Disclaimer: I don’t own the Cartwrights or Bonanza. No copyright infringement is intended. Original plot and characters are property of the author. This story is for entertainment and no money was made from it.<\/span><\/p>\n Reviews from the Old Library are on the last page.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Passing Time and Popping Corn<\/strong><\/p>\n The boys had had a long day of fixing fences and decided to camp out by the lake rather than make the long trip back home only to have to haul their weary bodies back to the east pasture the next morning. Adam was tugging on a boot, desperately hoping to free his swollen foot. He\u2019d been filling his canteen from the barrel of water on the back of the wagon when Joe decided to move the darned thing up to the next section of fence. The wheel went over his foot but fortunately didn\u2019t linger there; however, he\u2019d had to limp around the rest of the day.<\/p>\n \u201cYou need help?\u201d asked Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cI can get it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHow about I just try? It\u2019s the least I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe least you can do is to stay over there and let me get my boot off.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss didn\u2019t want to listen to any more bickering from his brothers, so he strode on over to Adam and grabbed his foot by the ankle. Adam grimaced at the strength of his brother\u2019s grip and was about to shout out a sharp rebuke when his boot came off after a swift tug that sent Hoss sprawling face-first into the dirt; Adam was flung backwards, hitting the ground with a thud. Adam\u2019s grunt of pain was followed by a sigh of relief. The boot was tossed at Adam as the largest Cartwright headed back to his blanket by the fire.<\/p>\n Adam wiggled his toes experimentally to make sure they still worked after removing the sock. \u201cHow\u2019s it look?\u201d asked Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cNot too bad, considering.\u201d He had expected it to be black and blue but it looked to be a little red in the fire\u2019s glow. Propping his ankle on a small log, he wearily laid back with his head on his saddle.<\/p>\n \u201cHow about a game of cards?\u201d asked Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you ever get tired?\u201d asked Adam. \u201cHow can you bound around with so much energy?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYouth is on my side, Brother,\u201d replied Joe with a giggle. \u201cHow about you, Hoss?\u00a0You wanna play?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI dunno. You always seem to end up with a winning hand.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t cheat!”<\/p>\n \u201cJust at checkers,\u201d said Adam with a snort.<\/p>\n \u201cHey! I\u2019m just very good at planning my strategy is all.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIs that what you call it?\u201d asked Adam.<\/p>\n \u201cI oughta come over there\u2026\u201d warned Joe.<\/p>\n \u201cBoth of ya just simmer down,\u201d ordered Hoss.<\/p>\n \u201cDo you wanna play or not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNah. \u2018Sides, you\u2019ll wanna use chores to bet with an\u2019 I ain\u2019t takin\u2019 all your turns for carryin\u2019 chamber pots down the stairs every mornin\u2019 for a month again.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe giggled at that and Adam couldn\u2019t help but let loose a giggle of his own. Poor Hoss had walked into that bet last winter when Joe wanted to play pinochle while passing time at one of the line shacks. The hands had had enough sense to find other tasks to busy themselves with when Joe got a certain look in his eye at the sight of a deck of cards, but Hoss still didn\u2019t seem to realize how devious Joe could be when it came to passing on certain chores. Adam often wondered if Hoss had been twisted around their little brother\u2019s finger for so long that he couldn\u2019t see Joe\u2019s devilish side or if Hoss lived under a canopy of eternal optimism, thinking that this time his luck would be different. How ironic that Joe liked to put chores in the pot when playing cards with Hoss and that he almost always managed to win, except for that one time that he was stuck with mucking the stalls for three months after his bigger brother was dealt a royal flush during a poker game. Even more ironic was that Joe was the dealer during that game.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wanna play cards or not?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNot tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n Joe shrugged and began shuffling the cards anyway. He thought he\u2019d just play solitaire for a while.<\/p>\n Adam tried to read by the fire\u2019s light but realized he\u2019d scanned the same paragraph six times in a row without successfully reading it. Closing the book, he decided to look at the stars and marvel at the intricate patterns formed in the inky blackness. Looking at the night sky, seeing constellations and watching for shooting stars, always brought back fond memories of being a small boy on the prairie with Pa. His grandfather, the Captain, and Pa had had to navigate by the stars at night, so the boy learned from a young age which stars were important for finding one\u2019s direction and which constellations appeared in the night sky in which season. Seeing Orion\u2019s belt, he traced the pattern to the hare that was eternally hunted and his stomach growled. The stew they\u2019d eaten several hours earlier hadn\u2019t left his stomach feeling satisfied and now it was calling for some more food. Adam reached into his saddlebag and pulled out a piece of jerky, hoping that would stop the rumbling. He marveled at the beauty of the Milky Way as he gnawed on the tough piece of beef.<\/p>\n \u201cI got an idea,\u201d announced Hoss.<\/p>\n \u201cYou wanna play cards after all?\u201d asked Joe with a great deal of hope in his voice.<\/p>\n \u201cNah. How about some popcorn?\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s stomach perked up at that; hot popcorn would taste good on this chilly night. \u201cYou have some?\u201d he asked eagerly.<\/p>\n \u201cYup. Hop Sing put a bunch a kernels in a pouch for me and I\u2019ve got \u2018em tucked in tight in my saddle bag.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhat are you waiting for?\u201d asked Adam.<\/p>\n \u201cHow \u2018bout you, Little Brother? You want some?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re gonna make it anyway, sure. I\u2019ll get the pot.\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss happily rummaged through his saddlebag for the pouch and the salt. He enjoyed hearing the ricochets of the kernels in the pot as they burst as well as the taste of the hot corn when it was finished.<\/p>\n Joe set the pot over the fire and Hoss added a small bit of bear fat to the bottom of the cast iron vessel; then he poured the pouch\u2019s contents in. He watched the pot with great expectations, just waiting for the sound of the first explosion as a cue to begin shaking it up so all the kernels would pop. After several minutes, he was gratified to hear a loud POP and he reached for his bandana to protect his hands from the heat of the pot.<\/p>\n The smell of the popping corn caused Adam\u2019s stomach to rumble loudly; he placed a hand on his belly as he sat up and got his plate from his saddle bag. He knew his brothers would happily share from the pot but he wanted his own pile to savor.<\/p>\n Hoss shook the pot vigorously as the non-stop explosion of corn rang out into the night. He knew he had to time the noise carefully so the corn wouldn\u2019t burn. The smell of the popping corn soon had their mouths watering and stomachs growling in anticipation.<\/p>\n A log in the fire suddenly popped, sending a shower of sparks up into the air. Hoss dropped the pot directly into the fire as his bandana burst into flames. The lid fell from the pot and corn began to shoot into the small camp, seemingly from every possible direction.<\/p>\n Adam had leapt from his blanket when a spark caught a corner of the woolen fabric and it began to burn. He was stomping around on the blanket when his nose caught a terrible smell. Turning quickly, he feared he\u2019d see one of his brothers on fire but was quickly assailed by popping corn. He limped from the fire\u2019s light and bumped into something solid, falling smack down on his backside.<\/p>\n \u201cThat you, Adam?\u201d asked a brotherly voice.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat happened?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDadburned fire is what happened. Now we ain\u2019t go no dadblamed popcorn. Dadburnit!\u201d<\/p>\n Not seeing Joe, Adam called for him. He must have scrambled in the other direction.<\/p>\n \u201cOver here!\u201d he called out.<\/p>\n The fire finally died down and they returned to the camp and its stench of burned corn. Joe flopped down and yelled out, \u201cMy cards!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey burned up?\u201d asked Hoss.<\/p>\n \u201cAll but one,\u201d he said dejectedly, holding up a deuce of hearts.<\/p>\n Adam reached for his half-gnawed piece of jerky despite his stomach\u2019s protests. \u201cGuess we\u2019d just better get some rest after all this excitement.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou and you\u2019re stomach,\u201d grumbled Joe to no one in particular even though Hoss realized the comment was directed at him.<\/p>\n \u201cWell dadburnit! You were certainly eager to eat some a that, too!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t start, you two!\u201d warned Adam. He didn\u2019t want to listen to them bicker about it when they\u2019d have a long day tomorrow.<\/p>\n Hoss found some stray pieces of fluffy corn near his blanket and plucked them from the ground. He didn\u2019t think they could be too dirty since they\u2019d been sitting on top of the dirt so he quickly popped them into his mouth, savoring the taste.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019re worse than a rootin\u2019 bear,\u201d said Joe after seeing what his brother had done.<\/p>\n \u201cWasn\u2019t nothin\u2019 wrong with those.\u201d<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s snores caught Hoss\u2019 ears and he looked over at his older brother\u2014he\u2019d fallen asleep with that half-chewed piece of jerky gripped in his fingers. Hoss gently pried the jerky from his brother\u2019s hand and placed it back in the saddle bag; then he gently placed his ankle on a small log to hopefully keep the foot\u2019s swelling down. Finally, he covered him with the spare blanket to keep the chill off.<\/p>\n Joe had already curled up in his blankets so Hoss was left alone with his thoughts. He picked up Adam\u2019s book and lay down near the fire to read for a while. Since he wasn\u2019t sleepy after all that excitement, he didn\u2019t want stare at the night sky in hopes that he\u2019d fall into a slumber. After reading the same three sentences close to ten times, Hoss\u2019 eyes shut and he fell into Morpheus\u2019 arms.<\/p>\n The End <\/p>\n
\nOctober 2008<\/p>\n![\"star\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bonanzabrand.info\/efiction\/images\/star.gif?ssl=1\")
\nDate:\u00a0<\/span>03 Nov 2013 06:57 pm\u00a0Title:\u00a0<\/span>Passing Time and Popping CornI can hear Adam’s belly.<\/p>\n