Summary: Little Joe learns something special about Christmas, with the help of his brothers.<\/p>\n
Rating: T, WC 947<\/p>\n
Christmas Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n Christmas was coming and ten year old Little Joe Cartwright bounced around the house. Oh he was excited for Christmas but what added to that joy and energy was the fact that it was the first Christmas since his oldest brother had returned from college. Once December arrived, Little Joe became more aware of his behavior and attitude. His father and brothers noticed how hard he tried to be helpful, compliant, and just plain nice.\u00a0 Joe\u2019s complete turnaround brought a grin to Hoss\u2019 face, a slight smirk to Adam\u2019s and a wistful smile to Ben\u2019s, wondering as he did each year, if any of the changes would last beyond Christmas Day.<\/p>\n This year, Ben noticed that the overall feel of the family was lighter and brighter with Adam\u2019s return from college. Although Adam had had a rough start over the summer in settling back in, he now had rediscovered his \u201ccowboy legs\u201d. Ben chuckled at his use of the old sea metaphor as he settled at the table for breakfast. Before he took his first sip of coffee he was surrounded by his three sons.\u00a0 Adam and Hoss were talking excitedly about finishing chores and riding to town to do some shopping. Ben noticed they didn\u2019t include Joe in their conversation, and that\u2019s when he also noticed that Joe was not begging to go with his big brothers.<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph, are you going to town with your brothers?\u201d\u00a0 Ben caught his other sons\u2019 eyes to confirm they had asked them.<\/p>\n Joe nibbled at his eggs and shook his head.<\/p>\n Ben turned toward Adam and Hoss. \u201cBoys?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam paused in drinking his coffee. \u201cWe asked him but he said he wasn\u2019t interested. If he changes his mind we\u2019ll leave in a couple of hours.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben nodded and breakfast continued with light conversation among three of the four Cartwrights.<\/p>\n After breakfast, Adam and Hoss headed to the barn to finish their chores. As he curried his horse before saddling him, Adam broke the brotherly silence.<\/p>\n \u201cAny idea why Joe was so quiet?\u201d He tossed the brush over to Hoss and reached for his saddle.<\/p>\n \u201cNah. He seemed okay till we asked him ta go ta town with us. I figured he\u2019d want to shop for Pa or see some of his friends.\u201d<\/p>\n Before any more could be said, the brothers\u2019 heads turned in unison at the vehement words coming from the house.<\/p>\n \u201cYou lied Pa an\u2019 I don\u2019t want anything to do with Christmas ever again!\u201d<\/p>\n Joe burst into the barn. \u201cAn\u2019 you two can disappear for all I care for lyin\u2019 to me too!\u201d\u00a0 Joe ran from the barn leaving his brothers dumbstruck.<\/p>\n Joe ran wildly through the trees and up the well-worn trail behind the house. Shoving branches out his way he let his feet lead the way, unaware of two shadows following him.<\/p>\n Tearfully, Joe crouched by his mother\u2019s grave. \u201cWhy mama? Even you told me about Pere Noel, and how he\u2019d bring gifts for me if I was good. An\u2019 every year, the tree and the gifts would magically appear on Christmas morning.\u00a0 Why mama, why did you lie? He\u2019s not real.\u00a0 All those gifts were from you and Pa.\u00a0 I ain\u2019t believin\u2019 in Christmas ever again. Never!\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss stepped from the bushes and sat by his brother.<\/p>\n Joe shifted away. \u201cGo \u2018way, both of ya. You ain\u2019t gonna change my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOh little brother, I know it’s hard to keep believing when you know you’ve been deceived. But you know what, Joe?\u00a0 We didn\u2019t deceive you. Santa, Father Christmas, Pere Noel –\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd Jultomten, as Mama Inger taught me\u2026..\u201d Adam joined his brothers.<\/p>\n Hoss smiled, \u201cYeah, all them are names for the same person, an\u2019 his name was Saint Nicholas.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe brought his head up, skepticism showing heavily in his young face.<\/p>\n Adam clarified, \u201cHe was a Greek Christian bishop who lived long ago. He was wealthy and wanted to share with the poor, so he left food, supplies, toys, even a dowry in one case, but all in secret. Stories of his generosity changed over the centuries and throughout countries, but generally it was the same, giving to help others, or to children, and usually done in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss nudged his brother, \u201cWe didn\u2019t realize you still believed in Santa, but you know what? Now that you know all about him, you can be Santa.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe looked puzzled so Adam explained further, \u201cYou can do things that help others, and in our family we sometimes give secret gifts to surprise each other.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe smiled as things slowly made sense. \u201cYou mean like the saddle Santa left for Pa last year? Was that you Adam?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMe, Hoss, and Grandfather Stoddard. We didn\u2019t think Pa would accept it if he knew who it was from, \u2018cause of the cost, and we did it out of love. But as you know he figured it out anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the tickets for Hop Sing to go to San Francisco to see family he hadn\u2019t seen in years?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYa see Joe, God gave his son as a gift to us, an\u2019 He gave it out of love.\u00a0 So we can do the same. We can give special gifts to others out of love.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo Santa is real, in a way.\u201d<\/p>\n The brothers laughed. \u201cYou betcha.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go. We \u2018Santas\u2019 are workin\u2019 on somethin\u2019 special. Wanna help?\u201d<\/p>\n Joe\u2019s enthusiasm returned in full force. \u201cYou bet I do!\u201d<\/p>\n Together, the trio made their way home. While Hoss helped Joe saddle his horse, Adam let their Pa know all was well and quickly explained. Fifteen minutes later three Santas rode to town on a mission of love.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tags: Adam Cartwright, Hoss Cartwright, Joe \/ Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Summary: Little Joe learns something special about Christmas, with the help of his brothers.<\/p>\n Rating: T, WC 947<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8333,"featured_media":25625,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"template-full-width-post.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[23,1007,30,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-drama","category-joe-cartwright","category-prequels","category-short-stories","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-30-id","wpcat-8-id"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/St.-Nicholas.jpg?fit=600%2C539&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8333"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}