{"id":5061,"date":"2007-12-30T02:09:53","date_gmt":"2007-12-30T07:09:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=5061"},"modified":"2026-07-22T09:28:21","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T13:28:21","slug":"dear-santa-1859","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=5061","title":{"rendered":"Dear Santa, 1859 (by Puchi Ann)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary: \u00a0T<\/span>he first in a series. \u00a0Even though he’s all grown up, there’s one Christmas tradition Little Joe is reluctant to give up, his annual letter to Santa Claus. \u00a0It’s his way of reflecting on the events of the past year, and this story those center on the episodes of Season 1 of Bonanza.<\/p>\n

Rated: K+ \u00a0WC 2700<\/p>\n

Dear Santa Series<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Dear Santa, 1859
\n<\/a>Dear Santa, 1860
\n<\/a>Dear Santa, 1861<\/a><\/p>\n

Dear Santa, 1859<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ben Cartwright had banked the fire and was headed for bed when the envelope propped in front of Marie\u2019s gold-framed portrait on his desk caught his eye.\u00a0 Smiling softly, he moved toward the alcove where he handled all the Ponderosa business and sat in the comfortably padded green leather chair behind his desk.\u00a0 He reached for the envelope\u00a0 and settled back to enjoy one of his favorite holiday traditions.<\/p>\n

Although the letter was clearly addressed to Santa Claus, Ben knew its contents were intended for him.\u00a0 Oh, there had been a time when Joseph had actually believed in Santa Claus and merely trusted Pa to get the letter to its proper destination, but even after the boy had learned where the presents really came from, he had continued to write that yearly letter to \u201cSanta.\u201d\u00a0 It had become his way of communicating to his father things he found it easier to address to a third, presumably unbiased, person, even if (or perhaps because) that person didn\u2019t actually exist.\u00a0 The letter was late in coming this year, and Ben had almost decided that his youngest considered himself too grown up for the old tradition.\u00a0 He was comforted to find that wasn\u2019t the case.\u00a0 He would have dearly missed it.<\/p>\n

The letter began, as it always did: \u201cDear Santa, I can explain.\u201d\u00a0 At least, his spelling\u2019s improved<\/em>, Ben thought with a smile.\u00a0 The first letter, which he had saved with all the others in a small, carved cedar chest, had read, \u201cDere Santa, I can splane.\u201d\u00a0 Ben chuckled as he recalled all the mistakes and misbehavior his son had felt compelled to \u201csplane\u201d over the years.\u00a0 In earlier days the letters had been filled with confessions of boyish pranks, like filling Adam\u2019s boots with manure or substituting a frog for the sandwiches in Hoss\u2019s lunch pail.\u00a0 As Little Joe had grown older, sometimes the confessions were of more serious misdeeds, and the letter became his way of telling his father how truly sorry he was for the times he had strayed from the Cartwright standard of behavior during the previous year.\u00a0 Some people took that sort of personal reckoning at the turn of the new year, but for Little Joe it had always come in his yearly letter to Santa.<\/p>\n

This year of 1859 had been an eventful one for the Cartwrights and everyone around them.\u00a0 Eager to see how his youngest son felt about everything that had happened, Ben began to read:<\/p>\n

Dear Santa,<\/p>\n

I can explain.<\/p>\n

First off, there\u2019s been a lot going on around here this year, but I guess you know that.\u00a0 No way you could bring gifts to all us good boys (and girls, too) without knowing where we are, right?\u00a0 So you know that you\u2019re gonna be spending a lot more time in my neck of the woods this Christmas Eve, \u2018cause we\u2019ve had us a population explosion.\u00a0 To my way of thinking, that\u2019s a good thing, but it has been a lot to take in, and I think it helps explain some of my\u2014well, let\u2019s just call them not-so-shining moments, okay?<\/p>\n

Up until this year we\u2019ve always been what Pa calls \u201ccountry boys,\u201d maybe getting to the big city, namely San Francisco, once a year, and you know how Pa and those two big brothers of mine always ride herd on me there.\u00a0 Scared to death I\u2019ll get myself shanghaied off the Barbary Coast!\u00a0 Funny thing is, it happened to Pa, not me, but I guess that\u2019s for him to \u2018fess up to you about.\u00a0 He\u2019s been mighty close-mouthed with us boys about the whole business, especially how much Quick-Buck Kate got for him.<\/p>\n

Anyway, try as Pa might to keep us safe from the big city, starting in about June, the big city came to us.\u00a0 They discovered silver over on Sun Mountain, and before you could say \u201cHenry Comstock\u201d the place was covered with tents and dugouts and shaky wood buildings, mostly saloons\u2014and people!\u00a0 All kinds of people, from hard working miners like poor Mr. Harris to problem-makers like Comstock and Mark Burdette to problem-solvers like Philip Deidesheimer and spots of dazzling sunshine like Miss Glory.\u00a0 She was a fine lady, Santa, even if she did have the poor sense to favor brother Adam over me.\u00a0 I\u2019d seriously consider putting coal in his stocking, if I were you, for the way he trifled with her affections, hers and Miss Crabtree\u2019s, too.\u00a0 I guess that\u2019s between you and him, though.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve gone through more than my share of woman trouble this year, Santa, and that\u2019s where I think you got to take all these changes into consideration.\u00a0 I never had much woman trouble before because . . . well, because there just plain weren\u2019t many women around.\u00a0 Don\u2019t see how you can blame me for making a few mistakes\u2014okay, a lot of mistakes\u2014when I\u2019d had next-to-no experience up until June.<\/p>\n

I admit I should have known better than to ask Princess Sara to that dance at Dutch Pete\u2019s, but I was only\u2014well, mostly . . . well, a little bit, anyways\u2014thinking of Adam and wanting to show him there was something prettier than fat washer women in the territory.\u00a0 How was I supposed to know that Saratuche was spoken for by Lean Knife?\u00a0 I only know a few words of Paiute, after all, and she seemed happy to come with me.\u00a0 I did know Winnemucca would have my scalp if he found out, though, so I guess I can\u2019t plead completely innocent on that one.\u00a0 Pa did already educate me real firm on that point, though, so no coal, okay, Santa?<\/p>\n

My feelings for Julia Bulette were different, and I ain\u2019t apologizing for them.\u00a0 I know Pa didn\u2019t think she was right for me, and maybe he had a point, her being so much older and more experienced and all.\u00a0 Maybe she didn\u2019t really love me, but I think she did, maybe not the same way I loved her, but enough to send me away for my own good, and that\u2019s a kind of love, too, don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 I was serious about marrying her, but since I managed to ask three women to marry me in the space of six months, maybe I didn\u2019t really know enough about love to be asking anybody.<\/p>\n

The second one was Amy Bishop.\u00a0 No apologies offered there, either, and I\u2019m sure you\u2019ll agree, none needed.\u00a0 I may have overdone the matrimonial offers this year, but I know Amy and me could have been happy together, if we\u2019d just had a chance.\u00a0 She was taken from me, and I\u2019ll miss her forever.<\/p>\n

Missing her didn\u2019t stop me from asking a third one, though.\u00a0 What was I thinking, Santa?\u00a0 Tirza was beautiful, especially when we were alone in the moonlight, and she made feelings come up inside me that I didn\u2019t know what to do with . . . so I asked her to marry me, so I could take care of those feelings the right way, like I\u2019ve been taught.\u00a0 Trees and fish don\u2019t mate real easy, though, so maybe it\u2019s best she went away.\u00a0 (If you don\u2019t understand that one, Santa, I\u2019ll explain it sometime, but this letter\u2019s getting awful long as it is.)<\/p>\n

While we\u2019re on the subject of women, there\u2019s one little incident you probably don\u2019t know about, Santa, unless Hoss tattled, and he usually don\u2019t.\u00a0 Him and me went on this bull-buying trip to Monterey, and we did come home with the bull, but I almost came home with yet another bride.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t ask this one, I promise!\u00a0 Don Xavier\u2019s daughter Cayetana did the asking; demanding is more like it.\u00a0 She trapped me in a cabin and kissed me and then said I\u2019d compromised her.\u00a0 I swear I didn\u2019t, Santa!\u00a0 She did all the kissing\u2014not that I didn\u2019t enjoy it.\u00a0 I mean, who wouldn\u2019t with a beautiful girl like that?\u00a0 But she was as conniving as she was beautiful.\u00a0 I practically ran for my life for fear of her compromising me into a marriage I wanted no part of, so what does she do but stow away in our wagon?\u00a0 Then she pops out, tells Hoss she\u2019s marrying me and then her fianc\u00e9 shows up and I have to fight a duel, when I dead sure didn\u2019t want the prize.\u00a0 It was enough to make me swear off women . . . at least, until Tirza came along.<\/p>\n

The last bit of woman trouble I had really was a case of inexperience.\u00a0 You know Adah Menken, don\u2019t you, Santa?\u00a0 Well, sure you do, \u2018cause you know everyone.\u00a0 This is kind of embarrassing, Santa, but I sort of threw myself at her\u2014not because I wanted her\u2014oh, no!\u00a0 She\u2019s decades too old for me, closer to Pa\u2019s age.\u00a0 And I thought\u2014well, we all did, me and Adam and Hoss\u2014that she was after our Pa, and her being an actress, we thought we ought to save him from her clutches, so to speak.\u00a0 I know it may sound foolish for us to think our Pa might need protecting, him being so much older and wiser, but sometimes he does, that little shanghaiing incident in San Francisco being just one case in point.<\/p>\n

Anyway, Adam tried first\u2014with Miss Menken, I mean\u2013and when he came out the worse for wear, I took it upon myself to show Pa just what kind of a woman Miss Menken was.\u00a0 It wasn\u2019t Pa got the education, though; it was me, and when she told me why Pa was really sticking so close to her, I felt downright ashamed of myself and the things I\u2019d been thinking about her.\u00a0 She\u2019s a lady, Santa, a real fine lady, so put something extra nice in her stocking this year, okay?\u00a0 Between putting up with that brute Regan and idiots like me and Adam, she\u2019s earned it.<\/p>\n

I been in some more serious trouble this year, too, Santa.\u00a0 In a way it was another woman brought it about, but she\u2019s not to blame.\u00a0 Angels can\u2019t ever be to blame.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know if I\u2019d have taken up with Fred Kyle so quick, though, if he hadn\u2019t had that picture of my angel mother.\u00a0 And taking up with him almost ended up driving my brother Adam away from home.\u00a0 Glad he changed his mind, but it only goes to show that everyone makes mistakes, and if someone as old and smart as Adam can almost make one that big, well, it shouldn\u2019t be any wonder that I make one every once in a great while\u2014oh, all right, once a week!\u00a0 I guess it don\u2019t pay to fudge the truth with Santa, huh?<\/p>\n

It was defending my mother\u2019s memory that led to me killing that bully LeDuque brought here.\u00a0 It was self-defense, of course, but LeDuque was the only witness and me losing control like I did made Pa agree to go with LeDuque, who meant him no good at all, just to spare me.\u00a0 Having that sheriff keep me in jail until he was too far gone to catch was a dirty trick, but don\u2019t hold it against Pa, Santa.\u00a0 I don\u2019t\u2014not now, anyway,–\u2018cause I know he did it out of love.\u00a0 Everything turned out okay in the end, but I still have nightmares about what might have been.\u00a0 If you could live through one of them with me, Santa, I think you\u2019d agree it\u2019s punishment enough . . . although nothing would have been if LeDuque had killed my Pa, like he intended.\u00a0 Pa means the world to me, you know.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s my only explanation for this final confession.\u00a0 Like I said before, some of the new people hereabouts aren\u2019t the right kind.\u00a0 Sam Bryant was one of the worst.\u00a0 He tried to take over Virginia City with the help of thugs like Farmer Perkins.\u00a0 The decent folks finally stood up to Bryant and sentenced the Farmer to hang.\u00a0 Then Bryant kidnapped Pa and threatened to hang him if the law hanged the Farmer.\u00a0 I hate to admit it, Santa, but I wanted to give in and set the Farmer free.\u00a0 My brother Adam stood strong for the law, while I gave him nothing but grief, \u2018cause I felt like he was gambling with my Pa\u2019s life, and Pa\u2019s . . . well, everything, just everything, to me . . . too high a price to pay.\u00a0 Adam was right, though; Bryant turned Pa loose, rather than risk the noose himself.\u00a0 I ain\u2019t been able to bring myself to tell Pa that we brothers didn\u2019t stand together on this; I just felt too ashamed to tell him . . . or even you, Santa, which is why this letter is so late this year.<\/p>\n

There won\u2019t be any hints for what I want for Christmas this year, either.\u00a0 It\u2019s too late for you to do much about them; besides, I\u2019ve got all I want or need.\u00a0 Adam stayed with us, despite the bickering we did over Kyle and the likelihood of war between North and South, and Pa\u2019s alive and with us this Christmas.\u00a0 How could I ask for more?<\/p>\n

Nothing for myself, but maybe I do have one request, after all.\u00a0 What I said before about putting coal in ole Adam\u2019s stocking . . . maybe you should just forget about that.\u00a0 Looking back over what I\u2019ve put him through and especially for him keeping his head and saving Pa from Bryant, even when he had to go against me and Hoss to do it, maybe you ought to give him something extra nice, instead.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s all from me this year, Santa.\u00a0 Hope this explanation puts you in the right frame of mind when you fill my stocking.\u00a0 I\u2019d sure favor sugarplums over lumps of coal.<\/p>\n

Yours sincerely,<\/p>\n

Little Joe Cartwright<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Holding the letter in the hand that dropped toward the floor, Ben leaned thoughtfully back in his chair as he considered the insight he\u2019d just gained.\u00a0 Oh, it hadn\u2019t all come as a surprise, though all that went on during that trip to California certainly had!.\u00a0 Hoss was as loyal as the day was long, and Joe had correctly discerned that his big brother wouldn\u2019t reveal his antics with Cayetana\u2014a duel, no less!\u00a0 However, Hoss had carried guilt of his own about the Sam Bryant business, but he\u2019d come directly to his father and found comfort for his supposed failure.\u00a0 Adam had done the same, confessing his own doubts and fears concerning the decision he had made, even though it had proven to be the right one. \u00a0Little Joe, as was all too typical of him, had carried the burden, unexpressed, all these month.\u00a0 I should have spoken to him sooner<\/em>, Ben chided himself, but it hadn\u2019t been a easy subject to broach.\u00a0 Now, though, when it was clear that his boy was still suffering, he had to do it, and\u00a0 the perfect means was available to him.<\/p>\n

The hour was late, but this couldn\u2019t wait.\u00a0 Ben took out pen and paper and began to write, as he did each year, a response to his son\u2019s letter to \u201cSanta.\u201d\u00a0 In the guise of jolly St. Nick, he poured out love and compassion, assuring Joseph that \u201cSanta\u201d understood the foibles of a young man meeting so many challenges for the first time.\u00a0 \u201cAll is forgiven,\u201d the letter concluded, \u201cand you can expect plenty of sugarplums in your stocking this year.\u201d\u00a0 Wanting to end the letter on a lighter note, in keeping with the season, he added one final admonition.\u00a0 With a twitch of his lips and a twinkle in his eye, Ben wrote, \u201cConsidering your propensity to propose marriage over the last six months, however, do not even consider pleading inexperience next year, young man!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0The End<\/p>\n

\u00a9 December, 2007<\/p>\n

Next Story in the Dear Santa Series<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Dear Santa, 1860
\n<\/a>Dear Santa, 1861<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary: \u00a0The first in a series. \u00a0Even though he’s all grown up, there’s one Christmas tradition Little Joe is reluctant to give up, his annual letter to Santa Claus. \u00a0It’s his way of reflecting on the events of the past year, and this story those center on the episodes of Season 1 of Bonanza.<\/p>\n

Rated: K+ \u00a0WC 2700<\/p>\n

Dear Santa Series, links to all the stories within the series included.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":5062,"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":[1015,23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-pa","category-drama","wpcat-1015-id","wpcat-23-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\/DearSanta2.jpg?fit=248%2C203&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5061\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5062"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}