all alone, hurtin\u2019 so bad, callin\u2019 out for someone to come.\u00a0 \u00a0For Pa to come.<\/p>\n

For me<\/em> to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came, Joe,\u201d I whisper as I draw him a little closer, feelin\u2019 the heat ragin\u2019 through his broken body.\u00a0 \u201cSorry I got here too late to keep this from happenin\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s another hurt.\u00a0 One I know Pa feels as deep as I do.\u00a0 Couldn\u2019t been more than half an hour at most for this happened.\u00a0 The storm was brewin\u2019 as we pulled out for the drive and we should of knowed one of the horses might of got spooked.\u00a0 As we rode out, I heard Joe talkin\u2019 over the wind to Hop Sing, tellin\u2019 him to have a good trip.\u00a0 That same wind drove old Hop Sing\u2019s answer to me.\u00a0 \u00a0I should have knowed it was a warnin\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018You be a good boy, Little Joe.\u2019<\/p>\n

How many times in my life have I heard those words, I wonder?\u00a0 Poor Joe, he tries so hard, but trouble just seems to follow him like a lost puppy.\u00a0 He knows it too.\u00a0 I know that \u2018cause Joe opened his eyes right after Pa left.\u00a0 \u00a0His hand gripped the sleeve of my brown coat and he tried to tell me somethin\u2019.\u00a0 \u00a0I couldn\u2019t make much of it out, but I\u2019m sure I caught the word, \u2018sorry\u2019.<\/p>\n

I can still see him, you know.\u00a0 That little feller who\u2019d get called on the carpet in front of Pa\u2019s big red chair every other day.\u00a0 Little Joe\u2019d stand there for a minute with his head hangin\u2019 down, and then look up with them great big green eyes of his through that tangle of brown curls thick as a briar patch. \u00a0He\u2019d sniff back tears and then them petty pink lips of his would twitch with a smile.<\/p>\n

And Pa\u2019s heart would melt.<\/p>\n

Seems to me Joe always has somethin\u2019 to apologize for.<\/p>\n

Trouble is, a man cain\u2019t say he\u2019s sorry once he\u2019s dead.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I ain\u2019t gonna forgive you,\u201d I breathe close to his blood-spattered ear.\u00a0 \u201c So you better not<\/em> up and die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe don\u2019t say nothin\u2019.\u00a0 He don\u2019t even move.\u00a0 \u2018Ceptin\u2019 his upper lip.\u00a0 It kind of curls up at one end.<\/p>\n

Dang kid.<\/p>\n

Still <\/em>tryin\u2019 to get away with it!<\/p>\n

A noise in the other room makes me turn my head.\u00a0 I wonder if Pa\u2019s comin\u2019 back.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how long he\u2019s been gone and I been sittin\u2019 here.\u00a0 Seems like all of eternity plus an hour besides that, but it probably ain\u2019t been more than fifteen minutes.\u00a0 Kind of surprised me when Pa told me to stay put with Joe while he rode out to fetch one of the hands to send them to town for the doctor.\u00a0 Ain\u2019t too many of them around \u2018cause of the drive, but one or two old-timers was left behind in the field to watch for trouble.<\/p>\n

Maybe Pa knew I needed this.\u00a0 Time with my brother just in case….<\/p>\n

No.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t want to hurt Joe, but I just gotta move.\u00a0 So I shift and brace my back \u2018til it\u2019s propped against the stove.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing it\u2019s cold now, though it looks like Joe done tried to cook himself some supper at some point.\u00a0 It\u2019s a wonder little brother didn\u2019t burn the house down.\u00a0 That piece of beef on top in the skillet is black as Hop Sing\u2019s hat.\u00a0 Joe sure did a good job lookin\u2019 out for himself.\u00a0 The Lord only knows how he had the guts to set his own leg and then walk on it to the house.\u00a0 Looked like, from the mess in the dining room, that he tried as best he could to clean out that wound in his arm and make it right too.\u00a0 Trouble is, too much of the muck he\u2019d been lyin\u2019 in made its way under the skin.\u00a0 Got infected. \u00a0Real<\/em> infected.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Pa threw one of them towels that Joe\u2019d been soakin\u2019 in the copper pot for some reason over it before he left.<\/p>\n

Probably knew I couldn\u2019t stomach lookin\u2019 at it and thinkin\u2019 about what Doc might have to do to save Joe\u2019s life when he comes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou hang on, little brother,\u201d I tell him.\u00a0 \u201cPa\u2019ll send someone for the doc.\u00a0 You\u2019ll be just fine.\u201d<\/p>\n

You gotta be fine, Joe.<\/p>\n

You just gotta.<\/em><\/p>\n

I look at him again.\u00a0 Just his face, mind you, not that awful mess below.\u00a0 The way Joe looks puts me in mind of that time he had the measles and we thought we\u2019d lose him.\u00a0 Pa wouldn\u2019t let me come close for fear I\u2019d get it, but I snuck in one time to see him. \u00a0Mama had a book about New Orleans she liked to show me.\u00a0 It was filled with pictures of weeping women and chubby little stone angels with their eyes closed like they was sleepin\u2019.\u00a0 Little Joe looks just like one of them angels.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome on, angel,\u201d\u00a0 I say quietly as I pat his cheek.\u00a0 \u201cWake up for ol\u2019 Hoss\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he doesn\u2019t stir, I lose it.\u00a0 My eyes fill with tears.<\/p>\n

Joe, you know I couldn\u2019t live without you.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you?\u00a0 I ain\u2019t just sayin\u2019 that. \u00a0I mean it.\u00a0 Now, don\u2019t you go tellin\u2019 my secret.\u00a0 Pa\u2019d have my hide if he knew.\u00a0 That last time you near died, I done prayed to God and asked Him to take me first.\u00a0 I saw you come into this world and \u2013 well, I guess I\u2019m just a coward plain and simple \u2013 I ain\u2019t got it in me to see you out<\/em> of it.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I know<\/em> you ain\u2019t gonna die today. \u00a0Even though I can feel your heart beatin\u2019 under my fingers fast as Cochise\u2019s hooves flyin\u2019 and your skin\u2019s hot as a day in the desert \u2013 I just know you ain\u2019t <\/em>gonna die.<\/p>\n

You see, God and me, we got an understandin\u2019.<\/p>\n

I hear that sound again, in the other room.\u00a0 Only this time it\u2019s followed by fast footsteps.\u00a0 A second later Pa comes around the corner.\u00a0 Seems to me Pa\u2019s aged a good ten years in the time he\u2019s been gone.\u00a0 His hat\u2019s off and his white hair\u2019s flyin\u2019 like three sheets before the wind.\u00a0 And that face of his?\u00a0 It\u2019s got more furrows than a farmer\u2019s freshly tilled field.\u00a0 Pa kneels beside us.\u00a0 He places one hand on my shoulder and the other on Joe\u2019s hair.\u00a0 Them deep dark eyes of his ask me if little brother\u2019s been awake.\u00a0 My light blue ones, full of tears, tell him all he needs to know.<\/p>\n

\u201cCharley was close.\u00a0 He\u2019s on his way.\u00a0 Paul will be here soon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pa draws a deep breath.\u00a0 He\u2019s lookin\u2019 at Joe, at the mud and the muck, the blood, the sweat and the tears.\u00a0 Then he looks at me, like I\u2019m<\/em> the one who needs the doc.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you<\/em> all right, son?\u201d<\/p>\n

All right.<\/p>\n

Pa likes them two words.\u00a0 Why, he practically built the Ponderosa on them.\u00a0 No matter what came along, Pa was always sure everythin\u2019 was gonna be all right.<\/em><\/p>\n

But that wasn\u2019t what he was askin\u2019 right now.\u00a0 He wasn\u2019t askin\u2019 if I felt okay or had a spring in my step, or even if I needed to have one of them father-son talks he\u2019s so fond of.\u00a0 He was askin\u2019 if I was \u2018all right\u2019 with Joe dyin\u2019.<\/p>\n

Damn, it!\u00a0 No!<\/p>\n

No, I ain\u2019t all right with it and it ain\u2019t<\/em> gonna happen!\u00a0 You hear me, Pa?\u00a0 You hear that, Little Joe?<\/p>\n

Me first, remember.\u00a0 It\u2019s gotta be me<\/em> first.<\/p>\n

\u201cSon?\u201d<\/p>\n

I nod and rise, keepin\u2019 hold of my little brother, not surrenderin\u2019 him even though Pa\u2019s eyes beg to hold him.\u00a0 I done took hold of this here little critter the day he was born and I ain\u2019t gonna let go of him until the day I die.<\/p>\n

Not until the day I<\/em> die.<\/p>\n

You hear that God?<\/p>\n

Me first.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Tags:\u00a0 Ben Cartwright,\u00a0ESH,\u00a0Family,\u00a0Hoss Cartwright,\u00a0Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright,\u00a0SJS<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/g><\/svg><\/i> \"Loading\"<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: A missing scene for the episode ‘A Matter of Circumstance’, which is one of my favorites. Left alone in the house with what may be a dying Joe, Hoss has a conversation with himself and makes a promise.<\/p>\n

Rated G Word count: 2912<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10058,"featured_media":30476,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,41,61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-hurtcomfort","category-missing-scene","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-41-id","wpcat-61-id"],"a3_pvc":{"activated":true,"total_views":3312,"today_views":0},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Joe-Hoss-brown-.jpg?fit=1936%2C1985&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":30607,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=30607","url_meta":{"origin":16007,"position":0},"title":"Eagle’s Nest (by Sierras)","author":"Sierras","date":"October 16, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary:\u00a0 It is spring, and the winter has passed. Five-year-old Little Joe wanders off to find his mama who died a couple of months earlier. This is about the incident that is referenced by Ben to Little Joe in the episode \"Between Heaven And Earth\" written by Ed Adamson Rating\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drama"","block_context":{"text":"Drama","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?cat=23"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Night-Sky-by-Skeeze-from-pixabay.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Night-Sky-by-Skeeze-from-pixabay.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Night-Sky-by-Skeeze-from-pixabay.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16260,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=16260","url_meta":{"origin":16007,"position":1},"title":"Torn Assunder (by Christy)","author":"Christy","date":"August 26, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary:\u00a0\u00a0This is a story in an alternate universe where Hoss has a twin sister Emma. This story deals with the family immediately before and after Marie\u2019s death. Ben loses the children\u2019s trust when he runs off after Marie\u2019s death. Further tragedy befalls the family and the children and Ben must\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Alternate Universe"","block_context":{"text":"Alternate Universe","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?cat=7"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Best-Day-He-Ever-Saw.jpg?fit=630%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Best-Day-He-Ever-Saw.jpg?fit=630%2C480&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Best-Day-He-Ever-Saw.jpg?fit=630%2C480&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":40556,"url":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=40556","url_meta":{"origin":16007,"position":2},"title":"Be a Friend (by Sierras)","author":"Sierras","date":"December 25, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Summary: Can a gingerbread man help Little Joe make a new friend? 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