THE PONDEROSA IMP
By: Lynne G.
Five year old Little Joe Cartwright had been sent to his room for the afternoon as punishment. The child who was bored with having to stay in the house because of the rainy day, had been getting into all kinds of mischief since breakfast.
He had snuck into the kitchen and took one of Hop Sing's pans. With pan in hand, the little green eyed mischief maker headed straight for the fireplace. Luckily there wasn't a fire in there at the time. The busy little boy began to scoop soot from the cold fireplace with the pan. When the pan was almost full, he dumped the soot on the floor. He made several trips to the fireplace with the pan. Soon he had all the soot he needed, so he sat down on the floor and started to play.
One of the first things he made was a mountain-a soot mountain. Then he spread out some soot in a line and made some roads through the soot.
He went over to his toy box and got out his soldiers, indians, horses, fences, a barn, a house, and several small buildings.
He made a small town, a ranch, and a corral. Then he set up the soldiers and indians. He set up an indian attack on the ranch and town. He had the soldiers going after the indians. Some of the indians had been captured.
He was so busy playing that he didn't hear his father or his older brothers come through the front door for lunch. All three of then just stood there and stared at the sight in front of them.
" JOSEPH FRANCIS CARTWRIGHT, yelled Ben when he saw the BIG MESS all over the floor. " WHAT HAVE YOU DONE IN HERE?" " Hi Papa, I's been payin' " said the soot covered little boy with the big bright green eyes.
Adam and Hoss started to laugh out loud at the sight of their soot covered baby brother. " Will you two STOP laughing at him. This isn't a laughing matter" yelled Ben.
" What all yelling bout? Why room BIG MESS ? My pan all dirty. Little boy vedy bad boy. " said Hop Sing as he looked around the livingrom that had been clean only a few hours ago. Then he started to mumble something in Chinese as he picked up the pan, which made the dirty little boy start to giggle. As he headed towards the kitchen, he turned around to look at Ben and he said " hot water ready. Little boy need bath, toys need bath, and floor need bath too" With that said he went into the kitchen.
Adam and Hoss started to laugh again, then stopped when Ben turned around and glared at them. " Since you two think this is so funny, you can clean up this mess. Then you get a bucket, and put some water in it, then you can clean up all these toys, and also wash the floor ". said Ben in a loud voice. " But Pa " Hoss started to say. " No buts about it. Now get busy !" Ben told his two sons.
" OK Little boy, why did you make this mess in here?" Ben asked his youngest son. " Well, Papa, I gots boreded cuz it's wainin', and I wanted ta pay outside, den Hop Sing saided I haded ta stay inside ta pay. So I foughted I would make mountains, a town, a ranch, a corral, den hab soldiers and injuns goin' afta each uber." Little Joe said to his papa-while looking up at him trying to look as innocent as possible, even though he was covered in soot.
Ben stood there with his hands on his hips looking down at his baby son who was covered in soot, while his little son looking up at him with "that" look on his face. Ben wasn't sure if he should be mad or to laugh at the sight of his baby.
" Papa, I dunt need no baf" pleaded the child. " Oh yes you do little one" said Ben as he picked up the dirty boy and headed off to the washroom.
Once in the washroom, Ben got his little imp undressed, and put him in the tub of warm water. As he washed his son, Hop Sing brought in some clean clothes for Little Joe and for Ben too. " Thank you Hop Sing" said Ben. " Fank you too Hop Sing " said the wet, but now very clean little boy.
Ben lifted the wet child out of the tub, and began to get him dried off. He then got his son dressed, then he towel dried the boys' curly wet hair.
Then he carried the little boy out to the livingroom and sat him down on the sattee in front of the fireplace that now had a nice warm fire burning in it.
" Now Joseph, you sit here and don't move until lunch is ready. Then after lunch you'll be spending the afternoon in your room as punishment" said Ben " Yes sir" Little Joe said softly. " I's sawee papa, but I just wanted ta pay" he said sadly. " Honey, you can play with your toys anytime you want to, but please sweetheart, don't play with the soot. It makes a big mess, and everything gets dirty. Do you understand me son?" Ben asked the little boy. " Yes papa" Little Joe said softly again.
After lunch the little boy had been sent to his room. He laid on his bed with his teddy bear named Bo tucked in his arms. He put his thumb in his mouth and was soon sound to sleep.
A while later, Ben went up to the child's room and peeked in to see what he was up to since it was so quiet upstairs. When he saw his baby boy asleep with his thumb in his mouth, looking like a little angel, his heart almost melted. He covered the boy up with a quilt and gently kissed his curly head. He gave one last look at the child, and he headed back down stairs.
When Little Joe woke up a couple of hours later, he laid there and talked to Bo. " Bo, you neber get into twubo, do ya? Yer such as good bear." The child started to gently wiggle Bo's ears. He giggled softly. Then he thought to himself " I's wonder ifn I's can wiggle my ears too?" He put his thumb on one side of his right ear. and his index finger on the other side of the same ear, and he wiggled his ear. He giggled, and said to Bo, " I'm gonna twy ta do dis wivout usin' my finga's." He closed his eyes to concentrate on wiggling his ears. " I hab ta keep twing dis Bo. I's knows I's can do it." So everyday for the next few weeks, Little Joe tried to make his ears wiggle.
One day while he was outside playing in the yard, he walked over to where there were several pine trees. He noticed a lot of pine cones laying all over the ground. They were in all different sizes-some were in pieces and some were whole. That gave the little imp an idea.
The little boy spent the next couple of hours gathering up all the cones, and he soon had a large pile of cones. He ran into the barn and found three empty grain sacks. Then he ran back over to the pile of cones, and he put cone pieces in one sack, and the whole cones in the other two sacks.
Then he went back into the barn and hid some of the cones in various parts of the barn. He also hid cones around the yard. The he snuck into the house and up to his room with more cones. He soon had cones safely hidden all over the house.
A few days later Little Joe noticed Adam sitting in his chair near the fireplace reading a book, so he quietly snuck up to his room to get some pieces of pine cone. Then he very quietly headed for the top of the stairs to where he could see Adam, and he picked some pieces of cone and tossed a couple of pieces at Adam. One piece hit the book Adam was reading-which made him jump. Little Joe was having a hard time not to giggle out loud.
Adam looked at the pieces of cone, then back towards the stairs, but he didn't see or hear anyone there. He went back to his book. A few minutes later, his baby brother tossed some more pieces of cone at Adam. This time they hit Adam on the head. " What the .......?" Adam yelled. He got up and walked over to the stairs and looked up the stairs, but he still didn't see anyone there. So he walked up the stairs and over to his little brother's room, and he very quietly peeked in. There sat his little brother on the floor with his back to the door, and he was playing with some of his toy horses. " Little Joe, did you toss cones at me?" asked Adam. At the sound of Adam's voice, the child jumped. " Adam, ya scareded me." said the child. " Sorry little buddy. I didn't mean to scare you. What are you doing?" asked Adam. " I'm paying wiv my horseys. Wanna pay wiv me Adam?" the boy asked. " No. Why are you playing in your room?" questioned Adam.." Cuz, papa saided it was to cold outside, and I wanted ta pay wiv my horseys.
Over the next several days, Ben , Adam,Hoss and even Hop Sing were hit with cones.
Another day while Little Joe was outside playing, he had one of his toy boats floating in the horse trough. " I fink I'ma gonna make a BIG STORM hit dis boat." So he got right up to the trough and he put his arms in the water. Then he started to move his arms back and forth as fast as he could, to make " BIG" waves. Water was flying all over, most of it landing all over the little boy. He was also making loud blowing sounds trying to sound like the wind. He was so busy at being a nasty wind storm, that he didn't hear his family ride into the yard. They sat there on their horses watching their little imp getting soaking wet.
" Looks like we have a little Hurricane in the yard" laughed Ben. They got off their horses, tied them up, and walked over to the youngest Cartwright. All three were laughing at the sounds the wet little boy was making.
" JOSEPH FRANCIS CARTWRIGHT, WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU DOING PLAYING IN THAT TROUGH?"asked Ben trying not
too laugh at his baby son.
HI ya papa. I's a BIG WIND STORM, and my boat kinda
sunked." the bright eyed little boy told his
papa. " Oh it did, did it?" laughed
Ben. " Hey little buddy, that was sure some
BIG STORM wasn't it?" said Adam with a big smile on his face. Hoss
stood there laughing at his baby brother. " Dat storm dun snucked up
on my boat, and it went and sanked." the
dripping child said so seriously. He then reached into the trough while
Ben held him so he could get his boat. " Wooks wike dat storm gots me all wet
too." Little Joe said with a big smile on his face. " It sure did sweetheart. We better get you out
of these wet clothes, and into some dry ones.."
said Ben . With that said, Ben picked up his wet
little son and put him upon his shoulder and they headed off to the washroom.
" Hop
Sing, did ya hear da BIG
WIND STORM in da yard?" Little Joe asked Hop
Sing. Hop Sing looked at the very wet child and he said, " No hear storm. Why Little
boy all wet?" " Da storm bowed all ober
Finally the big day came-the day Little Joe mastered wiggling his ears without touching them. He was so proud of himself. During dinner that night he decided to see if his family would notice his big achievement.
Just as Hoss took a big mouthful of milk, Little Joe looked at Hoss and he wiggled his ears. Hoss stared at his little brother with wipe open eyes, and he started to laugh and milk went flying out of his mouth. He couldn't stop laughing. " HOSS", yelled Ben, what is is wrong with you?" asked Ben. Hoss was still laughing, cos Little Joe was still wiggling his ears. Adam smiled at Hoss-thinking that Hoss had gone crazy. By now Hoss was laughing so hard that he had tears running down his face, and he almost fell out of his chair. Adam sat there shaking his head while watching Hoss, trying to figure out what was going on with Him.
" Hoss-please-stop that laughing and eat your dinner." said Ben. " Oh, Pa, make him stop." begged Hoss. " Make WHO stop what?" questioned Ben. " Oh, make Little Joe stop wiggling his ears." laughed Hoss.
Ben looked over at his little imp who was now giggling so hard that he fell out of his chair. " Joseph, WHAT are you doing?" asked Ben as he watched his little boy rolling on the floor giggling out of control.
"What wrong with family? Why all laugh so hard? What so funny?" asked Hop Sing. " Oh Hop Sing, Little Joe was wigglin' his ears. It looks so funny." Hoss said still laughing.
Ben got up and he walked over to his giggling baby, and he picked him up and sat him back in his chair. Ben stood there with his hands on his hips, looking at the giggling boy with tears running down his face. " Joseph, Little Joe, come on now son, settle down please, before you make yourself sick." Ben was trying to tell his son. Ben finally picked up the giggling boy and carried him over to his chair by the fireplace. He gently rubbed the boy's back and softly talked to him, telling him to settle down. Finally the boy got control of his giggling, and he looked up at Ben and said, " Papa, did ya Hoss bowing his milk all ober da place?" " Joseph, son, did you wiggle your ears at Hoss?" asked Ben. " Yes Papa, I learneded how to wiggle my ears." said a very proud Little Joe. " Sweetheart, can you show papa please?" Ben asked. " Yes papa-see." he said as he made his ear wiggle . "That's very good Little Joe, but, please don't do that at the table, OK?" Ben asked the child. "Kay papa. I's be good." said the little boy. " Alright, now let's go and finish our dinner." said Ben.
A couple of weeks later while Hop Sing was busy in the garden, and Ben was busy doing book work at his desk, Little Joe snuck into the kitchen, and he quietly took all of Hop Sing's pots and pan and he hid them all. Then he walked into the livingroom and started to play with his soldiers.
When Hop Sing came back into the kitchen, he washed the string beans that he had picked for dinner. Then he went to get his frying pans to make fried chicken, and he noticed that all his pots and pans were missing.
" Mr. Cartlight, Mr. Cartlight, someone bleak into kitchen and steal all pots and pans. They all gone. No can find!" said a very excited Hop Sing.
Ben stood up and looked at Hop Sing and said," What do you mean all the pots and pans are missing Hop Sing?" " They all gone when Hop Sing come back into kitchen from garden." Hop Sing told Ben. By now Ben was looking rather confused. " How can that be? No one came in. It's just Little Joe and me in here." Ben said as he looked over at his son on the floor, who was making like he wasn't paying any attention as to what was going on. " Little Joe, do you know anything about the pots and pans missing?" asked Ben. " What pots and pans papa?" asked the little boy trying to look innocent, and not looking at Ben. " Joseph" said Ben. " Huh? I's been paying wiv my soldiers. Maybe da bad mens comed in and tooked em'." said the child, still not looking at Ben or Hop Sing.
Hop Sing said something in Chinese to Little Joe, and the boy answered him right back in Chinese while giggling. Then Hop Sing returned to his kitchen. Ben stood there looking at his impish little boy.
A couple of minutes later Hop Sing returned and said, " Hop Sing find pots and pans. Then he looked at the boy and said something else to him in Chinese, and the boy got up off the floor and followed Hop Sing back into the kitchen.
Once in the kitchen, Hop Sing grabbed his wooden spoon and gave the little boy a swat across his little bottom. " OWW!" cried the little boy, as he ran out of the kitchen and started to rub his little bottom. He walked over to Ben, looked up at him with tears in his eyes and said, " Hop Sing spooned my butt, cuz I hidded all his pots and pans, but I tolded him where day all was. He didn't fink it was bery funny." the boy told Ben. Ben was having a hard time not too laugh. " Little Joe, you are such a little imp." Ben told his son.
Yet another day while Little Joe was suppose to be taking a nap, he decided to move all of Ben's clothes from his chest of drawers, and switch them with Hoss's clothes. Then he hid all of Adams clothes, in his own room, and then he put all of his clothes into Adam's room. Then he only took his nap. He was tired by then from moving everyone's clothes from room to room.
Next morning when his family went to get dressed, they all discovered their " little surprise ". A lot of " Hey-whats going on here?" could be heard in three of the bedrooms. They all seemed to meet in the hall that morning-each one holding up a shirt that wasn't theirs.
As Adam looked at " his " shirt, he said " that little imp" as he held up his baby brother's shirt. " Hey Adam-looks like yer shirt shrunk" said Hoss laughing. " I wonder when he did this?" asked Ben while holding up one of Hoss's shirts.
They all walked into the imps room, and they looked down at that sweet face that had a thumb stuck in it's mouth. " How can THAT little boy look so sweet and innocent and be such an imp?" asked Adam. " I have no idea Adam." said Ben as he looked at his precious little boy. " I wonder what he is dreaming up now, as to what to get into next, and what his plans are for us?" Hoss asked. " I don't even want to know." said Adam with a big smile on his face as he looked down at his baby brother.
" Ya know Pa, I wouldn't trade this little imp for all the money in the world. He's just so dadburn precious." said Hoss. " That he is, that he is." Ben said as they left the room of the Ponderosa imp.
THE END.