WHO STOLE THE COOKIES FROM THE COOKIE JAR?
by
Lynne C.
For the third morning in a row, Hop Sing took the cookie jar down from
its place on the shelf in the kitchen and, with a fair amount of
trepidation, looked inside it. Once again, it was empty.
`Who stole the cookies from the cookie jar?' he thought to himself.
The most likely culprit, eighteen year old Hoss, was away from home,
on a horse buying trip with his older brother, Adam. And Hop Sing had
already asked twelve year old Little Joe, if he was the thief, but the
boy had denied all knowledge of the missing biscuits. Hop Sing, who
had known the boy all his life, was fairly sure Joe was speaking the
truth. Although the boy was a first class mischief magnet, he wasn't
very good at lying; especially to those who knew and loved him the
most, namely his father, his brothers, and Hop Sing.
The cook hadn't even bothered to ask his boss, Ben Cartwright, if he'd
eaten all the cookies, as he knew that Ben didn't have that sweet a
tooth, and only very rarely ate one cookie, much less a whole jar full.
Later on, when Hop Sing went into the dining room, to serve breakfast
to Ben and Joe, he was still puzzling over the mystery, and appeared
to be rather distracted.
"What's the matter, Hop Sing?" asked Ben. "You seem rather
down in the
dumps, this morning."
"He's probably missing Hoss, Pa," piped up Little Joe. "After
all, you
and me together can't eat as much as big brother Hoss does, and so Hop
Sing doesn't feel appreciated."
Ben chuckled at this remark.
"You could have a point there, Little Joe," said Ben. "Is
that what it
is, Hop Sing? Are you missing Hoss?"
"Hop Sing always miss boys when away, but I am thinking about cookies,
not Mistah Hoss."
"Are the cookies still going missing, then?" asked Ben.
"Yes, Mistah Ben, they are," said Hop Sing.
"It is very perplexing, I must admit," said Ben. "Are you
sure you
don't know anything about it, Little Joe?"
"I've already said I don't, Pa," said Joe, looking upset. "Don't
you
believe me?"
Ben reached over and patted the boy on his hand.
"Of course I believe you, son, but it makes no sense. How can cookies
keep disappearing out of a jar in the kitchen? I wish we could get to
the bottom of it."
"Hop Sing wishes we could, too," said the cook.
"Well, I'd love to stay and discuss it with you, but I've gotta go
to
school," said Joe, preparing to leave. "After all, I wasn't allowed
to
go with Hoss and Adam on the horse buying trip, cos I had to go to
school, so I can hardly stay off and spend time tracking down a cookie
thief, now can I? Bye, Pa, see you later."
"Bye, son, take care," said Ben, swatting Little Joe on the backside,
as the boy ran past him.
"Cheeky little devil," said Ben, to Hop Sing, but they both knew
that
life would be extremely dull without Little Joe to liven things up.
Even though Joe was away from the house, for most of the day, he was
still thinking about the mystery of the missing cookies.
He discussed it with his best friend, Mitch, as they ate their lunch
together.
"It's really weird the way they keep disappearing," said Joe.
Mitch, who rather fancied the idea of being a detective, said, "Maybe
we could investigate? You know, keep a watch out for the thief."
"Yeah, I guess we could," said Joe, warming to the idea. "I
know, it's
Friday today, so there's no school tomorrow. Why don't you come and
stay over at my place, tonight, and we'll stake out the kitchen?"
"Great idea," said Mitch. "I'll get Patti to tell Ma and Pa where I am."
"And I know Pa won't mind you staying," said Joe. "And Hop
Sing will
be delighted to have another person at the dinner table, as he keeps
cooking too much food, forgetting that Hoss and Adam aren't here."
After school, the two boys rode home to the Ponderosa. Joe burst
through the front door, calling out for his father.
"Hey, Pa, I've brought Mitch home with me. Is it okay if he stays
tonight?"
"No need to shout, son," said Ben. "I'm only at my desk.
And yes,
Mitch can stay, as long as his parents know where he is."
"Hi, Mr Cartwright," said Mitch. "I asked Patti to tell
Ma and Pa
where I was, so they do know I'm here, sir."
"That's fine, then," said Ben. "Now, if you will excuse
me, boys, I
must finish this paperwork. And Joe, don't forget to do your chores,
before you and Mitch go off to do whatever you two are planning to do,
today."
"Don't worry, Pa, I'll do my chores and Mitch'll help me," said Joe.
Once the chores were done, Joe and Mitch went upstairs to Joe's room,
to plan what they were going to do, that night.
"We'll havta wait until Pa's in bed, and then go back downstairs,"
said Joe. "But then no one's likely to try and steal `em while Pa is
still up, cos he'd see them."
"Where's the best place to watch from?" asked Mitch.
"I reckon we oughta wait in the kitchen, itself," said Joe. "If
we
just sit at the table, in the dark, then no one will be able to see
us, and if the thief comes in, we'll catch `em red handed."
"Doncha mean cookie handed?" said Mitch, making Joe giggle.
Despite having each other to talk to, the boys found it very hard to
stay awake until after Ben had retired for the night.
However, they managed it, and once they were sure that all was quiet,
the two of them crept downstairs and took up their positions at the
kitchen table.
"Do you think that whoever it is, might be dangerous when cornered?"
whispered Mitch. "I mean, should we have a gun with us, just in case?"
"If either of us dared to have a gun in our possession, my Pa would
tan our hides, even if we were capturing a cookie thief," whispered
back Joe. "So, no, we're not getting a gun."
"Okay," said Mitch. "It was just a thought."
The idea of catching a thief had seemed rather exciting, when the boys
were planning it, in Joe's room. However, after sitting on rather
uncomfortable kitchen chairs, in the dark, without being able to talk
to each other, for over an hour, the two boys were getting very bored.
Joe was just on the point of saying to Mitch that he wanted to go back
to bed, when he heard a noise. It was the sound of a door opening, and
then closing.
Mitch reached out across the table and grabbed hold of Joe's arm.
"Someone's coming," he whispered.
"I know," whispered back Joe.
The boys sat as still as they could, and Joe even tried to hold his
breath, as he was sure that the thief would be able to hear him
breathing, and then be aware that he or she was being observed.
There was a lamp on the table and as soon as Mitch heard the jar being
removed from the shelf, he struck a match and lit the lamp.
Both boys were really shocked to discover that the thief was none
other than Hop Sing, but the cook was not even aware that they were
there, as he was sleepwalking.
Joe went to grab hold of the cook, but Mitch stopped him.
"He's sleepwalking, Joe, and it's dangerous to wake up a sleepwalker.
Just leave him, and he'll go back to his bed."
"All right," said Joe. "But I'm gonna go and tell Pa."
The boys left Hop Sing to his midnight snack and went back upstairs.
Joe knocked on his father's door and waited until Ben called out for
him to enter.
"Sorry to wake you, Pa, but we've found out who is stealing the cookies."
When Joe told his father that it was Hop Sing, Ben found it hard to
accept what his son was saying.
"It's the truth, Mr Cartwright, we both saw him, but he was
sleepwalking and that's why he doesn't remember taking them, the next
day," said Mitch.
"It all makes sense," said Ben. "I couldn't imagine that
we were being
burgled, night after night, just for some cookies, and I knew that it
wasn't Joe or myself, who was taking them. But I am surprised to hear
that Hop Sing has been sleepwalking, as he's never done so, before.
I'll just go down and make sure he's got back to bed, all right. You
two go and turn in, now. I'll talk to Hop Sing about this, in the
morning. Goodnight, boys, and thank you for solving the mystery."
"You're welcome, Pa, night, night," said Joe.
The next morning Ben did confront Hop Sing about his nocturnal
wanderings and the cook confessed that he'd put himself on a diet, as
he was trying to gain the attention of a young Chinese girl, who had
recently gone to work in his father's laundry. She was a fair bit
younger than him, and he felt that if he lost some weight and toned up
his body, a bit, then she might be interested in him.
"Hop Sing go to bed, dreaming of food. It very hard for cook to lose
weight. Must have food so much on mind that I go looking for some, in
my sleep. Very sorry, Mistah Ben, to cause you all this trouble."
"It wasn't any trouble, exactly, Hop Sing, it was just difficult to
fathom. Thank goodness we had our detectives on the trail, eh, boys?"
"All in a day's work, Pa, for crime busters such as Mitch and me,"
said Joe.
THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne
February 2008