Summary:\u00a0 Preparations abound for Christmas on the Ponderosa
\nRating:\u00a0 G\u00a0 (2,630 words)<\/p>\n
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Preparations for the grand Christmas dinner were made.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t going to happen.<\/p>\n
Hop Sing had been at work for weeks \u2013 well,\u00a0months\u00a0<\/em>really to make sure the larder was well supplied for Christmas Day.\u00a0 Ben couldn\u2019t count the times he\u2019d walked into the kitchen and found the Asian man mumbling to himself as he opened bags and boxes, checking their contents and then making notes as he discovered unexpected needs \u2013 and Heaven help the man who interrupted him!\u00a0 The rancher chuckled.\u00a0 He knew his cook had to plan ahead and understood that his meticulous preparations entailed numerous trips to town. \u00a0He\u2019d made the last one only the morning before.\u00a0 Upon his return the Asian man started shouting orders, instructing the ranch\u2019s hands to unload the wagon \u2018chop-chop!\u2019.\u00a0 \u2018Sky look most foreboding\u2019, he said with a shake of his head.\u00a0 \u201cLung Long<\/em>\u00a0most unhappy.\u201d\u00a0 Ben didn\u2019t know about the mythical dragon the Chinese believed controlled the weather, but he\u00a0did<\/em>\u00a0know the skies of Nevada.\u00a0 He\u2019d seen signs the day before though they were hard to read.\u00a0 They could have meant anything from a heavy snowfall to a winter storm that would rage\u00a0with<\/em>\u00a0the ferocity of Lung Long.<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Hop Sing\u2019s dragon proved right.<\/p>\n The head of the Cartwright clan crossed to the window in the dining room, pulled aside the curtain, and looked out on a world gone white. He loved snow, though not as much as his youngest son or the boy\u2019s mother had, and certainly not with the same enthusiasm for the cold! \u00a0He loved the peace and craved the silence it brought.\u00a0 A winter storm stopped everything, closing the mountain passes and burying roads; wrapping a silent blanket around man, beast, and abode.\u00a0 He\u2019d treasured those times when his boys were small \u2013 when \u2018Papa\u2019 couldn\u2019t do his work and so his work became their play.\u00a0 Then the snow would end and a man\u2019s ceaseless efforts to assert his dominance over the land must begin anew.\u00a0 He could still see his young sons\u2019 faces turned up; their bright eyes begging him to remain home just\u00a0one<\/em>\u00a0more day.\u00a0 Why hadn\u2019t he, he wondered?\u00a0 Ben chuckled.\u00a0 Because he\u2019d been young and foolish; full of ambition and a need to prove himself.\u00a0 He was old now \u2013 older than he cared to admit.\u00a0 As the Good Book said in Psalm 90, \u2018The days of our years are threescore years and ten.\u2019\u00a0 God had been gracious to him.\u00a0 He was almost there.\u00a0 Sadly, far too many he loved had been lost\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0too short of that goal.<\/p>\n Elizabeth.\u00a0 Inger.\u00a0 Marie.<\/p>\n Hoss.<\/p>\n And perhaps Adam.<\/p>\n Even Jamie was away with friends.<\/p>\n If it wasn\u2019t for Joe, he\u2019d be alone this Christmas Day.\u00a0 Ben\u2019s gaze returned to the frosty window.<\/p>\n Joe who was out there\u2026somewhere\u2026in all that white.<\/p>\n His son was old enough now that he shouldn’t worry, but old habits die hard and the boy was prone to sail close to the wind whether he liked it or not.\u00a0 Beaten, thrown by he didn\u2019t know\u00a0how<\/em>\u00a0many horses into how\u00a0many<\/em>\u00a0fences, kidnapped \u2013 shot. Adam had confided one day that the ranch hands had a pool going with high odds that the boy wouldn\u2019t make it to eighteen!\u00a0 Joseph was over thirty now.\u00a0 He\u2019d left childish ways behind, growing into a steady, reliable man.\u00a0 The proud father smiled.<\/p>\n Well, mostly.<\/p>\n Ben turned away from the window to look at the dining room table, laden as it was with their finest dishes and glassware; properly prepared for the grand Christmas dinner they would share with friends the following day.\u00a0 The table was set for a dozen, though it was doubtful in this weather that most would make it.\u00a0 In all likelihood it would be him, Joe, Hop Sing, and perhaps a few of the ranch\u2019s older hands \u2013 a far cry from the Ponderosa\u2019s Halcyon days when the house was full and rang with song and laughter. \u00a0He could still see the children \u2013 dozens of them at times \u2013 who came from local orphanages and their humble homes to enjoy \u2013 perhaps \u2013 the only carefree Christmas they had ever known.<\/p>\n Owning half of Nevada had to be good for something.<\/p>\n Didn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n Ben left the dining room with its ominous window and moved into the great room.\u00a0 His gaze traveled slowly from his well-worn chair to the great hearth, to the blue chair Adam loved, and finally to his third wife\u2019s elegant settee. \u00a0The older man let out a sigh as he took a seat on it.\u00a0 There were so many ghosts in the house this Christmas eve. \u00a0Elizabeth was there standing in front of the mirror, beaming at her reflection and admiring the new bonnet he had bought her to celebrate their first Christmas together.\u00a0 Inger was there too.\u00a0 His second wife was wearing the pair of kid gloves he\u2019d purchased for her so her hands wouldn\u2019t grow cold and chafed on the long trail to California.<\/p>\n And then there was Marie \u2013 beautiful\u00a0fiery<\/em>\u00a0Marie.\u00a0 He could see her most clearly standing at the top of the stair, her exquisite form sheathed in red satin; its d\u00e9colletage glinting with the jewels he had placed around her neck before coming down himself.\u00a0 Hoss, of course, was\u00a0ever<\/em>\u00a0with him and with his brother.\u00a0 They felt the big man\u2019s presence each and every time they entered the house.\u00a0 Hoss was still here, watching over them.<\/p>\n Ben glanced at the window, which was quickly becoming obscured with snow.<\/p>\n He prayed God Hoss was watching over his little brother tonight.<\/p>\n \u201cMistah Ben need anything before Hop Sing turn in?\u201d a soft voice asked.<\/p>\n Ben jumped and let out a sigh.\u00a0 How unkind to forget the old friend who had stood by him through thick and thin and was still with him now.<\/p>\n \u201cA word, Hop Sing.\u00a0 I just need\u2026a word.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou still not hear from Mistah Little Joe?\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cHe come.\u00a0 Boy not let father be alone on Christmas Day.\u201d<\/p>\n Boy.<\/p>\n Ben chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cJoe\u2019s a grown man now, hard as it is for either of us to accept.\u201d<\/p>\n The Asian man shook his head. \u201cNever grow up.\u00a0 Always be Mistah\u00a0Little<\/em>\u00a0Joe to Hop Sing.\u201d<\/p>\n Little Joe.\u00a0 He hadn\u2019t heard that in a while.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see!\u00a0 Boy be home by midnight.\u00a0\u00a0Mazu<\/em>\u00a0will see that it happens.\u201d<\/p>\n It was funny how Hop Sing \u2013 a self-proclaimed \u2018good Baptist\u2019 \u2013 clung to the beliefs of his childhood.\u00a0 First Lung Long and now Mazu, the goddess who guided men home.\u00a0 There were temples dedicated to her by emigrants who had safely reached the shores of the United States.<\/p>\n \u201cI hope you\u2019re right,\u201d Ben replied.<\/p>\n \u201cOld man learn nothing in all his years?\u201d\u00a0 The Asian man made a tsking sound.\u00a0 \u201cHop Sing\u00a0always<\/em>\u00a0right!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The hours trickled by excruciatingly slow like sand in an hourglass one stared at.\u00a0 Hop Sing had come in at nine.\u00a0 The clock had just struck half past eleven and found Ben pacing like a caged puma.\u00a0 He couldn\u2019t let go of his worry.<\/p>\n There was no hope that he could sleep.<\/p>\n Outside the snow continued to come in wave after white wave.\u00a0 It was higher now than the sill and encroaching on the window\u2019s meeting rails.\u00a0 The wind howled like an Irish banshee, rattling the panes as well as his nerves.\u00a0 He\u2019d gone upstairs to make sure everything was secure and even taken a turn around the barn.\u00a0 Every path led him back to the great room and his chair.\u00a0 His Bible lay on it, its cover cracked and faded as the leather seat it rested upon.\u00a0 So far the binding had held, but nearly fifty years of constant use had left the spine cracked and the edges of its pages worn thin.\u00a0 Ben chuckled.\u00a0 There were so many marks and comments in the margins one could have used them to write a second book!<\/p>\n It had been with him as long as his sons.<\/p>\n While he had given Elizabeth a trifle to make her smile that first Christmas, his steady, thoughtful and \u2013 if the truth were known \u2013\u00a0insightful<\/em>\u00a0New England bride had gifted him a handsome leather-bound Bible produced by Isaiah Thomas, a renowned Patriot and printer based in Worcester, Massachusetts. \u00a0It had a high quality binding and nearly fifty copperplates.\u00a0 At first he had been reluctant to use it as he was sure the cost had been dear.\u00a0 When he expressed this concern, Elizabeth replied that the cost of what Christ had done for men was\u00a0far<\/em>\u00a0dearer and she had better see it falling apart by his old age!<\/p>\n Ben picked up the precious tome.\u00a0 Elizabeth\u2019s Bible was still intact.<\/p>\n Himself?<\/p>\n Perhaps not so much.<\/p>\n Bible in hand, the rancher dropped heavily into his chair.\u00a0 After settling in, he found the well-worn path his fingers had formed over four decades and turned to the second chapter of Luke. \u00a0It was a family tradition to read the Gospel story on Christmas Eve and he was not a man to break with tradition \u2013 even if it meant reading it to himself!\u00a0 Ben began silently but then read aloud, the sound of his own voice comforting, though he wasn\u2019t sure why.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it came to pass in those days,\u201d the old tale began, \u201cthat there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed \u2013 and this taxing was first made when Cyrenius was governor of Syria. And all went to be taxed, every one into his own city.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben lifted his gaze and turned toward the dining room window to look out on the land the Lord had given him. \u00a0This was his \u2018city\u2019, the one he had chosen; God\u2019s beautiful, bountiful wild world of the West. \u00a0He\u2019d brought two small sons here to make a home for them and remained in that home as the third was born.\u00a0 Could he have made a different choice? \u00a0Should<\/em>\u00a0he have? Would a safer \u2018city\u2019 have been wise, one where snow could be appreciated as it fell on paved streets and not feared as it obliterated both roads and men?<\/p>\n Ben\u2019s gaze returned to the pages of the Bible and he began to read again. \u201cAnd Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judaea, unto the city of David, which is called Bethlehem \u2013 because he was of the house and lineage of David \u2013 to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child. And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.\u201d<\/p>\n The rancher remembered each of the days when his sons had been delivered.\u00a0 He remembered them with joy but also acknowledged the pain that accompanied a child\u2019s arrival in the world.\u00a0 That first breath was the beginning of a long road paved in equal measure with joy, sorrow, and uncertainty.\u00a0 While God\u2019s \u2018road\u2019 was not uncertain, as a father He most assuredly had experienced the same mix of delight and dismay when His Son was born knowing that when Jesus\u2019 days were \u2018accomplished\u2019, His beloved child would be hated, mocked and scorned.<\/p>\n And put to death.<\/p>\n Did Mary know, he wondered, as \u2018she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn\u2019, just what it\u00a0was<\/em>\u00a0that had entered the world?<\/p>\n Ben paused with his hand on the open pages.\u00a0 Then he placed his fingers in another well-worn groove and opened to a later book. One written by a man named John.<\/p>\n The familiar words were half-read and half-spoken to the silence of the night.\u00a0 \u201cFor God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.\u201d\u00a0 Ben closed the book and moved his hand to its well-worn cover.\u00a0 \u201cFor God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.\u201d<\/p>\n His eyes closed as he began to pray.<\/p>\n \u201cLord\u2026Father, I thank you for the blessings of this day.\u00a0 I thank you as well for the gift of your Son, who by His birth in a humble stable and death on a cross, paved the way for my sons and I to have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 The worried father\u2019s voice cracked.\u00a0 \u201cLord, I ask that you make a way for my son now.\u00a0 Bring Joe home.\u00a0 But\u2026if that is not your will\u2026give me the strength to go on.<\/p>\n \u201cThy will be done.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben rose.\u00a0 He placed the Bible on the seat, banked what was left of the fire, and turned toward the stairs.\u00a0 Visions of past Christmases visited him again as he arrived \u2013 three boys, chattering and making entirely too much noise, running down the stairs to find what awaited them under the tree. \u00a0Marie followed, her arms laden with greens to be hung.\u00a0 Behind her there was a man he recognized as himself \u2013 happy, smiling.<\/p>\n Content.<\/p>\n He\u2019d been blessed more than most.\u00a0 Three beautiful wives.\u00a0 Three sons who loved each other fiercely.\u00a0 He loved them\u00a0all<\/em>\u00a0more than his own life, and if the time they had been granted to share had been all too brief by his estimation, still each hour had been golden and glorious and a treasure many had never known.<\/p>\n It was time to go to bed, to let go of fear and trust as he had so many times before that His Heavenly Father and not he \u2013 Ben Cartwright \u2013 knew best.<\/p>\n The rancher felt a chill as his hand gripped the newel post and the clock by the door struck midnight.<\/p>\n \u201cMerry Christmas, Pa.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben stiffened.\u00a0 Was this\u00a0another\u00a0<\/em>ghost; come fresh from the blizzard outside?<\/p>\n Or was it an answer to prayer?<\/p>\n Joe smiled sheepishly as he closed the door, cutting off the winter chill that had accompanied his entrance.\u00a0 He removed his hat and coat and shook a small mountain of snow from them before hanging both on a peg by the door.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m sorry I\u2019m so late,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cI was about halfway home when I came across a woman with three kids whose wagon had broken down.\u00a0 It was snowing, but not this bad, so I escorted them home instead of letting them go alone.\u00a0 I thought they might need help along the way.\u00a0 The lady \u2013 Mary \u2013 well, she had to thank me, of course, and I wasn\u2019t going to turn down a home-cooked meal\u2026. \u00a0By the time I started for home the snow was coming down so hard I could barely see. It got pretty rough a couple of times.\u00a0 Once, I wasn\u2019t sure I was gonna\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 His son glanced at the window; the one in the dining room that was now almost entirely obscured.\u00a0 Joe winced as he turned back. \u201cI didn\u2019t make you worry\u2026did I?\u00a0 I mean, you know I wouldn\u2019t miss Hop Sing\u2019s grand Christmas dinner, right?\u201d<\/p>\n He wanted to run to his son and take him in his arms and never let him go.<\/p>\n He imagined God felt like that too on that dark day.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I didn\u2019t worry,\u201d Ben remarked as he walked to his son\u2019s side.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re a grown man.\u00a0 What is there to worry about?\u201d\u00a0 He met Joe\u2019s gaze.\u00a0 \u201cPermission?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n Joe frowned.\u00a0 \u201cPermission to\u2026?\u201d\u00a0 The boy chuckled.\u00a0 \u201cOh, that.\u00a0 Well, I suppose if you\u00a0have\u00a0<\/em>to\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n In the end,\u00a0he<\/em>\u00a0didn\u2019t have to do it.\u00a0 Joseph opened his arms and threw them around him in a tight embrace. They stood there for some time, both aware of the miracle that had occurred but saying nothing.<\/p>\n In the end, it was a grand Christmas indeed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Prompt: Preparations for the grand Christmas dinner (were made).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n