Little House on the Ponderosa
Part Five
By Sara and Valerie
Hop Sing and Albert must have heard the door open and shut, as they started bringing out the rest of the food for the ‘snack.’ Ben smiled appreciatively at Hop Sing. “This looks as great as it smells, thank you,” he said sincerely. Ben was studiously avoiding his sons’ faces in the vain hope that the problems would go away.
Hop Sing smiled at Ben, “Thank you Mr. Ben. Hop Sing make most, but Albert make biscuits and gravy.”
Ben smiled at Albert, “And they look just as good as Hop Sing’s.”
“Thank you sir. I made them for my Ma sometimes at the restaurant, but Hop Sing showed me a different way to make them. I hope they turned out all right,” Albert said.
“Hop Sing taste, are very good,” Hop Sing reassured Albert, then glanced at Hoss. Hos almost always had some compliment for Hop Sing about any upcoming edibles from Hop Sing’s kitchen.Unfortunately for innocent Hop Sing, Hoss was in such a mood that even his kind heart couldn’t find words to express his ever present appreciation of Hop Sing’s cooking.
Hop Sing gave up and stalked to the kitchen, to clean
up before the picnic, muttering in Chinese about unappreciative eaters
and returning to
Hoss, as usual, was piling his plate high with large portions of food.Ben then looked at Adam, who was taking more moderate portions of food. He glanced at Albert, who was silently waiting until everyone else was served – though it might have been important back in Walnut Grove, Ben made a note to try to get Albert to take food as it passed him instead of waiting. Bracing himself, Ben then gave a look at Joe. Just as he had feared, Joe’s plate was almost empty as usual. Again, Ben smothered a groan as he didn’t need a fight with Joe added to this day that was supposed to be happy.
Adam noted Ben’s glance toward Joe’s plate and braced himself for the predictable storm. When Ben simply picked up his fork and started eating, Adam sighed internally. He could see by Pa’s face that this was not a good time to start anything, yet once again, just like in the North pasture where Adam had swung by to ride home with his brothers, Joe was again getting special treatment. Admittedly, Ben didn’t know about Joe slacking on his share of work, but it was so natural of Joe, and Ben wasn’t stopping it often enough to make it stick in Joe’s mind, at least as Adam saw it.
Hoss broke out of his intense rapture with his plate of food to look for Hop Sing.As if on cue, Hop Sing popped out of the kitchen to see if anything was needed by his beloved, yet irritating, Cartwright family. Hoss spotted Hop Sing, “Great food as usual Hop Sing. Got any more?” he asked.
Hop Sing smiled, taking the serving plates back to the kitchen, aided by Albert.“Of course Mr. Hoss, Hop Sing and Albert make lot food. You good boy, eat lot food,” he said with a glare for Joe. “Unlike number three son,” giving Joe a cuff to the head on his way back to the kitchen.
Albert wondered why Hoss hadn’t asked him, and figured he’d eventually find out – maybe it was force of habit?
Ben had been silently watching this exchange, studiously avoiding the idea of glimpsing his youngest’s plate, not wanting to deal until Ben had finished his own meal, and maybe not even until tonight to enable everyone to enjoy this rare afternoon when all of them were free to enjoy themselves on a picnic, fishing and swimming.
Albert silently placed a serving plate on the table, and sat down at his place to finish. As Hop Sing brought back the other refilled serving plates, he almost banged them onto the table in front of Joe, causing Joe to jump. He looked at the food, at Hop Sing, and back at his plate. Je was not so hungry.He had been hoping since Pa hadn’t said anything that his eating would be ignored. Joe was more interested in going on the picnic, fishing, swimming, and having fun.Why bother eating now first? Hop Sing’s clattering had shot that hope. Even if Ben hadn’t noticed before this, the sound had drawn Pa’s attention to this part of the table and Joe fidgeted under Pa’s glare.
“Eat some of that food on your plate Joseph,” he said, pointing, “and stop playing,” he finished ordered, turning to his cofee brought out by Albert.It seemed Albert was learning from Hop Sing the little things known about the Cartwright family, like Ben’s cup of coffee after his first plate of food.
Hop Sing cuffed Little Joe’s head again and pointed at the freshly filled plates of food. “Eat!”
Joe sighed, all he needed now was for Adam to join in – that would be the perfect ending to this morning. He slowly started adding food to the scanty portions on his plate. He glanced at Ben and Hop Sing for approval of his portion sizes.
Adam couldn’t take it any more. “Dad-blast it Little Joe, just take food and eat it! There’s no call for these kiddoes every time we sit at the table!!”
Joe shrunk into his seat – just what he needed – another Pa!Just when he thought he and Adam were getting back to how it was before Adam went East to college.Wasn’t it bad enough that both Pa and Ho pSing were on his case – Adam had to stick his enormous, prying nose in too! A glare from Pa caused Joe to bite back the sharp retort on his tongue. Joe did not see the glare from Pa to Adam reminding Adam that Joe had finally opened back up to him, to try not to jump in unless necessary.
Adam shrunk in his seat at the glare from
Joe had finished serving himself what the two men overseeing him considered a decent amount of food. He picked up his fork and started eating. It hurt to get the food down, but Joe refused to admit this. He wanted to stay away from Doc Martin, which meant he couldn’t get sick, until the events earlier this week in town had died down. And he really wanted to spend this afternoon with his family relaxing and having fun, not stuck up in his room bored. So, he forced himself to eat some of the seemingly Hoss-sized portions that he had been led to serve himself.
Amazingly enough, even Hoss was too stuffed to eat anymore before Joe had made a visible dent in the food on his plate. Ben excused Adam and Hoss from the table to go prepare for the afternoon, and Albert to help Hop Sing clear up. As Joe put down his fork and napkin, Ben turned to him. “Not you Joseph.You are going to sit here until you eat a decent amount.” Ben rose and went to look over some other contracts that he had been putting off, as they were not due for a while. At least in the war with his contracts, the contracts didn’t talk back, they just confused him and didn’t always add up for him.
Adam and Hoss finished saddling the horses and packing the seemingly neverending supply of food from Hop Sing’s kitchen, the fishing gear, with Albert’s help, and came to sit in the main room as well. Seeing as almost no progress was done on Joe’s plate, they brought out the chessboard.Adam’s mind was only half on the game of chess.With one eye he was watching Little Joe, waiting for the outcome of this battle of stubborn Cartwright wills. Hoss was ignoring this regularly occurring event and instad focused on the game at hand. Noticing Adam’s distraction with Joe, Hoss had hopes of winning the game for a change.
Ben kept glancing over at his youngest, to be sure he stayed at the table and ate some of the food. Ben figured once the plate was half empty they could leave for the picnic.
After close to an hour, Ben put away the contracts, and stretched his arms over his head again. He looked over to his elder two sons first, wanting to avoid unpleasantness for as long as possible.He looked at the board to see how the game was progressing. He was amazed to see Hoss was winning, Adam must really be distracted by something. Looking at where Adam kept staring, Ben realized it was Joe.
Hoss looked up to Ben, “Hiya Pa,” he said.
Adam grunted a barely respectable greeting.
Ben leaned over Hoss’ shoulder to study the board more carefully.Hoss looked up to Ben, “Want to make the next move?” he asked, unsure of what to do next to assure his win.
Ben stared a bit longer, the moved a piece. “Check,” he and Hoss said to Adam in unison.
Adam stared at the board in amazement – he’d never had to pay much attention to the board when playing Hoss – how’d he get the board like this?Adam knew Ben had just come over for this move.After studying the board a bit more, Adam admitted his defeat. “Great game Hoss,” he said sincerely, “You beat me.”
Hoss smiled – elated at the win over Adam and the praise from him as well.
“You must have been practicing. I want a rematch tonight,” Adam insisted.
Hoss nodded his agreement, “Sure, if we have time.”
Ben wandered over to the table, and saw that Joe had made some inroad into his plate.He put his hand on Joe’s shoulder.“That’s enough son. Take your plate to the kitchen, clear it, wash it up – ask if you need help, and then we can get going,” he instructed his son.
Joe obeyed, glad to be up and almost on the way to the picnic.
Before anyone expected, Joe was back out, followed by Albert and Hop Sing.“Let’s go,” he urged, as if he had been waiting for them all this time. Everyone laughed, and followed him out, Ben stopping to give a few reminders to the hands, and then they were on their way.
Upon arriving at the lake, the men quickly set up their horses to enjoy the leisure by the water (always take care of your horses first they all believed); and then started fishing. Hoss had been eying the picnic baskets, but Ben felt as they had recently finished the ample snack by Hop Sing before leaving, that the fishing could be done first.
The boys (and Ben) were soon settled with fishing rods, waiting to catch enough for supper. Hop Sing had started wandering to look for herbs that he needed. He rarely came this way, and always took advantage to look for herbs and other plants that did not grow in his garden or near the Ponderosa.
The peaceful quiet of the afternoon was suddenly shattered by Hop Sing’s loud yelps of pain, followed immediately by the clattering of rods dropping as everyone ran to see what had happened.
Hop Sing was jumping around, mumbing in Chinese, holding both his ankles.Albert walked closer over, while the others were staring at Hop Sing as if he were possessed, Hop Sing had never acted like this before. Albert looked carefully at the ground, as Ben ran for his gun, thinking maybe an animal had bit Hop Sing. Albert suddenly gave a shout of triumph. “Aha!!”
Albert turned to Hop Sing, while the others looked at him as if he too was becoming possessed. “Did you walk over here Hop Sing?” he asked the wildly dancing cook.
Hop Sing nodded his head, still trying to hold both his painful ankles, muttering something in Chinese.
Albert walked over to Hop Sing, and helped him to sit, “Sit down Hop Sing, it’s just needlegrass.”
Everyone gave a sigh of relief, at least they knew why Hop Sing was acting so unusual. “So, what can ya do fer it?” Hoss asked, puzzled.
“We have to carefully work it out of the cloth, one piece at a time.The patch of grass also needs to be burned carefully, to be sure that all is killed, and not even one seed is left. It is a dangerous weed, and can kill cattle if eaten. It works it’s way into things, such as tongues or cloth, and is very hard to remove,” he explained, slowly working pieces out of Hop Sing’s pants and making a neat pile of them.
Hop Sing carefully started helping to remove the painful needles, as did Hoss, while Ben, Adam and Joe looked carefully at the patch of grass.Ben sent Adam back to the house to get matches so they could start a small fire, and cloths to wet to help keep the fire in the place they wanted it only.
Soon the patch of grass was cleared, and Hop Sing’s pants were fixed up as well.Albert stood up, and looked at Ben.“Mr. Cartwright?”
Ben looked at Albert, “Yes?”
“You might want to look around the Ponderosa a bit more to see if there are any more patches of this grass – it really can be quite dangerous.We lost our milk cow to it a few years ago,” Albert said, not sure how Ben would take to being given orders by Albert.
Ben nodded his head, “Good idea Albert, I’ll be sure it’s done tomorrow.Thank you for helping with this.”
Albert blushed shyly, and busied himself fixing his fishing rod to avoid having to look at anyone.
Soon, everyone was back to their previous work, and enough fish were soon caught.The fish were carefully put aside in the lake, then the men stripped and jumped in the water to enjoy some cooling off – especially after having been so close to that fire. Ben hadn’t thought to ask Albert if he could swim, and before the question could be asked, Ben saw Albert joining in the fun in the water with the other boys, and the question was answered.
All too soon, it seemed, Hop Sing was calling all of them to eat, so that they would have room for supper when they got back.
The meal passed quickly, with large amount s of hunger felt by all from the vigorous playing in the water. Even Joe seemed to have somewhat of an appetite. As soon as the food was put away, Ben looked at the sun, and realized Hop Sing had been right, it was time to head back already. Amid groans and complaints, everyone packed up, and headed back to the ranch. Of course, Joe had to try to find someone to race him, but everyone was feeling so lazy that no one would.
Upon getting back, Albert took the reins from Hop Sing, and set about caring for the two horses, while the remaining Cartwrights cared for their own.Hoss was the first finished, and took over Albert’s remaining horse, “Go on and help Hop Sing, I’m so hungry I’ll do anything to get supper faster,” he said with a grin.
“Thank you,” Albert said, heading to the kitchen, where Hop Sing had the fish ready for him to prepare for cooking.
“Take out bones and skin, Hop Sing make fried fish,” Hop Sing instructed Albert. Albert walked over to get the fish, watching what Hop Sing was doing, rather than where he was walking. He tripped over a large …. Thing he guessed.
Hop Sing turned at the noise, “What happen?”
Albert mumbled, ashamed, “I tripped over this thing. What is it?” he asked curiously.“I’ve never seen it before.”
Hop Sing looked at Albert. “How mother wash clothes?” he asked puzzled, “father no buy machine for her?”
Albert looked ashamed again. “What do you mean, machine? Is this one of those wasshing machines I’ve read about?”
Hop Sing nodded, “Yes, Mr. Ben buy for Hop Sing when
first come here. Very useful.
Is ‘small tub with hand-turned paddle for agitating the clothes
…’ (Jones, Mary Ellen.
Daily Life on the Nineteenth Century American Frontier.
CT:
Albert obeyed, looking forward, for once, to wash day, so he could see how one of these machines worked. Maybe, he could describe it well enough to Pa so that Pa could make one for Ma.Ma would greatly appreciate it, Albert was sure.
When Albert finished the fish, Hop Sing sent him for water to set to heat for the weekly Saturday night baths. Hop Sing was especially grateful for the help with this tedious weekly chore. Lugging and heating enough water for the entire household to bath on one night was a pain for him. Just keeping up with the wood was chore enough.Unless one of the boys had been in trouble and ended up with wood chopping as a punishment chore, it was very hard to get help to get enough wood ready unless he asked Mr. Ben.
The rest of the family came into the house, and sat at the table.Hop Sing heard them come, and sent Albert in with the first part of the meal. Albert brought it out and sat down to join the meal. As everyone was tired out from the pleasant day, it was a peaceful meal, and ended without any fuss. Then baths started. Hoss and Ben dragged Joe in for his weekly bath, the regular ritual, and Albert went to fetch more water to heat for the next. When Joe’s torture, according to him, was done, he sat in front of the fire and brooded while Hoss took his bath, though, as usual he wondered why it was necessary since he got splashed so much from Joe’s. Once in the tub though, Hoss relaxed and enjoyed the warmth of the water.
Albert sat down with Joe, taking a break as Hop Sing had told him there was enough wood for the night, and no more water would be needed until the next bath was drawn. He saw Joe playing with something.
When Joe felt Albert looking over at him, he smiled and showed what was in his hand – a small grasshopper.
At the sight of the little insect, Albert felt a shudder go through his body.He remembered hearing how much havoc the grasshoppers had wrecked on the Ingalls and everyone in Walnut Grove.
Joe didn’t realize Albert’s aversion, and offered the grasshopper to him, “I got him in a trade, wanna hold him?”
Albert shrank back. “That’s okay,” he said, holding back his first instinct to kill such a dangerous pest.
“Why not? Isn’t he a great one?”
“I’d rather not,” Albert said, trying not to shrink back any more, hoping Hop Sing would call for him to haul more water, anything to get him away from this bringer of doom.
Ben had been playing chess with Adam during this conversation. The two men turned to watch the two younger men. Albert did indeed seem to have a horrid aversion to the little insect. Ben and Adam suddenly remembered what they had heard in the towns they had passed through on their way West.Adam barely remembered, he had been so young and not interested at the time, but Ben suddenly remembered. “Did your family suffer from the grasshopper plague?” he asked gently.
Albert nodded his head gratefully, glad someone else had brought it up. He wasn’t sure how much he should share with Joe, Joe’s life seemed so sheltered compared to what he had experienced. “Yes, it was before I came to them, but they often spoke of it, how Pa had to go back East for two years in order to earn enough money to survive the year; the horror of the grasshoppers crawling over you; the loud sound of them eating all the crops up; everything. No one could ever stand to see one, and it kind of passed off onto me, I guess,” he explained.
Joe looked at Albert in wonderment – how could such a little thing cause trouble.But Pa and Adam were both nodding their heads in understanding. Joe started to feel a little guilty for bringing such memories back to Albert. “I’m sorry,” he said, tears forming in his eyes.
Albert looked at him, taken in by those cow eyes. “It’s okay, you didn’t know,” he soothed the younger man.
Adam suggested, “Why don’t you try to trade him back though?I’m not sure how I feel about sharing a house with one of those after hearing this.”
Joe nodded, and put the cause of discomfort away. Hop Sing called to Albert to bring more water, and the subject seemed closed. Adam and Ben returned to their game, and Hoss came out to sit next to Joe. “Wanna play checkers?” he offered.
Joe nodded, and soon a game began, while Adam started his bath.Ben sighed and leaned back. This would be a while, Adam sure loved his bath, Ben knew. The clock chimed before Adam had returned, and Ben sent Joe and Hoss off to bed, “I want to try to get to church tomorrow,” he told them.
As the two young men went up the stairs, Adam came in, stretching and yawning.“That looks like a good idea, I think I’ll turn in too, ‘night Pa, Albert.”
Ben bid his son goodnight and turned to Albert, “Why don’t you go next?I can bring water for my own bath,” he offered.
Albert gratefully went for his bath, wondering what it would be like to have a full tub of hot water all for himself.He soon found out, and was happily surprised at the wonderful feeling of it. He rushed through the bath though, not wanting to make Ben wait, and refilled the tub before turning in for the night.
In the middle of the night, Albert thought he heard a noise and woke up.He crept down the stairs, not wanting to wake anyone else, in case it was nothing, to see what all the noise was. What a shock he saw. Ben, Adam, and Hoss were rubbing their heads with … leaves? Were these those peach leaves Adam had run after him with as an addition by Hop Sing? And why Hoss has so willingly helped bring the gatherings back to Hop Sing – Albert had been wondering what happened to those leaves when he was watching Hop Sing unpack. Now he knew who they were for, but what was the meaning?
Suddenly, Ben noticed Albert staring at them, and beckoned him down, “Guess the game’s up boys,” he told his two eldest sons as Albert joined the men around the fireplace.
Adam looked at Albert, “Promise you won’t tell Little Joe about this?It’s our family secret,” he begged.
Hoss’s eyes were pleading as well as he stared at Albert.
Albert figured why not, after all, Mr. Cartwright was in on it too.“Sure, I won’t tell,” he promised.
As the men nodded at each other, Ben filled Albert in. “You see, Adam here read that rubbing peach leaves on your head is a good way to help prevent baldness. So, as we’re all getting a little thin, we decided to try it out.”
Adam continued, “We didn’t want to let Little Joe know since he’d just tease as he has a wonderful head of hair; or he’d let people in town know, possibly by accident, and we don’t want anyone to know. It was getting hard to gather these leaves without Joe knowing, and we’re supposed to do it twice a week. Now that you know, and Joe won’t go with you to do Hop Sing’s chores as he thinks they’re boring and tedious, that is, if you don’t mind, you could gather them for us.”
Albert had a bit of a hard time following all this, as he was still half asleep.But he gathered enough to understand that these men were embarrassed by their hair loss, and that peach leaves were supposed to help. Joe couldn’t find out, and they were having a hard time gathering them. He figured it would be the least he could do to help out this family who had so generously opened their house to him, “Sure, why not?” he said. Then, yawning, “I was worried there was something wrong, I’m going back to bed.Good night,” he said, heading up to the bunkroom, shaking his head in wonder.
THE END
RETURN TO LIBRARY
