{"id":7055,"date":"2010-09-06T22:04:54","date_gmt":"2010-09-07T02:04:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=7055"},"modified":"2026-07-30T15:33:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T19:33:31","slug":"pride-of-a-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/?p=7055","title":{"rendered":"Pride of a Woman (by Cheaux)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 <\/strong>A WHN for Pride of a Man.\u00a0\u00a0 Joe has one more lesson to teach.<\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0 T — \u00a0 WC \u00a01000<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Disclaimer:\u00a0All publicly recognizable characters and settings are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. No money is being made from this work. No copyright infringement is intended.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pride of a Woman<\/strong><\/p>\n

Abby Pettigrew sat with one elbow on the table, chin resting in her upturned palm.\u00a0 With the other hand she absent-mindedly stirred her tea, as oblivious to the sound the spoon made in the cup as she was to her luncheon companion slipping quietly into place unnoticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeginning to think I\u2019d never get here?\u201d Joe Cartwright asked after Abby failed to acknowledge his arrival.<\/p>\n

Abby looked up startled, \u201cWhat?\u00a0\u00a0 Oh . . . no.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry.\u00a0 My mind is a thousand miles away.\u201d<\/p>\n

A frown crossed Joe\u2019s brow.\u00a0 \u201cTrouble?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMay I bring you a beverage, sir?\u201d the waitress interrupted.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoffee, black.\u00a0 Abby, do you want more tea?\u201d\u00a0 When there was no response, Joe shrugged his shoulders and crossed his eyes at the waitress.<\/p>\n

She giggled and said, \u201cI\u2019ll bring more hot water, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you,\u201d Joe said, admiring the view as the waitress retreated into the kitchen. \u00a0When he turned back to Abby, she was staring at him intently.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d he asked, innocently.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s not your type,\u201d Abby said.\u00a0 Although Joe and Abby had courted for a time, the romance eventually cooled.\u00a0 The break up was amicable and they had remained friends, but if truth be told, Abby still cared for Joe.\u00a0 Though it pained her to see him\u2014even casually\u2014admire other women, the fear of losing him altogether was worse than enduring a pang or two of jealousy now and then.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a type?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are incorrigible!\u201d Abby threw her napkin at him and laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s my girl,\u201d Joe smiled.\u00a0 \u201cNow, tell me what\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m what\u2019s wrong!\u201d Abby sobered instantly as tears came to her eyes.\u00a0 \u201cSchool starts tomorrow and I don\u2019t belong there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be serious!\u00a0 Your students love you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I can\u2019t reach them like you can. \u00a0You\u2019re the born teacher, Joe. \u00a0You accomplished more when you substituted for me last spring than I had all year.\u00a0 You taught Willie and Billie McNab to read, you made Mary, Kathy, Tommy\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0.\u00a0all the students eager to learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe remembered those weeks with a grimace.\u00a0 He had been forced into substituting when Abby had fallen off Cochise and sprained her ankle.\u00a0 Everything that could go wrong did:\u00a0 pranks, girls who made cow-eyes at him, and fights\u2014including his own fight with a parent!\u00a0 Why was his recollection so vastly different than Abby\u2019s?<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re their teacher.\u00a0 They took what they had already learned from you and put together the program on Gettysburg.\u00a0 All I did was guide their efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s a gift I don\u2019t have.\u00a0 You made the subject special, not just another lesson.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have that gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t believe that for a minute,\u201d Joe said, putting his hand over hers.\u00a0 \u201cWhat\u2019s really going on here?\u201d<\/p>\n

Abby withdrew her hand and dabbed her eyes with her handkerchief.\u00a0 \u201cMy contract is up for renewal.\u00a0 The District Superintendent is coming to observe me in the classroom next week.\u00a0 I know I\u2019m going to lose my job,\u201d she sobbed.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, Abby,\u201d Joe got up from the table and moved his chair next to hers, putting his arm around her shoulder and giving her a squeeze.\u00a0 It was irrelevant what he thought.\u00a0 What mattered was what Abby believed. \u00a0How many times have I argued with Pa that I needed to prove myself to myself and not to anyone else.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>He had to find a way to help her see her own worth as a teacher.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdam always said that teaching\u2014or learning for that matter\u2014was like fishing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d Abby asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cYa gotta find the right bait!\u00a0 What\u2019s the subject that week?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Constitution,\u201d Abby sighed.\u00a0 \u201cConstitution Day is September 17.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe made a face.\u00a0 Political recitations and rhetoric in Miss Abigail Jones\u2019 classroom nearly drove him to an early grave.\u00a0 \u201cOK.\u00a0 Let\u2019s start with a clean slate.\u00a0 We need a hook and we need bait.\u00a0 Tell me everything you know about the Constitution.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joe paid the check, leaving a nice tip and wink for the waitress, and then he and Abby strolled up and down B Street while she spewed facts and figures about the signing of the Constitution.\u00a0 Every time Abby recited a fact, Joe asked \u201cwhy\u201d and \u201cwhat if\u201d and \u201cwhy not\u201d until Abby stopped short with her hands on her hips.<\/p>\n

\u201cJoseph Francis Cartwright!\u201d she yelled, stamping her foot.\u00a0 \u201cYou are absolutely infuriating.\u00a0 You haven\u2019t paid a bit of attention to anything I\u2019ve said.\u00a0 You are absolutely worse than any student I\u2019ve ever had in my classroom!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care about facts and figures.\u00a0 I want to know why.\u00a0 Why does it matter that we have a constitution?\u00a0 What would happen if we didn\u2019t?\u00a0 What would it mean to me personally?\u00a0 To my family?\u00a0 Why should I care?\u201d Joe said, raising his voice to match hers.<\/p>\n

Abby just stared at him.\u00a0 They were standing in front of Piper\u2019s Opera House when a gust of wind wrapped a paper around Joe\u2019s leg.\u00a0 Reaching down, he saw it was the editorial page from The Territorial Enterprise commenting on the lawlessness and chaos in Gold Flats, a nearby mining town that had sprung up overnight and grew too fast.\u00a0 Without the rule of law, murder and mayhem ensued destroying much of the town.<\/p>\n

Joe\u2019s green eyes lit up and he grinned from ear to ear.\u00a0 \u201cWhat do you have when you don\u2019t have laws?\u201d he said, handing her the paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnarchy,\u201d Abby whispered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMake it real; reel them in,\u201d Joe answered.\u00a0 \u201cBait and hook.\u201d<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

Ben Cartwright stood up from the table and tapped a glass with his knife to get everyone\u2019s attention.\u00a0 \u201cFriends and guests, please raise your glasses in a toast to Miss Abby Pettigrew, the new head mistress of the soon-to-be-built Fourth Ward School!\u00a0 Abby, all of Virginia City is proud of you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you, Mr. Cartwright.\u00a0 Thank you to everyone for your support.\u00a0 And thank you most of all to Joe, who believed in me long before I believed in myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014The End\u2014<\/p>\n

September 2010<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Summary:\u00a0 A WHN for Pride of a Man.\u00a0\u00a0 Joe has one more lesson to teach. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Rated:\u00a0 T — \u00a0 WC \u00a01000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":4530,"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":[1007,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-joe-cartwright","category-whn","wpcat-1007-id","wpcat-13-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\/Quality-of-Mercy-14.jpg?fit=649%2C542&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7055","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\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bonanzabrand.info\/library\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}