In Search of My Boy
By
Lynne C.
I love that boy of mine to bits, but sometimes I can’t believe the things he gets up to. He tells me that his Pa can be a mite unreasonable, at times, and I havta act like I agree with him, don’t I? After all, he is my boy and a horse hasta stick by his rider, but just between me and you, I think that his Pa has the patience of a saint and if he does get mad, then Little Joe has asked for it.
Take this latest escapade, for instance. Joe’s on summer break from school and I’m real pleased about that, cos when he’s not in school, it means that he and I get to do more stuff together. When he’s in the schoolroom, I spend a lot of time in the corral, waiting for him, and that gets to be rather boring. Trouble is, his Pa ain’t too happy about the amount of time he’s been spending riding out on me, instead of being at home, doing his chores.
Twice, already, his Pa’s had words with him, about his responsibilities, and he told Joe that he’s not to go off to have fun, until he’s done his chores. Each time Joe said he was sorry, and he’d make sure that he did as his Pa said, next time. But, of course, being fifteen means that you just don’t always remember your good intentions, and so he’d forget, again. So, last time he forgot, his Pa said he wasn’t to go anywhere, on, me, for the next week.
For two days, he did as he was told, but then his friend, Mitch Devlin, came by, on my friend, Thor, Mitch’s horse. Mitch told my boy he was going after a mountain lion that had been bothering his Pa’s herd and Joe wanted to go with him. But he remembered his father’s words and told Mitch he couldn’t go, as he was banned from riding me. So, what do you think that sneaky Mitch told him to do? Have you guessed? Well, in case you ain’t, I’ll tell ya. He suggested that Little Joe took another horse, and went with him. That way he wasn’t disobeying his Pa, cos he wasn’t riding me.
Now, I tried to dissuade him from going, but unfortunately I don’t possess the ability to talk in the same language that Joe does, and so he mistook my whinnying and pawing at the ground, for something else.
“Aw calm down, Coochie,” he said. “I know you wanna be the one I ride, but I ain’t allowed to go out on you, so I’m taking Sport. Now, I know that Adam is a bit precious about who rides his horse, but Sport’s the only one in the barn. If I go up to the corral to get another horse, one of the hands might see me, and tell Pa what I was doing. Adam’s gone to town in the buckboard and he’s likely to be gone most of the day, so I can borrow Sport and have him back before Adam knows he’s ever been gone.”
Both boys were excited at the prospect of shooting the mountain lion and they weren’t thinking straight, but I was. I knew it was gonna end in tears, cos Joe’s too small to ride Sport, safely, but like I’ve already said, he wasn’t taking any notice of what I was trying to tell him.
So they rode off, leaving me in the corral by the house, all alone. I paced up and down, for quite a while, just generally put out by the fact that my boy was out there, riding another horse. But after a while, I began to feel even more anxious, and I knew it was more than just my hurt feelings that was making me so agitated. Joe was in trouble, of that I was certain, and I was determined to get out of the corral and go and find him.
I began to protest, loudly, about being there, in the hope that someone would hear me and come and investigate. However, the yard was deserted and Hop Sing, the cook, wasn’t in the house, as he’d gone to town with Adam. So, I had to wait until Hoss came back from wherever he’d been. He rode into the yard, dismounted from Chubb, and was just about to remove his saddle, when he noticed how upset I was.
He walked over to the corral and said, “What’s botherin’, ya, hey?” And he attempted to get hold of me, to try and calm me down. But I wasn’t having any of that, and I pulled away from Hoss, and went over to the other side of the corral. Hoss began to walk around to where I was now standing, but as he did so, I moved, again. He then decided that the only way he was gonna get close, was to open the gate and come in the corral, with me, but I was ready for that. As soon as he opened the gate, I made my bid for freedom, and I was outta there, faster than a bullet from a gun.
“What’s gotten into ya, ya dadblamed horse?” yelled Hoss, but I just kept on running.
‘Hold on, Little Joe, I’m coming’ was the thought uppermost in my mind, so although I like Hoss real well, I ignored him.
I ran for some time, and eventually I came to the place where Mitch and
Joe had been searching for the mountain lion. There was Sport, grazing at
the side of the road, like nothing was wrong, but there was no sign of Little
Joe, Thor or Mitch. I walked over to Sport and asked him where my boy was.
The arrogant son of a gun wasn’t gonna tell me, at first, but that was because
he’d done a fool thing and didn’t wanna admit it. But I kept on at him,
and he told me that the mountain lion had jumped down on him and Joe, causing
Joe to fall off. He blamed it all on my boy, saying that Joe was too small
to sit astride him, properly, and that’s why he was unseated. There was
more than a little truth in that, so I said nothing about it, but I wanted
to know why he hadn’t stayed with Joe. He had to admit that the lion spooked
him and he’d taken off, at a gallop. But he insisted he’d come back, when
he felt it was safe, but by then, Joe was nowhere to be seen. I asked about
Mitch and Thor, and he said they’d been spooked, too, but he didn’t think
Mitch had fallen off. He reckoned that Mitch must’ve come back, found Joe,
and was now taking him home.
This sounded to be very likely, although I hadn’t seen them, on my way out
there, from the ranch. Just then, Hoss arrived, having followed me. He got
down off Chubb and checked over Sport and me, pleased to find that, apart
from a couple of scratches on Sport, we were both okay. He then checked
the ground and was soon back in the saddle, with me on a rope, and leading
Sport by his reins.
“Looks like another rider’s picked up Joe, and is headin’ that way,” said Hoss, pointing towards the Devlin ranch. “My bet is that Joe’s with Mitch,” and we headed off, after them.
We didn’t catch up with them, until we got to the Devlin place. Mrs Devlin was tending to Joe’s injured shoulder, where the mountain lion had scratched him, when it jumped down off the rocks, and also yelling at Mitch and Joe for going after the beast.
“You know you shouldn’t have gone without your Pa, or one of your older brothers being along with you,” she said. “It was just pure foolishness and Little Joe is very lucky that his injuries aren’t any worse.”
Hoss agreed with her, once he was sure that Little Joe wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Thanks for tendin’ to him, ma’am,” said Hoss, to Mrs Devlin. “I’ll take him back home, now, as I’m sure Pa will have a few things ta say ta him, about all this.”
Joe didn’t ride home on me or Sport, but up behind his big brother, on
Chubb. That Chubb is a pretty good horse, and I’m real proud that he’s one
of my stable mates. He took it real gentle, on the way home, so’s not to
make Joe hurt any more than was absolutely necessary. Mind you, when we
got home and his Pa found out what he’d done, Little Joe’s rear end was
hurting a bit, and he sure wasn’t interested in riding any horse on the
ranch, for a day, or two, not even me.
But he did come out to the barn, later that evening, and reward me for finding
him, with a few carrots he’d filched from the kitchen. I just hope that
Hop Sing don’t get mad about him taking ’em, though, or else it might be
even more days before Joe is able to ride me, again.
I tell you, folks, life is never dull, here on the Ponderosa.
THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne
July 29th 2006