JOSEPH!
It was late and Ben had been into town to attend a meeting of the
Cattleman's Association. He wanted nothing more than a cup of
coffee
and his soft, warm bed, but first of all he needed to take care of
Buck, his horse.
As he opened the barn door, he could see that there was a lantern
still burning, inside. He was very surprised by this oversight, as
usually his sons were extremely careful about extinguishing lamps,
before leaving the barn.
`I shall have to have words with those boys of mine,' he thought.
He entered the barn and then had the shock of his life, as from the
far side of the building he heard the sound of a gun being cocked.
"Who's there?" said Ben, and the owner of the gun, almost
simultaneously.
"I'm Ben Cartwright, and this is my barn," said Ben. "What
are you
doing here?"
The owner of the gun walked into the light, and Ben could see that
it was a young man, probably no more than eighteen years of age.
"Sorry, Mr Cartwright, Joe didn't warn me you'd be coming home. I
thought it was an intruder."
The boy replaced his gun in his holster.
"And I thought you were one, and so far, I still do, although the
fact that you have mentioned my son's name, leads me to believe
that
at least one member of my family knows you are here. Am I right in
thinking that?"
"Well, yeah, Joe does, kinda. You see, I saw him earlier today, and
he said if I was looking for a place to stay tonight, I could sleep
in the barn. I got here about thirty minutes ago, and as it was a
bit late, I didn't go to the house, because I didn't want to
disturb
anyone."
"Right, well you know who I am and I now know that you know Little
Joe, but I don't know who you are. I can't say I've ever seen you
in
town, either."
"Sorry, sir, I should have said. My name is Jake Wilkins and I met
Joe about a week ago, in
"Wait a minute," said Ben, unsaddling Buck, as he talked.
"What was
Little Joe doing in
"Oh, yeah, you didn't know about that, did you?" said Jake.
"He was
playing hooky with one of his friends from school, and I met him in
the saloon."
"Was he now? I think that boy and I need to have a talk, the kind
that takes place here, in the barn. Please continue with your
story,
Jake," and Ben began rubbing down his horse.
"Like I said, we met in the Lucky Horseshoe. Joe was, erm, trying
to
buy a beer and not having a lot of luck, as the barman wouldn't
serve him, so I offered to get him and Mitch a drink. Look Mr
Cartwright, I feel really bad telling you all this, after Joe was
nice enough to offer me somewhere to stay. Can't you talk to him
about it?"
"Rest assured that I will be talking to Joseph, at some length, but
right now, seeing as you are in my barn, I would like a full
explanation as to how you came to be here, please."
Ben was a man used to being obeyed, by ranch hands and sons, and
Jake recognised the authority in his voice, and decided it might be
best if he told Ben the whole story.
"Yes, sir. I met Joe and Mitch in the Lucky Horseshoe. We found out
we had a lot in common, as I am the youngest of three, too,
although
I have a brother and a sister, not two brothers. Molly and Luke are
the children of my Pa's first wife; I am the son from his second
marriage. My Pa died five years ago, and my sister got married
about
two years ago and moved away, with her husband. I haven't seen her
since, but she has written, a few times. We always got on well, and
I missed her when she left. Just over two months ago, my Ma died
and
since then, Luke's been trying to get rid of me. He says that the
ranch is his and I don't own any of it, even though Pa told my Ma
that her and I would always have a home there, even if he died.
Luke
treats me no better than a dog, expects me to do all the work on
the
place, but never gives me any money. Anyway, that day I met Joe, I
was feeling real bad and I started telling Joe and Mitch all about
my troubles. They were sympathetic and when I said I was thinking
of
leaving and going to find Molly, Joe offered to help me. He said if
I came here, he'd ask you to give me a job, so I could make enough
money to buy a horse and outfit myself for the trip to Molly's. I
was planning on leaving that night, but when I got back to the
ranch, Luke was mad at me for being in town so long, and for not
doing my chores, and he beat me up. I wasn't able to ride for
several days."
As Jake was talking, Ben could see that the boy's face was still
bruised. It was obvious that someone had beaten him up, but it did
seem hard to take in that it would be the boy's own brother. Ben
knew that Joe could be irritating and that Adam and Hoss lost their
temper with him, sometimes, but neither of them had ever punched
their little brother. Adam had been called upon to warm his seat,
occasionally, in Ben's absence, and Hoss had tossed him in the
water
trough, but they would never beat him up, no matter what he did.
"Why do you need money for a horse? You already have one," said
Ben,
pointing at the horse that was residing in one of the stalls.
"That one don't belong to me," said Jake. "That is, I've
been riding
him for the past three years, but he belongs to the ranch and so
that makes him Luke's. I was gonna send him back, just as soon as I
made enough money to buy another one. I would've liked to have kept
him, and sent Luke the money for him, but I know Luke wouldn't let
me do that. I suppose I best get saddled up and be moving on. Now
that you've found me trespassing and I've drawn a gun on ya, I
doubt
that you wanna hire me."
"Just hold on, young fella," said Ben, holding on to Jake's arm,
as
the boy went to pick up his saddle. "It's very late and you are not
trespassing, as Joe invited you to stay. Now, he should've cleared
it with me, first, but he did issue the invitation, and I am not
going to renege on it. When did you last eat?"
"Breakfast time, Mr Cartwright," said Jake.
"In that case, if I am any judge of boys, you must have a mighty
great hole in your stomach, round about now. Come in the house and
I'll get you some food, then you can return out here, for tonight,
as it's too late to take you into the bunkhouse; you'll disturb the
other hands."
"Does this mean you'll give me a job, then, sir?" asked Jake.
"I'm not promising anything, but I think it's likely," said Ben.
They went into the kitchen and Ben made Jake and himself a
sandwich.
Now that Ben could see him better, he could see that Jake was a
pleasant looking lad, with blue eyes and blond hair, which was in
need of a cut. Being the kind of a man he was, Ben's heart went out
to the boy, having lost his mother and now his home, in such a
short
space of time. The actions of the boy's half brother made him
really
angry and he decided he was going to do some investigating, on the
boy's behalf.
"How old are you, Jake?"
"I'm eighteen, sir, and that's why Luke has thrown me out, as he
says I'm now old enough to look out for myself. I don't say I
can't,
but I don't think it's right that he's turned me outta my home. Him
and Molly never got on, he was always mean to her, too, once Pa
died, and wasn't around to stop him. When she got married, she told
her husband that she wanted a fresh start, well away from Luke. At
the time, my Ma was still alive and I didn't wanna leave her, so I
stayed on at the ranch, but now she's gone, I guess I have nothing
to stay there for. However, I still think it's wrong that he's
kicked me out, like he has."
"I do, too, Jake. I would have thought that your father would have
left a will, or at least made some kind of provision for you and
your mother, especially as he knew that Luke was not likely to take
care of you."
"Oh, he knew that, all right. Luke never liked it that Pa married
my
Ma, even though she was good to him and Molly. He and Pa were
always
arguing about it. As to making a will, I don't think he could, as
the ranch does belong to Luke, at least I think it does. You see,
it
was Luke's grandfather's place, then it became Pa's and Luke's
Ma's,
and after Luke's Ma died, it became Pa's. I know that when Pa died,
Ma said that Luke couldn't make us leave. However, he did move us
out of the main house, so we lived separate from him, but we didn't
mind doing that."
Ben could see that the boy was tired and so he suggested that he
turned in.
"We can talk more about this, in the morning," said Ben.
"Very well, Mr Cartwright, and thanks for being such a good
listener. I can see where Joe gets it from. Goodnight, sir."
"Goodnight, son," said Ben, and he watched as the boy made his
way
back to the barn.
Earlier than usual, the following morning, Ben went into Little
Joe's room. The fifteen year old was fast asleep, happy that he was
now on Spring break from school, and dreaming about all the things
he was going to do, while free from the clutches of Miss Jones, the
schoolmistress.
"JOSEPH!"
His father's voice shattered his dreams and brought the boy awake,
with a start.
"Hi Pa, whasamatter? Is there a fire?"
"The only place that there is going to be a fire, my boy, is in the
seat of your pants."
"Why? What did I do?" said Joe, sitting up in bed and blinking at
Ben, as he tried to focus straight.
The boy's chestnut curls were mussed up and his nightshirt was not
doing a very good job of protecting his modesty, as Joe was an
extremely restless sleeper.
Ben grabbed hold of Joe, by the arm, and before the boy could
protest, he found himself over Ben's knee and receiving several
swats from his father's large, workworn hand.
"This is what happens to any son of mine, who plays hooky from
school, and spends time in a saloon, instead of a classroom," said
Ben.
Once the spanking was over, Ben righted Joe and sat him on the bed,
next to him.
"How did ya know I'd played hooky, Pa?" said Joe. He saw no point
in
denying it, seeing as how he'd already been punished.
"I know, because a boy by the name of Jake Wilkins has taken up
residence in our barn, and when I returned home, last night, he
came
close to blowing my brains out, thinking I was an intruder."
"Oh," said Joe, standing up and rubbing his sore behind.
"Sorry Pa,
I forgot all about inviting Jake. I guess I should've told ya, huh?
But then, if'n I told you, you'd have known that I'd been playing
hooky."
Ben massaged his temples, feeling the start of a headache, coming
on.
"Get dressed, Joseph, and then you can join me in the barn and I
will decide what to do with your new friend. He seemed like a
decent
enough lad, once I was able to convince him who I was."
"He's a real nice guy, Pa, so please don't hold it against him that
I didn't tell ya about him. Fact is, I didn't know if he was gonna
come, or not, and I didn't see any point in telling you that I
hadn't been to school, and then him not showing up."
"Fair enough, although, of course, you shouldn't have been playing
truant, in the first place."
Joe was soon dressed and he and Ben went out to talk to Jake. Ben
agreed to the young man working for them, and, after consultation
with Adam, Ben decided to make some enquiries about the Wilkins'
family, over in
"Won't do any harm to check out the boy's story and to find out if
he does have any claim on the ranch," and Adam agreed.
Jake proved to be a good worker, and, after a week at the ranch,
Ben
offered to loan him the money so that he could pay his brother for
his horse, as he could see how fond of the animal the boy was.
"Like I told you, Mr Cartwright, I doubt if Luke will sell him to
me."
"In that case, I will go and visit Luke, and make him an offer for
the horse, one rancher to another," said Ben. "Surely he can't
object to that?"
"I guess not," said Jake. "Thanks, Mr Cartwright."
When Joe and Jake got the chance, they went fishing together.
"Your Pa is just about the nicest guy I`ve ever met," said Jake,
as
the two boys sat on the bank, waiting for the fish to bite.
"Letting
me stay, offering me a job, and now going to see Luke and buying
Smoke, on my behalf."
"Yeah, he's pretty good, I guess, although he sure let me have it,
when he found out I'd played hooky."
"I'm sorry about that, Joe. It was my fault that he found out, but
I
havta say, my Pa would've done the same to me, if I'd missed
school.
He wanted me to get a good education and I expect your Pa feels
like
that, about you. After my Pa died, Luke found any excuse to keep me
at home, so I never went to school, as much as I should've. He
wanted me to work on the ranch, instead. He didn't have to pay me
like he did a regular hand. In fact, I bet he's missing me now I'm
not there; he might even be regretting telling me to go."
"I can't imagine one of my brothers treating me like that, even
though I get on their nerves, at times," said Joe. "I'm real
sorry
that you've had to put up with Luke being so mean to you. I hope
things will be better for you when you get to Molly's."
"Oh, they will be," said Jake. "Her husband is a nice guy,
almost as
nice as your Pa, and they did say I could stay with them, if I was
ever in need of a roof over my head. It won't take me long to save
up enough money to make the trip out to join them."
"I'll miss you, when you go," said Joe. "It's been good
having
someone close to me in age, around the place. And I've liked being
teamed up with ya, while I've been helping out on the ranch, during
Spring break."
"Yeah, we've had some fun, haven't we?" said Jake.
When the two boys returned to the house, Ben was back, with some
news from
"Hi, boys," he said. "I visited the ranch, Jake, and I
bought Smoke
off Luke, so once you've paid me back, the horse is yours. I also
went to see an old friend of your father's; a lawyer called Jim
Cotton. I told him that you were staying at the Ponderosa, and why
you'd left your place. He was pleased to know that you were well
and
told me that Luke had no right to make you leave. It appears that
when your father and Luke's mother took over the ranch, your father
actually paid some money for it, and so that meant that he owned a
third of the place. Now that both your parents are dead, their
share
goes to you, and so if Luke wants to own the whole ranch, he needs
to pay you for your share."
"Really? I never understood it all," said Jake. "Ma did say
that we
had the right to carry on living there, after Pa died, but I
thought
it was only until she died, and that I didn't have any rights of my
own. That's great, because now I will have some money I can put
into
Molly and Frank's place, so I won't feel like I'm a charity case."
"I'm sure that your sister would never think of you, in that
way,"
said Ben. "Mr Cotton said that if Luke is determined to exclude you
from the ranch, then he will see to it, that you get your money. It
will probably have to go into a trust fund, until you are older,
but
I'm sure that if you wanted to, you could let your sister be the
trustee and then she could use the money to invest in her farm."
"Sounds good to me," said Jake. "How can I ever repay you,
Mr
Cartwright?"
"Well, there's no real need, but if you would like to show your
gratitude, then please go prepare those fish you've caught, so that
we can eat them for supper."
EPILOGUE
Luke didn't want Jake to return to the ranch and so he agreed to
buy
out the boy's share. When Jake went to live with Molly and Frank,
Molly did become trustee of his money and it was used to expand
their farm.
Jake never forgot the kindness of the Cartwright family and he kept
in contact with them, through regular letters to Little Joe, who
also remembered Jake with fondness, and learnt to have a bigger
respect for his own brothers, after hearing how Jake's brother had
treated him.
THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne