{"id":2979,"date":"2012-11-24T17:57:31","date_gmt":"2012-11-24T22:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=2979"},"modified":"2026-07-22T13:16:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T17:16:52","slug":"captain-joe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=2979","title":{"rendered":"Captain Joe (by frasrgrl)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"label\">Summary:\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>This story is in response to November&#8217;s Chaps and Spurs Challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Joe on the high seas.\u00a0 Word Count: 546\u00a0\u00a0<span class=\"label\">Rated:<\/span> K<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Captain Joe<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Author&#8217;s Chapter Notes:<\/p>\n<p>This story is in response to November&#8217;s Chaps and Spurs Challenge. The words this month are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surrender<\/li>\n<li>Prisoner<\/li>\n<li>Iron<\/li>\n<li>Pirate<\/li>\n<li>Confederate<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Captain Joe<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll never <strong>surrender!<\/strong>\u201d shouted ten-year-old Joe Cartwright. \u201cI\u2019ll never give up. I\u2019m Captain Joe, and you\u2019ll never take me <strong>prisoner.<\/strong> This is my ship, The Black Pearl, and I\u2019ll defend her to the end if I have ta.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jumping from hay bale to hay bale, the boy swung his wooden sword, slashing through the air at his invisible enemies; enemies that kept advancing on the young swashbuckler as he strove to defend his ship and treasures.<\/p>\n<p>Joe\u2019s father, Ben Cartwright, leaned against the barn door while he watched his son; an amused smile graced his face. He never knew what Joe would be next. Last week he was a Calvary officer defending the west; the week before that he was a sheriff going after the bad guys. Now this week he was Captain Joe, sailing the South Seas.<\/p>\n<p>Joe fell from a bale and rolled to his feet in order to avoid the heavy, <strong>iron<\/strong> blade that the Commandant of the foreign fleet brandished in his direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHa! Nice try, but you\u2019ll never take a member of the conde\u2014condef\u2014confedieate of pirates<strong>.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Laughter from the direction of the barn door stopped Joe in mid swing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi ya, Pa,\u201d he said with a smile that in a few years would cause shivers of delight in every girl it was bestowed upon.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHi yourself, Son,\u201d Joe\u2019s father answered in a warm voice. \u201cWhere on earth did you hear the word <strong>confederate?<\/strong>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom Adam. It\u2019s one of them \u00a0fancy words he learnt in college.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo you know what it means?\u201d Ben asked, highly doubting that his youngest son would know it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOh yes, Sir!\u201d Joe exclaimed with a proud smile. \u201cI asked Adam, and he said it was a group of people united together for the same thing. I figured that if all the pirates were united they\u2019d be stronger.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The older man ruffled his son\u2019s curly hair. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to hear that you actually listen to your brother.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI listen to ever\u2019one, Pa. I may not put much stock in it, but I always listen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sitting down on a hay bale, Ben studied his son. <em>We better watch what we say when he\u2019s in hearing distance, or even just in the vicinity.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou scamp.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Laughing, Joe sat next to his father and suddenly turned serious. \u201cPa, can I ask ya a question?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can always ask me questions, Joseph.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs it true, well, I heard you and Adam talkin\u2019 once, and, erm\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0Am I really related to Jean Lafitte?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Grimacing, Ben closed his eyes for a moment before answering his son. \u201cNo, Little Joe, your eavesdropping wasn\u2019t entirely accurate.\u201d Ben gave his son a meaningful look indicating he wasn\u2019t happy with the way his son obtained his information. \u201cYour grandfather served under Lafitte until he was hung when he was 82 years-old.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoly smoke, Pa! Wait\u2019ll I tell Mitch, he\u2019ll never believe me,\u201d Joe exclaimed with excitement.<\/p>\n<p>His brows drawn together in a frown, Ben looked into his son\u2019s glowing face and couldn\u2019t bring himself to correct him about the truths when it came to pirates. <em>Let the boy have his fantasies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can tell Mitch at school tomorrow. Right now Captain Joe needs to come in and wash up for dinner.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAwe, Pa!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Chapter End Notes:<\/p>\n<p>Many thanks to Cheaux as always for all her help on this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summary:\u00a0 \u00a0This story is in response to November&#8217;s Chaps and Spurs Challenge.  Joe on the high seas.\u00a0 <\/p>\n<p>Word Count: 546\u00a0\u00a0Rated: K<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":6846,"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":[1015,39,23,4,30,8,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-pa","category-chaps-spurs","category-drama","category-humor","category-prequels","category-short-stories","category-challenges","wpcat-1015-id","wpcat-39-id","wpcat-23-id","wpcat-4-id","wpcat-30-id","wpcat-8-id","wpcat-40-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\/2014\/04\/ponderosa-lj.jpg?fit=640%2C475&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979","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\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}