GOING, GOING, GONE
by
Lynne C.

It had been a long, hard morning and Ben Cartwright, owner of the
Ponderosa ranch, in the territory of Nevada, well respected member of
the church, in Virginia City, head of the school board, chairman of
the Cattleman's Association, regular benefactor to the Miners Widows
and Orphans Fund, and all round good egg, had just about reached the
end of his tether.

He had spent the morning, taking care of his five-year-old son, Little
Joe, and was just about ready to admit defeat. This man had fought
pirates at sea, Indians on the plains, injustice in the courts,
landgrabbers, claim jumpers and all manner of ne'er do wells, but his
little boy had almost got him beat.

Since losing his beloved wife, Marie, Ben had received a fair amount
of help from friends and neighbours, when it came to taking care of
his sons, but he knew he couldn`t expect to rely on them, forever. He
realised he needed to get life back to normal, for the boys, and that
wasn't going to be possible, if Joe was always being farmed out to
other people.

Adam was now working full time on the ranch and Hoss was back at
school. Hop Sing was there to look after Little Joe, most days, so
that Ben could concentrate on running the ranch, but on this
particular day, Hop Sing was called into town to take care of his
father, who had been taken ill.

"I can always repair that fencing, another day, Pa," said Adam, as
they ate breakfast, together. "That way, I can stay here and keep an
eye on Joe."

"That's good of you, son, but that fencing needs sorting out, sooner,
rather than later, or else we are going to be missing several head of
cattle. It's all right, as I can do paper work, today, and keep an eye
on Joe, at the same time."

"You can try, sure enough," said eleven year old, Hoss, between
mouthfuls of his oatmeal. "But our little brother is sneaky, and he
needs both eyes kept on him, least that's what Mama always said."

As always, at the mention of their mother, all three boys looked sad,
but then Adam tried to lighten the mood.

"And Mama was right, Pa, you know she was. Are you sure you're up to
handling this little tyke all alone? You know, I can't recall the last
time you looked after him, entirely on your own. You've always had at
least one other person here with you."

"In that case, it's about time I did look after him, on my own, isn't
it, Little Joe? We'll get on fine, won't we, son?"

"Yes, Papa, we sure will," said Joe, getting down from his chair, and
launching himself into Ben's arms, wiping his oatmeal rimmed mouth on
Ben's shirtsleeve, as he did so.

Hoss left for school and Adam set off for the North pasture, to repair
the fence, and Joe waved them off, from the porch.

"Bye, bye, Adam, bye, bye, Hossy," yelled Joe, until both his brothers
were out of sight.

Joe returned to the house and found that Ben was sitting at his desk.
Joe scrambled up his father's legs, anxious to return to his spot on
Ben's lap. As he did so, he knocked a stack of papers, which were on
the corner of the desk, onto the floor.

"Oh, Little Joe, I've just got those papers into order. I wish you'd
be a bit more careful, son. And anyway, you can't sit up here, with
me, I have work to do."

"I wanna help you, Papa," said Joe. "Hop Sing lets me help him."

"Does he, indeed?" said Ben, not really believing the boy, as he knew
that Hop Sing was very fussy about the way the house was taken care of.

"Yeah, he does," continued Little Joe. "He gives me a cloff and I do
the dusting, so I can help you, too, Papa."

Ben thought about this, and then had an idea.

"Okay, you can help Papa, then," he said. "Just sit there and I'll get
you some paper and a pencil."

Ben placed the little boy on a chair, on the opposite side of the
desk, to his, and found Joe a pencil and several sheets of paper. He
then gave him another sheet of paper, containing some numbers.

"Now then, son, you can copy out those numbers onto this sheet of
paper for me, okay?"

Little Joe nodded and was soon concentrating hard on doing what his
father asked, his tongue just showing between his lips, as he did so.
There was no real point to the exercise, other than to keep the little
boy occupied, but Ben justified it, in his own mind, by the fact that
Joe was practising writing numbers, something he needed to know how to do.

It did keep Joe quiet for about fifteen minutes, but after that, the
boy became bored and started talking to Ben.

"What we gonna do, next, Papa? Is it snack time, yet? Hop Sing baked
cookies afore he went to see his Papa, shall we have some, huh?"

"Ssh, Little Joe, Papa's working. It's too early for a snack."

Joe was quiet, for a few more minutes, and then he began to fidget and
sigh, loudly.

"Papa, I wanna go pee."

"Well, off you go, then, son, you don't need me to take you, do you?"

Joe pulled himself up, to his fullest height, in the chair, and said,
"No, course not, I'm a big boy, now, but I can't git these dadburned
buttons, undone."

Joe was pointing at the buttons on his overalls, so Ben undid them and
then lifted Joe off the chair, sending him on his way, with a little
love pat to his bottom.

"Off you go, sweetheart," he said.

Ben was soon engrossed in his paperwork, again, and failed to realise
how long Joe had been away. Suddenly, he heard a commotion, out in the
yard, and Charlie, one of his most trusted employees, burst into the
room, holding onto a wriggling Little Joe.

"Let go of me, I wasn't doing no harm," yelled the squirming boy.

"What on earth is going on?" demanded Ben, coming out from behind his
desk.

"This little scamp nearly got hisself gored to death, is all," said
Charlie, and Ben could tell that the man was visibly shaken by what
had happened. "He came over to me, asking me to do up his buttons,
after using the outhouse. I did so, and told him to go back in the
house to you, boss, and then I went in the barn to get on with my
chores. Next thing I know, he's in the holding corral, with the new
bull, tryin' ta be a matador. Now, as you know, that bull ain't tried
and tested, yet, he's not been here that long and well, I just don't
wanna think about what might have happened."

Charlie had known Joe since he was born and, like a lot of the hands
on the ranch, thought the world of the boy. But, he knew that it was
necessary for Joe to obey orders, as there were a lot of things, on a
ranch, that could be harmful to a small boy.

"I know you've already told him to stay away from the bull, boss, so I
felt it was my duty to let you know what he was doing."

"You're just a snitch, Charlie, that's what you are," shouted Joe, and
he tried to kick the ranch hand, but Charlie was too quick for him,
and he landed a swat on Joe's bottom, before the kick could connect.

"Ow, that hurt," yelled Joe, getting even shriller. "PAPA, Charlie
hitted me, he's mean, ain't he?"

"No, he's not, Little Joe, and if he hadn't smacked you, then I would
have," said Ben, taking hold of his wayward, little boy. "You have
been told, on several occasions, not to go near that bull, and you had
no right to try and kick Charlie, when all he was doing was protecting
you from harm."

"The bull didn't hurted me, Charlie did," said Joe, beginning to cry.

"The bull didn't get a chance to hurt you, as I got you out of there,
just in time," said Charlie. "Sorry for smacking the young `un, boss,
but it was just a gut reaction, when he was gonna kick me."

"That's all right, Charlie, and thank you for what you did. If it
weren't for you and the other hands keeping such a close eye on this
little one, he would've been in a lot more trouble, by now, as he
seems to attract it. I don't recall Adam and Hoss getting into
anywhere near as much trouble, when they were little, as this one does."

"I think you're right, boss, he's a trouble magnet, all right. Well,
I'll leave him with you, now, as I've chores to do," and Charlie left
the room.

Ben knew that he wasn't going to get anymore work done, until he'd
calmed Little Joe down, so he carried the boy over to his favourite
armchair, by the fireplace, and sat down, with Joe on his lap.

Ben said nothing, for a few minutes, just gently rubbed the little
boy's back, until Joe stopped crying. Despite knowing that the boy was
upset, Ben decided that he had to make Joe realise the seriousness of
what he'd done.

"There, there, sweetheart, all over with now, but you really must
start doing as you're told. If anything happened to you, Papa, Adam
and Hoss would be so upset and you wouldn't want to make us sad, would
you?"

"No, Papa, I don't wanna make you sad, but the bull was lonely and I
jest wanted to go and say hello and play wiv him, fer a bit. I don't
like being alone, so I fought he might not, eiver. And I sawed a
picture in Adam's book, wiv a man waving a red blanky at a bull, so
fought that's what they liked you to do. So I got Hoss' underdrawers
from the laundry, and waved `em at him. But Charlie says that makes
`em mad, so I won't do it agin." *

Ben didn't want to laugh at Joe, but the thought of the bull being
lonely, made him smile, so he coughed, to cover up his chuckles.

"Good boy, and please don't do it again. I think it's time for that
snack, now, don't you?" and Joe agreed.

The two of them enjoyed some cookies, and Joe had a glass of milk,
while Ben drank two cups of coffee.

Ben then suggested that Joe played with his toys and so Joe set up his
soldiers, all over the floor, and began to prepare for a battle. At
first, he kept the noise fairly low, but as he got more immersed in
the game, the battle cries and sounds of gunfire, became louder.
Ben tried to ignore it, but doing the accounts was not his favourite
chore and he found them hard enough to do, in complete silence. So,
when he found himself adding up the same column of figures, for the
third time, and getting yet another total, he had to say something.

"Please be quiet, darling," he said. "Papa is trying to work, and you
are making a lot of noise."

"Sorry, Papa, but I ain't making noise, it's the soldiers when they
shoot their cannons," and Joe began making even louder booming noises,
to represent the huge guns.

"Joseph, that is enough," shouted Ben. "I can't think straight, with
all that noise going on."

Joe stood up and walked over to Ben's desk, his little hands on his hips.

"And I can't play soldiers, wivout making a noise," said Joe.

"Well, play something else, then," said Ben.

"'Kay, Papa, I'll play cowboys," said Joe, and he started running
round the room, making the noise of horses hooves and yelling `yee
haw' every few seconds.

"That's just as bad, Little Joe," said Ben, feeling a headache coming on.

"Well, what can I do?" asked Joe, plaintively.

"How about reading a book?" said Ben, smiling at Joe.

"I dunno how ta wead," said Joe, giving Ben a withering look. "But you
could wead to me," he said, hopefully.

"But if I read to you, darling, then I can't get on with my work.
Isn't there anything you can do, that is quiet?"

Joe thought about it, for a while, and then shook his head.

"Nope, nuffing," said Joe.

Ben decided to give in to the inevitable and leave his bookwork until
Joe went down for his nap, after lunch.

"All right, son, let's go and play in the yard, for a bit."

Joe was delighted to have his father's full attention and the two of
them played ball and then Ben allowed himself to be used as a horse
and he gave Joe a `ride' around the yard, on his back.

`Hopefully, all this activity will make him sleepy and I will get a
couple of hours to myself, this afternoon,' thought Ben, although he
had to admit that it wasn't really a chore, playing with his little boy.

Soon, it was time for lunch, and the two of them enjoyed a roast beef
sandwich and a slice of apple pie, sitting out on the porch, in the
warm sun.

However, instead of tiring out the boy, Joe seemed to gain a new spurt
of energy and when naptime was mentioned, he was not happy.

"I'm a big boy, now, Papa, I don't need no nap," he said, folding his
arms and adopting a mulish look, which did not bode well, for Ben.

"You might not feel tired, now, but if you don't have a nap, you will
be tired, later, and you won't want to play with Adam and Hoss when
they get back home," said Ben. He hoped that Joe's big brothers would
be the carrot to entice his little mule to go to bed.

Unfortunately, it didn't work, and Ben could feel himself getting
angry. He knew that being cross wouldn't improve the situation, but
then he suddenly had an idea. A few years, earlier, he, Adam and Hoss
had attended a show, at a theatre in Sacramento. On the bill was a
hypnotist and he'd called for volunteers to go up on the stage. Adam
had volunteered Ben and although he was extremely sceptical about the
man's ability to hypnotise him, it had worked.

Ben tried to recall the man's technique and once he had remembered the
words used, he decided to try it out on Joe.

He told Joe to sit on the settee and he began.

"Look into my eyes …………………….. You are getting sleepy."

Joe just giggled at his father, at first, but Ben persevered and
eventually he did succeed in getting Joe to go to sleep. He carried
Joe up to his bed and then returned to his desk, and continued with
his accounts.

It wasn't until Joe had been asleep, for a couple of hours, that Ben
realised he didn't know how to get the little boy to wake up, again.
He started to worry, but then remembered that Adam had been there,
when Ben was put under, so, hopefully, his eldest would know what the
hypnotist did to bring him out of the trance.

Fortunately, when Adam returned, he did know, and so he soon woke Joe
up. Although it had worked, Ben decided not to use that method, again,
on his little boy, as he was a bit concerned that there might be some
lasting side effects, but it certainly was a help to him, on that
particular day.

THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne
September 13th 2006
* At least not until he's a lot older, in Ponderosa Matador LOL

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