BEN THE YODELIST
by
Heidi
Ben Cartwright was behaving very strange for a while. He was to be found
in
the mountains very much. His sons (Adam, Hoss and Little Joe) were convinced
that their father was too lonely and that's why he went into the mountains
and went to look for a solution.
One morning they decided to follow him. They left their horses behind and
sneaked to the spot where Ben was yodeling was.
He sang, "Yoh-de-la-ye-yah."
At least something that looked like it. The brothers looked at each other
stupefied. Adam hinted to go away and to leave their father alone.
Once at home the boys sepculated about the newest hobby of their father.
Hoss said, "He probably is calling all the cows together that way."
"If I was a cow I would run away instead of coming", reacted Adam.
The brothers laughed.
"Would he have a woman there?", asked Little Joe.
"And sing at her? Forget it?", said Adam.
"She would run away", Hoss remarked.
Again there was a loud laughter.
"Why would pa go yodeling all of a sudden?", asked Little Joe.
"Maybe to charm widow Hawkins", said Adam.
"She would like that marvelously. Being yodeled by her ducky", said Hoss.
Now the brothers were rolling on the floor laughing.
"I just don't understand why pa does it here in the mountains and
not in the
mountains of Tirol", said Adam.
"Where lies that Tirol?", asked Little Joe.
"In Europe. There are special yodel schools", replied Adam.
Hoss suggested, "Maybe pa doesn't know that."
"However, we don't know nothing. Let pa tell us it himself", said Adam.
Hoss and Little Joe agreed with it.
That evening Ben came home not suspecting anything and he felt straight
away
that there was something the matter.
"Is there something?", he asked amazed.
The boys looked at each other.
"No, should there be something?", asked Adam.
"You are so quiet. That is not so otherwise", said Ben.
"Well, there is something. Why are you away so often?", asked Hoss.
"Me often away? Why?", Ben asked amazed.
"We have followed you this morning and you were in the mountains",
Adam said
to be clearer.
"You followed me to the mountains to hear my yodel singing?",
asked the
rancher.
The brothers nodded and looked at their father questionable. Ben realised
that his secret wasn't a secret anymore.
"I got recently an invitation for a party whereby the guests must
do
something special. Because we have mountains here I came to the idea to
yodeling. That's why I there all the time", the rancher explained.
For a moment it was quiet in the living room but a second later the brothers
couldn't stop laughing anymore. Ben looked at his sons and thought, 'Well,
they don't know any better.'
A few days later the terrible happened for Ben. He had arrived at his usual
place for his performancew and wanted to start with yodeling when there
came
no sound out of his throat. Ben thought, 'Now is my performance cancelled.'
He went back to the ranch where his sons looked at each other amazed.
"Pa, are you already finished with your rehearsal?", asked Adam.
Ben pointed at his throat but nobody understood that. He dismounted and
went
with the boys inside. On a paper he wrote: I have lost my voice.
The brothers read that and Little Joe asked dry, "Must we look for
your
voice?"
Adam and Hoss could laugh about it but Ben of course not. An angry look
of
Ben and they were quiet.
"Joe, go get the doctor", said Adam.
Ben grabbed pencil and paper and went to sit with it in his chair. Adam
and
Hoss went to sit on the settee and looked at their father smiling.
"Adam, it is for us actually fine that pa has lost his voice", said Hoss.
"Why?", asked Adam.
"We don't have to listen to his yodeling and he cannot speak to us
strict",
Hoss explained.
After a long time Little Joe came back with doctor Paul Martin who heard
everything and then examined Ben.
"Ben, at your age you mustn't go yodeling each day in the mountains.
Now
your voice has been lost. I advise you not to say anything for ten days
and
then you shall speak again", said Paul.
"I really must go to that party in 4 days time", Ben wrote down.
"Pity but your health goes first", said Paul.
Ben put himslef down with this and took the rest. But the rancher had also
learned something from it. That yodeling wasn't his thing and that if you
wanted to learn it you had to go to a yodel school in Tirol.