A HARD LESSON TO LEARN

It was the second morning of the round up and Little Joe was
desperately trying to formulate, in his befuddled mind, an explanation
for him being extremely hungover and minus his shirt. He knew that
when Pa arrived on the scene, his father would want to know what had
been happening.

Little Joe was now fifteen and was just beginning to feel that his
father was relaxing his hold on him, a bit. He was still at school,
but Ben had agreed to him helping out on the round up, and maybe the
drive, as well, if he worked well on the round up. The young man was
often heard remarking that he didn't need a keeper and was perfectly
capable of looking after himself. However, once again, it was looking
as though these words were about to come back and haunt him.

The evening before, Joe had drawn the short straw and so was watching
over the herd, throughout the night. Two men were assigned this task
and the other one chosen was a young man called Kelly. He was only a
bit older than Joe, about seventeen or eighteen, but had been working
on ranches for almost three years, being that he was an orphan, with
no one to take care of him.

Although Joe was very happy to have his father and brothers to love
him and look out for him, in some ways he was also envious of Kelly.
The young man could go and do whatever he wanted, without answering to
anyone.

As they lazily rode around the perimeter of the herd, the two young
men talked and Joe began to see, more and more, the advantages of
being your own man.

"I've seen a helluva lot of this great country," boasted Kelly.
"Worked for some of the best ranchers and learnt a lot. Life ain't
been too bad."

Kelly was not about to tell Joe of all the times when he'd been run
out of towns, for begging on the streets, and about the times he'd
slept in doorways of stores, in an effort to gain some shelter from
the rain or the wind. Or about the times, when a bit younger, he'd
been taken on as a ranch hand, only to be beaten and starved and
treated worse than a dog, just because he was young and unable to
stick up for himself.

So, Joe was getting the idea that Kelly had a pretty good lifestyle.

After another ride around the cattle, the two young men dismounted and
started a small fire, as the nights were beginning to get colder, once
the sun set. Before he sat down with Joe, Kelly pulled a bottle of
whisky out of his saddlebags and took a swig, then offered the bottle
to his young companion.

"I don't think we should, Kelly," said Joe. "My Pa wouldn't approve of
us drinking, while we were working."

Kelly looked over at Joe and said, "What you mean, little boy, is that
your Pa wouldn't approve of you, ever, having a drink, as he treats
you like you're still a baby. And you're too scared to disobey Papa,
ain't ya?"

This was like a red rag to a bull, to Joe, as nothing antagonised the
boy, more, than to be called a little boy.

"Gimme the bottle," he said, trying to lower his voice as much as he
could, in an effort to sound older. "Iffen I wanna a drink, then I
have one. Pa ain't the boss of me."

Joe took a large swig out of the bottle and had to fight hard not to
choke, as the bitter tasting rotgut made its way down his throat.

"Good stuff," he managed to say, once the whisky hit his stomach.

As the boys drank more of the rotgut, they both began to get rather
giggly.

"You know, Kelly, we oughta go and check on the cattle again," said
Joe. "But I don't think I could stay put in the saddle."

Kelly laughed.

"No, me neither. Hey, Joe, I gotta an idea. Them cows are so dumb they
wouldn't know iffen we was in the saddle, or not. So, let's make
dummies outta hay and dress `em in our shirts and chaps, fix `em on
our horses and send `em out instead of us? Then we can stay here and
finish off this whisky."

Because Joe was drunk, the idea made perfect sense and the boys soon
managed to fashion a couple of dummies out of some of the hay that had
been brought in to fatten up the cattle, before the drive. They
removed their chaps and shirts, dressed the dummies, and tied them on
to their saddled up horses, giggling all the while. The horses were
then sent off to walk around the perimeter of the herd, while the boys
snuggled up under their bedrolls and finished off the last of the whisky.

When daylight arrived at the camp, Hoss and Adam woke up, yawning and
scratching. They headed for the chuck wagon, as both were in need of a
strong cup of black coffee to get them motivated for the day's work ahead.

As they sipped the dark brew, another of the hands ran over to them,
carrying the remains of Joe and Kelly's shirts and chaps.

"Found these in with the cattle, Adam," said Dave, looking rather worried.

"Those are Little Joe's, sure enough," said Hoss.

"And Kelly's," said Adam. "Did you find their horses?"

"Yes, I did," said Dave. "They were grazing quite happily, some
distance from the cattle, and they had bits of rope looped through
their stirrups and some hay stuck to `em."

Hoss voiced the words that Adam was also thinking.

"Do ya reckon that those boys were knocked off their horses and
trampled on, last night?"

"I doubt it," said Dave. "For that to have happened, there would've
been a lot of noise, and we heard nothing."

"True," said Adam. "But why are the clothes torn and where are Little
Joe and Kelly?"

Just then, Charlie, one of the oldest hands on the ranch, arrived at
the chuck wagon, with Joe and Kelly in tow.
The two boys were looking very much the worse for wear, and Joe's
demeanour did not change, for the better, when Adam grabbed hold of him.

"What on earth do you think you were doing last night? Hoss and I
thought you'd been trampled to death by the cattle."

Joe lifted up his head, and then wished he hadn't.

"Why did you think that, big brother?" he groaned.

"Because we found these," said Adam, holding up the torn clothes.
"They were under the hooves of the cattle and there was no sign of you."

"Aw, it was jest a joke, Mr Cartwright," said Kelly, trying out a
smile on Adam. "Ya see, Joe and me split a bottle, last night, and
then we sent the horses out with dummies on `em, in case anyone was
spying on us. Clever, huh?"

"Yeah, just a joke," said Joe. "So, no need to worry, as we're fine,
big brother."

"Well, ya sure are, now," said Hoss. "But I'd hate ta be in your
shoes, when Pa finds out what ya done."

"Aw, he'll understand it was only a joke, surely," said Kelly. "Mr
Cartwright seems like a reasonable man."

"Oh, he is, when you treat him fairly," said Adam. "But dereliction of
your duty is not being fair to him, and so I fear you are being
delusional if you really think that Pa will find this funny."

Joe knew that Adam spoke the truth and the two young men just accepted
the cup of coffee they were offered, and sat drinking it, in silence.

Not long afterwards, Ben arrived in the camp, anxious to find out how
his youngest had coped with the rigours of night watch, without his
brothers to support him. He took Adam, who was the trail boss, to one
side, to find out, and as Adam explained what had happened, Ben's
voice began to rise.

Joe and Hoss could hear their father yelling, and Joe, looking for a
silver lining in the very dark cloud that was now hanging over his
head, said, "Well, at least there's no barn here that he can take me
to, in order to give me one of his necessary talking tos."

Unfortunately for Joe, Ben heard what he said, as he was walking
towards the boy, as Joe spoke.

"There might not be a barn, young man, but there is a chuck wagon,
real close, and it's where you and I are going, right now," and Ben
grabbed hold of Joe's arm, and led him round to the back of the wagon.
All that could be heard, for the next few minutes, was the sound of
strangled yelps coming out of Little Joe, as Ben demonstrated to the
boy just how disappointed he was with his behaviour.

Kelly sat by the fire, feeling rather uncomfortable that he'd got Joe
into such trouble, but also relieved that Ben wasn't his father, that
is, until Adam called him to one side.

"I know that my little brother is more than capable of getting in to
all kinds of mischief, by himself, so I am not blaming you for leading
him on," said Adam. "However, just like him, you were being employed
to do a job on this ranch and you failed to do it. Joe is being
punished by our father, as he is younger than you and was just working
with us, while on a break from school. But you are a full time hand
and as you failed to do your job, I have no choice but to dispense
with your services."

"Huh?" replied Kelly, not fully understanding what Adam was saying.

"You are sacked," said Adam.

Suddenly, the realisation that he was, once again, going to be all on
his own, hit Kelly, and he didn't like it, one bit. Although he'd
teased Joe about the way his family looked out for him, the real
reason he did so, was because he was jealous of what Joe had.

`Hell, I'm even jealous of the fact that Joe's Pa's just given him a
tanning,' he thought. `At least, now it's over, Joe's been forgiven
and he still has a bed to sleep in tonight, and food on the table; I
don't.'

For once, Kelly dropped the `I don't care, I'm better off alone'
attitude that he'd built up over the years, and he showed Adam the
vulnerable youngster he really was.

"I'm real sorry, Mr Cartwright. It was a danged fool thing to do,
drinking when we was supposed ta be working, and sending out those
dummies. I'll accept any punishment you wanna hand out, but please
don't sack me. I really need this job."

Adam could tell that Kelly was being sincere, and he had been around
the boy, long enough, to see how much he needed the security of
working for a family like theirs.

"Okay, in that case, I'm going to take you off the round up and send
you back to the ranch to do the yard chores. And then, if you perform
those duties conscientiously, I might consider reinstating you to a
proper ranch hand, again."

"That sounds fair, Mr Cartwright," said Kelly. "Thank you."

Adam discussed his decision with Ben, who was happy to let Kelly stay,
as he, too, felt that the young man could do with the stability of
working on their ranch, for a while.

"Joe will be glad to have his partner in crime with him, as I'm taking
your little brother back to the house with me, too," said Ben. "He's
proved to us that he's not ready to be trusted, yet, out here, with
the cattle."

So Ben took Joe and Kelly back to the ranch with him, and the boys
worked hard at their assigned chores. When Joe returned to school,
after the holidays, Kelly was allowed to go back to doing his former
job on the ranch; both boys having learned a valuable lesson.

THE END

Little Joe forever
Lynne
October 29th 2007

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