A Load of Bull
by
Lynne C.
As soon as Ben arrived in the yard of the Ponderosa ranch, his home
for nigh on twenty years, his youngest son, Little Joe, practically
dragged him off his horse, and over to the corral.
"Miracle Growth, it's the newest thing on the market, Pa. Just look
at
the size of that bull. You've only been away a week, and I've fed him
a couple of spoonfuls with his feed, each day, and now he's huge."
Ben looked over at what Joe was drawing his attention to, and he
gasped at what he saw.
"The bull's almost doubled in size, Joseph. Where on earth did you
get
that stuff?"
"I met this guy, in town, Pa. When I told him who I was, he knew about
our ranch and he said he wanted me to take part in an experiment that
was gonna revolutionise the ranching business. It was a free trial,
but he ain't wrong, is he? If we start feeding this stuff to all our
stock, we'll soon have the biggest and best beef herd, in the world."
Ben just stood, scratching his head, for a while, before answering his
son, and Joe was about to burst with impatience, by the time Ben spoke.
"Well, yes, it does seem as if he might be onto something, son. But
we
have to go slowly with this, and carefully monitor the animal to find
out if there is anything dangerous in this food additive, before we
can give it to all our stock."
Joe was rather deflated by his father's reply.
"But you can see it hasn't done any harm to the bull, Pa. He's doing
real well, and all that's happened, is that he's got bigger."
"It might not be hurting him, son, but it could make his meat harmful
to the people who eat it," explained Ben. "I am sorry to rain
on your
parade, but I need to know a lot more, before I hail this as an aid to
productivity. I would like to meet this man."
"I bet if Adam had come up with this scheme, you wouldn't have queried
it," said Joe, moving away from his father, and adopting his mulish
look. "You would've patted him on the back, and said `well done'. But,
just cos it's Little Joe, the baby of the family, with the good idea,
you can't accept that it will work."
Ben had to admit, if only to himself, that Joe did have a point, but
then Ben knew that Adam would have taken more time to check out the
product, before giving it to one of their animals.
"It's got nothing to do with it being your idea, Joe. I just want
to
be absolutely sure that it is safe, for the animals and the people who
are going to eat them. Could you bring this man out to the ranch, so
that I can talk to him?"
"I can't do that, Pa, cos he's already moved on," said Joe.
"Well, you must have a way of contacting him, so that you can order
some of his product, once the free sample is all gone."
"No need, cos I bought enough to feed all the cattle on the ranch,
while he was in town. You only need to give it to them, for a week, as
you don't want `em getting too big."
Ben moved closer to his son, and pulled the young man around, to face him.
"And just how much did that cost me?" he demanded.
"Five thousand dollars," mumbled Joe. "But we'll easily
make it back
when the cattle go to market."
"FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS," yelled Ben, causing Joe to wince. "For
a
week's worth of cattle feed additive? Where were you keeping your
brains, that day? Does Adam know about this? How did you get the
money? You're not old enough to sign cheques for the ranch, yet."
"Adam doesn't know," said Joe. "He and Hoss got called up
to the high
country, to sort out a problem with the new timber contract, a few
days ago, and so I was the only one here. Before he left, Adam asked
me to put the money from that last timber deal, into the bank, so when
I met Mr Chalmers, in town, I had the cash on me."
"Well, young man, you and I are gonna track down your Mr Chalmers
and
demand MY money back. We'll head out, first thing in the morning.
Hopefully, by then, Adam and Hoss will be back, and so they can keep
an eye on things, here."
"We can't do that, Pa. I signed a paper, saying I couldn't have a
refund, as I know that the product works. You can see that it does, by
looking at the bull."
"Yes, Joseph, I know I can, but as I have already explained, we don't
know what the long term affects could be, to the quality of the meat,
and so I am not prepared to write off five thousand dollars on a
product I am not sure about. Where have you stored the stuff? I want
to take a sample into town and have it tested, to see what it contains."
"It's in the shed out back of the barn," said Joe, dejectedly.
He knew
there was no point arguing with his father about this, as Ben had made
up his mind. And, although the young man was now too old for a
tanning, he knew that his father could still deliver a stinging
lecture and give him extra chores to do, should he overstep the mark,
and be disrespectful.
That evening, as Ben and Joe sat eating their supper, they heard the
sound of horses arriving in the yard. They went outside and found it
was Adam and Hoss, returning home. Hoss was leading a bull, who was
identical to the one in the corral, but a lot smaller.
"Howdy, Pa," said Hoss, dismounting from Chubb. "Good ta
see ya back.
Sorry we weren't here ta welcome ya home, but I guess Joe told ya
`bout the trouble at the lumber camp? It's all sorted now, though. We
found ole Buster, here, wanderin' by himself, well away from the
pasture. How did ya manage ta lose him, shortshanks?"
"I didn't lose him," said an indignant Joe. "He's in the
corral. That
ain't Buster, must be a stray."
"Little brother, I might not have your skill with the ladies, but
I
know our stock, and this here is Buster. That animal in the corral
might look jest like him, but he ain't one of our bulls, trust me on
this."
As Hoss was speaking, Ben went to have a closer look at the bull in
the corral. He soon realised that Hoss was correct, it wasn't Buster.
They'd only had the bull, for a short while, and Hoss had been the one
to buy him, and Ben knew that his middle son had a really good eye,
when being able to identify individual animals.
"Hoss is right, Little Joe," he said. "This isn't Buster,
and I feel a
bit foolish that I didn't realise it, as soon as I looked at him,
although the two are very similar, apart from the size, of course."
It suddenly dawned on Ben what had happened.
"You have been the victim of a conman, son," he said. "Chalmers
has
given you some powder to add to the bull's food and told you that it
will make him increase in size, very rapidly. Then, he has sneaked up
here and substituted this bigger bull and taken Buster away. You
believed that the food additive had made Buster grow and so bought a
load of it, and then Chalmers leaves town, and moves on to cheat
someone else."
Joe knew that Ben was right, but he was desperate to try and salvage
something, from the mess, and so he said, "Well, at least we've gained
another bull, so we haven't really lost five thousand dollars, have we?"
"Sorry to burst your last bubble of hope, buddy," said Adam,
who had
been checking over the fake Buster. "But this bull is only worth about
$750 and is a bit too old to be put out to stud. So you have still
managed to lose the ranch over four thousand dollars."
"I'm real sorry, Pa. I should've noticed that it was a different bull,
but one looks much the same as another, to me. Now, if it were a
horse, I would be able to tell the difference."
"The damage is done, now, son, but we will do all we can to retrieve
our money and see that Chalmers is sent to prison, where he won't be
able to fleece any one else. And I hope this will be a good lesson for
the future, and you won't undertake such a deal, without consulting me
or one of your brothers, first."
"No sir, I won't," said Joe.
The family didn't tease Joe, too much, about what he'd done, as he was
pretty down on himself, already, and felt really bad about being
tricked. However, Adam did comment that it was shame it hadn't worked,
as they could have fed some to Little Joe and then changed his name.
The next morning, Joe and Ben set out to track down Mr Chalmers. It
turned out that the food additive contained nothing more than
cornflour and wheatgerm, definitely nothing to cause quick growth in
animals, but nothing harmful, either. It took a while, but Ben and Joe
eventually found Chalmers and were able to prove that he was a conman,
and so got the money returned.
And, when they returned home, Hoss put Joe on an intensive course, in
cattle recognition.
THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne
July 10th 2006