Summary: Part seven of Home.
Word Count: 8600
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Chapter 1
Winslow Ranch
Nevada Territory
1852
“You can’t ever catch me, Little Joe!” Pierce Winslow challenged his guest. Clutching his cigar box of little wooden horses, Little Joe Cartwright charged after Pierce Winslow.
“Yes I can!” Joe hollered as he chased the taller boy across the yard. Pierce climbed to the top of the stacked firewood near the shed waiting to be split. Clutching his cigar box in his right hand, Joe scrambled agilely after him. “I’ll catch you Pierce!” Joe laughed. He was almost with in arm’s reach of the other boy. It was just too easy to catch Pierce this time.
“Catch this Little Joe!” Pierce Winslow laughed from the top of the woodpile. He wickedly kicked the smaller boy in his chest as hard as he could. Surprised, Joe was knocked completely off balance. Losing his grip on the logs he staggered and fell down the entire pile. He felt his skin on his knees and elbows scrape on the rough bark as he slid down the stack of firewood. The wooden toy horses flew out of his hands. As he pitched forward he heard Pierce holler “Told you I would stay on top, Little Joe” The older boy scrambled quickly off the wood pile and scooped up Little Joe’s toys as he ran laughing towards the house.
“Give them back!” Joe hollered. “Give me back those horses, you rotten horse thief!”
Joe fell hard, just as his older brother; Hoss came around the corner of the shed. Hoss managed to catch his little brother just in time to break his fall.
“Are you all right, Little Joe?” He said as he helped him to right himself.
“That rotten Pierce knocked me over and stole my wooden horses. Damn you Pierce Winslow, I’m gonna kick your sorry butt over the fence!” Joe shouted and wrenched himself from his brother’s grasp. He took off running after Pierce and Hoss slowly followed. Joe and Pierce were always knocking heads and Hoss saw no need to rush into the battle.
Just before Pierce reached the front porch, furious Joe Cartwright tackled him from behind and knocked him flat in the mud. “Damn you to hell, give me them horses back you son of a bitch!” he hollered every cuss word he knew coloring the air. He punched the other boy as hard as he could in the face. Adam was sitting quietly on the porch swing of the Winslow ranch house between the two lovely Winslow sisters. The two young ladies were totally enraptured with handsome young Adam’s recitation of a Shakespearean sonnet he had learned a year earlier in college. He knew he was really impressing both girls and was having a fine time doing it.
Hearing the shouts of his hot tempered little brother; Adam raised his eyebrows in alarm. The young ladies had never heard such vile rude language coming out of a small boy’s mouth. Their pretty faces reflected their dismay.
“Adam! Do something!”
Little Joe had the face of an angel but the vocabulary of a gutter urchin.
“Joseph Francis Cartwright!” Adam vaulted over the porch rail and pulled his ten-year-old brother off of Pierce. Joe was kicking and swinging his fists so hard that Adam could barely hang on to him as he swung him up into the air.
“Damn it Adam! Let me kick his sorry ass!” Joe shrieked with frustration as he tried to escape his grown brother’s firm grasp. Pierce stood up and while Adam was holding on to Little Joe, he punched his opponent hard in the stomach. Then he ran up the porch steps and hid behind his sisters.
Adam was humiliated by Little Joe’s despicable, wild, rude behavior. Adam assumed incorrectly that his little brother had started the fight. “Joe, stop now!” he bellowed trying to restrain the boy.
Not knowing what Pierce had just done to his brother on the wood pile, Adam was sure Joe had attacked Pierce for no real reason.
Hearing the commotion in the front yard Ben and Mr. Winslow ran out of the barn. “Joseph!” Ben bellowed. He made the same assumption as his oldest son and was infuriated at Joe’s outrageously rude behavior at the Winslow home. He had warned his youngest son that he was to be on his most polite behavior while they were guests of the Winslows and now Ben’s order was being defied.
Hoss ran over to the fight but before he could say anything to explain what he had just witnessed at the wood pile, Ben yanked Little Joe from Adam’s grasp and in one swift motion, held the boy round his waist pinned under his muscular arm. With his other hand Ben pulled down his son’s trousers and swatted him hard on his rear end.
“I told you to behave yourself!” Ben bellowed. “Now look what you did. Where did you learn to use such rude language?”
”Let me go!” Joe screamed trying to wiggle free from his father’s iron grip. “Damn you Pierce!”
Ben squeezed his son tighter, not knowing how bruised Joe was from the fall on the woodpile, Joe yelped in pain. Ben gave his son another swat on his rear end. Joe’s arm swung and hit his father in the throat as his feet kicked his father in the stomach. Ben gasped for an instant and lost his grip on the boy. He dropped his son and the minute Joe’s boots hit the ground, he yanked up his trousers and ran towards the hitching post. Adam gave chase but Joe was faster. He jumped on the back of Mr. Winslow’s new horse and galloped off.
Ben straightened slowly. He stood bent over looking at the ground, his own breath coming in great heaving gasps.
“Adam go after him!” Ben gasped out.
Adam jumped on the back of another horse and gave chase as his little brother thundered down the road.
Chapter 2
Just as Joe, on Mr. Winslow’s spirited horse, was about to escape from his oldest brother, a movement in the near distance caught their eyes, and they recognized their father’s horse, Buck coming to them at a gallop. Hoss was following on one of the Winslow’s horses.
“I got him, Pa!” called Adam. He was holding fast onto the bridle of the lathered sorrel horse that Joe was riding.
Ben also grabbing the horses bridle on the other side, cut in. “I’m sorry son. You were right, Joe. I was mistaken about your behavior. Hoss told me what happened. ”
Hoss pulled up his horse and leaped down. He stood on the ground protectively by Little Joe. “You ok Short Shanks?” He patted his little brother’s leg.
”I won’t go back Pa. You can’t make me and if you do I’m gonna pound him again. He deserved it Pa.” Joe screamed. “I’m not being rude, like you and Adam said. He hurt me damn bad and he took my horses.”
“Joseph, you were right about Pierce starting the fight but I will not permit you to use such language.” Ben’s dark eyes stared directly into his son’s tearful hazel eyes.
Joe turned red and muttered “Yes, sir. I won’t cuss. But Pa, you said I lied all the times I complained about Pierce too.” He was trembling with anger.
Hoss expertly and effortlessly lifted his little brother off the back of the Winslow’s horse as Adam held the reigns. He stood the boy on the ground and gently hugged him close. “Calm down, Joe. I told Pa what Pierce did to you. “ Hoss pulled up Joe’s muddy blue shirt and showed his father how bruised and battered the boy was. “Look Pa.!” There was a big red boot shaped bruise in the middle of Joe’s chest from where Pierce kicked him. His back was scraped raw from falling down the woodpile.
Ben cringed. No wonder Little Joe was so enraged.
“You said I lied, Pa! And Adam said I was rude too. A rude liar.” Joe was indignant. Hoss gently pulled down the boy’s shirt and patted his curly hair. “Cool down, Little Joe.”
“Only Hoss took my side. You both told me I was a rude liar,” Joe repeated glaring at his father and Adam. He held tightly onto Hoss’s hand.
“I’ll admit that was my first reaction. But, I also admit that after I cooled off and thought about it, you are right. Pierce did start up with you. Hoss told me…” Ben started.
Adam shook his head. He felt terrible that his little brother had been so badly beat up and he hadn’t protected him from Pierce. Adam had been too busy flirting with the Winslow girls to watch out for the boy.
“You always said he did and maybe he always will, son. I’m sorry that I didn’t believe you and it had to come to this.” Ben felt terribly that he had spanked the boy and caused him to run off.
Joe hung his head. He was embarrassed that his brothers should see him crying. “It was worse that you didn’t believe me Pa, worse than getting a spanking. Worse than Pierce beating on me all the time.” He swiped his face with the back of his hand. “Way worse Pa. He took my little wooden horses and he busted my favorite one too. The pinto with the spots.”
“You got a few good shots in Little Joe,” Hoss grinned. “You whupped him pretty good, Short Shanks. He is sittin’ back there on the porch crying boo hoo to his Mama and his nose is bloody”.
”I’m really sorry, Buddy.” Adam leaned over in the saddle and handed Little Joe his bandana. “Really sorry.”
Joe nodded, and he blew his nose “I thought you would go home with out me if I rode too fast and really got away. Could we go home right now, Pa?”
Amusement lit Adam’s face. “Do you think Pa would ever let me hear the last of it if we went home without you or if you ran off? We can’t get rid of you that easily.”
Joe grinned. “Pa would tan your rear end instead of mine.” The boy dramatically rubbed his bottom hoping to make his point.
”We have to go back to the Winslow’s though, Little Joe or they are gonna have us hung for horse stealing. You and Adam took Mr. Winslow’s horses. Hoss too. And your bruises need tended to also.” Ben said gently.
“And we need to make sure Pierce’s parents know what really was going on with that boy and have they deal with him.” Adam added. He wanted the Winslow sisters to know it was not a Cartwright who was causing all the problems. No need for them to think Adam’s baby brother was a hooligan when he was trying to make a fine impression on two pretty girls.
Joe looked at the prancing sorrel horse he had lit out on and smiled. “I rode the big horse too Pa. The horse you said I couldn’t handle. I rode that horse just fine and you couldn’t even catch up to me Adam. I stopped because I wanted you to catch me.”
”Don’t push it too far, Little Joe. Let’s bring this horse back to Mr. Winslow.” Adam shook his head. His little brother was right on all counts, on Pierce being a sullen sneak and on the fact that he could skillfully ride the horse that he and Pa insisted was too wild for him to manage.
”And get my wooden horses too from Pierce?”
”And get back those horses too. I’ll carve you a new pinto too.” Hoss picked Joe up and put him in front of their father on Buck just as he used to when the boy was much younger. “Ride with me son and we’ll get Mr. Winslow’s new horse back to him.”
”Then can we go home?” Joe cautiously leaned back on his father’s chest and Ben wrapped his arms around his smallest son. He was careful to avoid squeezing him too tight around his chest where he was so bruised.
“Not right off, we’re gonna visit Mr. Massey at his mine.” Hoss grinned as he climbed on his horse.
“Pa is bringing him some supplies so Otis can make Pa’s grand children rich. That is how long it will take for that old lunatic to find an ounce of silver.” Adam laughed as he headed his mount back to the Winslow’s ranch.
Chapter 3
May 12, 1872
Dear Mr. Cartwright,
Father said that you picked out my beautiful and wonderful pony for me. Thank you so much for sending me the lovely pony. It is the best ever birthday present that I ever got in my entire whole life. I was so very sad that I did not get the pony for Christmas I have named him Joe O’Mara after you. He is the best and prettiest pony in Boston and pulls the cart very well. Mama won’t let him sleep in my room and the pony stays in our stable until we go to visit our summerhouse.
My Mother and Father and Aunt Emily and Uncle Philip and all my brothers and sisters sent you their best regards. Love,
Ethel O’Mara
Chapter 4
Placerville
Nevada, June 1872
“Meg, maybe he just isn’t going to come here.” Mrs. Thackery said to her daughter as she pulled the last round cake pan out of the oven. “It is awfully far to come from Virginia City on such short notice.”
”No Joe said he would be here for my birthday. He promised and he always keeps his promises.”
”Well, it is getting late and the stage should have been here hours ago.”
“He’ll be here. Pierce Winslow might have skunked out, but not Joe.” Meg watched as her mother set the three cake pans on the kitchen table.
“We can frost these layers as soon as they cool. If I say so myself this looks like the nicest birthday cake I ever made for one of my children. Three layers. ”
“Joe likes chocolate.”
”Does he? If you want, that’s what we can use for the frosting. I thought you like whipped cream and berries or boiled icing. “
”No, I think we should do chocolate for Joe.” She looked on the shelf and pulled out the canister of cocoa and put it on the table.
”You are that sure he will be here?”
”I’m sure. I’ll finish dressing. If he is still not here I can wait in the parlor and do some of those accounts for Daddy while I wait. “ Meg decided. “I’m going to wear that new lavender dress with the flowers.”
”You’ll look very pretty in that. Peter and Michael will be here soon with Daddy so if you want hot water, now is the time, Buttercup.”
Meg smiled and kissed her mother on her cheek. “And if you could help me do up my hair I would really be happy.”
”You know I will,” Mrs. Thackery hugged her only living daughter. “Go and get ready, Meg and I’ll finish your cake. Then I will be up to do your hair.”
It was close to eight o’clock when the Thackerys finally sat down for the birthday dinner. Joe still had not shown up and Fred and his sons refused to wait any longer.
“Meg, I am starving. Joe will get here tomorrow or maybe not at all.” Fred said as he took his place at the head of the table.
“Every thing will be dried out if we wait any longer,” her mother said as she started bringing serving dishes to the table. Peter, Michael and Simon dug in and looked at their sister pick at her birthday dinner. Even though the family finished dinner, Meg insisted that Joe Cartwright would certainly be there and would not let her mother serve the cake.
Just as the moon was rising, Meg’s patience was rewarded with the sight of Joe walking wearily up the path toward the Thackery house, saddlebags slung over his shoulder. He had come to see her after all. Meg smiled and walked out the door of the house to greet him. The dark sky was full of silver stars, but Joe only had eyes for Meg as she stood waiting on the porch for him.
“Joe!” She ran across the yard and threw her arms around his neck.
He dropped his saddlebags onto the dusty gravel path and grabbed her around the waist. Joe a swung her up in the air and kissed her warmly. “Meg I missed you so much! I rode that darn stage for two days to get here. They broke a wheel down near Indian Wells and they had to wait to get another team when the first pulled up lame. One of the passengers was drunk as a skunk. He complained the whole time and the driver slugged him and broke his nose. Then, Meg we lost half a day fixing the wheel. But I’m here now. I wouldn’t miss your birthday no matter what.” He pulled her close and hugged her tight to his chest. He breathed in the fragrance of her favorite lilac soap as he kissed her again. Her blonde hair was pinned up on top of her head and a soft tendril pulled free and tickled Joe’s cheek.
She didn’t care one bit that he was all dusty and hot from riding the stage. Joe looked wonderful and he had proven that he stood by his promise.
Joe stepped back and held her at arms length. “You look so pretty! “ He sighed appreciatively at how fresh and cool she looked. She was wearing a new ruffled dress that was made of soft pale lavender flowered material. For some reason, Joe was always partial to ruffles on a lady and the color was especially flattering to Meg.” Happy Birthday! I got you something very special.”
She wrapped her arms back around Joe’s neck hugged him hard and said “ You being here is special enough! Mama and Daddy didn’t think you would really come here! But I knew you would.”
Joe held her close and whispered in her ear, “So, me being here is special enough? Then I guess I don’t have to give you what I brought for you.”
”No! No! I want your gift too!” She picked up his saddlebags and started to open them. Joe grabbed the bag back out of her hands.
“Oh no! Later, at the party.” He slung the bag over his right shoulder and put his left arm around her slender waist.
”No, now. I can’t wait. We already had dinner but I made Mama wait to serve my cake. Give me the present now.” She pulled loose and grabbed at his bag.
”But me being here is special enough. That is what you said.” Joe teased her. He pulled at the little loose curl that had come undone from her upswept hair. “Who needs a gift when you have a special guy like me showing up at the door? Two days on that dusty bumpy stage to get here, Meg.”
“Don’t worry, Mr. Cartwright. I am certainly worth it. Come inside and wash up. The you can have something to eat and a cool drink.” Meg gave him a kiss on his dirty cheek.
”And give you your present?”
”Of course!” Meg said. She grabbed Joe’s hand and pulled him into the house.
”You are such a big baby!” He laughed.” I should have brought you a china doll like I got Elizabeth for her birthday.”
“Maybe you should have,” she smiled.
Chapter 5
June 15, 1872
Dear Joe,
Thank you for the music box. I play it every night before I go to sleep and then I dream of you. I miss you so much when we are not together.
Meg
June 24, 1872
Dearest Meg,
I can’t wait until you come to visit next week. Want to show you how well Elizabeth’s pony is doing. The pony I sent to Boston is doing fine. Maybe the Ponderosa should start raising ponies? And horses for polo players too. What do you think?
Joe
P.S. I Dream of you too! But won’t tell you about it in a letter.
July 3, 1872
Dear Joe,
Something came up for the last week of July. I can’t possibly come to the Ponderosa until the second week of August. But you can come see me in Genoa the last of July if that is possible for you.
Meg
Western Union
July 18, 1872
Meg Thackery
Thackery Auctions
Placerville Nevada
Will arrive noon stage STOP Can’t wait to be with you STOP want you so much my teeth hurt STOP Joe
___
Western Union
July 19,1872
Joseph Cartwright
Ponderosa Ranch
Virginia City Nevada,
How will you kiss me if your teeth hurt STOP Don’t stop Love, Meg
Kate,
I spoke to the men from the Bureau of Indian affairs about the forged deeds and they said records to at least one thousand acres of Indian Land were tampered with. They think they will find more as the Federal Government investigates further.
Philip Bartlett
Chapter 6
Placerville, Nevada
Late July, 1872
Joe slapped his hat down on the table beside him and ran a hand through his hair disgustedly. “I don’t know what’s wrong with your daughter, Mrs. Thackery. I came up here last night to visit. Now, this morning I want to spend time with her and she is running off to the auction yard to work. Meg told me to stay here in your house out of the way.”
”I’ll enjoy having your company here, Joe,” she handed him a steaming cup of coffee and gestured for him to sit down at the kitchen table.” She’ll be back at noontime. Don’t worry Joe. She is really glad to see you.” Mrs. Thackery pushed his hat closer to him and sat down at the kitchen table with a bowl of potatoes she was peeling for dinner. “Don’t pay her any mind, son.”
“Every time I try to talk to her, Meg gets so willful and angry. Seems like no matter what we start talking about, we end up fighting, so we don’t talk much at all. She likes to go out and have a good time, and then we see a lot of each other and things seem really fine but now she won’t even talk to me. Frankly, I can’t figure it out. I thought she might have gone back to Pierce Winslow.”
“No, Joseph. Pierce Winslow? They haven’t seen each other for a long time. Matter of fact he is going with someone else for quite a while. They are even getting married in a few months. My Meg is very fond of you.” She put a peeled potato into the pot next to her. She picked up another one and started peeling it.
“Mrs. Thackery I don’t know what to do. She is making me crazy.” Joe shook his head. He never felt so strongly about any woman and was so confused about her feeling toward him. He remembered Pierce’s warning to him about Meg driving him crazy and never marrying either of them.
“That’s Meg for you.” Mrs. Thackery laughed. “She always was wild and stubborn. But I think that is what kept her going after, after we lost everything Joe. You know how hard it was and if Fred and I hadn’t married I don’t know what would have become of us. You know Harrison swindled us on the price of the Circle D. You and your Pa were right. “
Joe nodded “ I hate to bring this up so many years later, Mrs. Thackery. I’m sorry if this brings up sadness for you.” Joe hated to upset her. She was such a nice lady. She always was kind to him.
“What’s wrong Joe? What don’t you want to say” She leaned over and looked into his eyes. She put down the paring knife and wiped her hands on her apron.
”My sister-in law, Katie is looking into something. Adam’s wife. She owns the Enterprise. They think Harrison and some other men were trying to buy up all the land on Cherry Creek.”
”That’s no secret. Harrison was a land broker. No crime in that. ” She finished with the potatoes and stood up to put the pot on the stove.
”No, M’am that’s not what I mean. Harrison and his cronies were looking to get the land by any means. We think they killed people and blamed the Indians to get the land. Katie and Phil Bartlett think the Major from Fort Mead and Governor Flanagan were all involved. They attacked the ranches and made it look like Ka-Pusta did it. Then they would send the troops out from Fort Mead and stir up the Paiutes and the Bannocks so that the story seemed right.”
She looked at Joe with disbelieving eyes. “Are you saying Paiutes didn’t kill my daughters and Meg’s father?” Mrs. Thackery sat back down on the kitchen chair and stared at him disbelieving.
”Yes, M’am” Joe sighed. He rested his elbow on the table and put his chin in his hand.
”Joe, years ago you and that other boy, the blonde boy…”
”Dean Newkirk”
”Dean, that was his name. The two of you kept saying that it was white men.”
”No one believed us. It was Harrison’s people dressed up to scare people into selling. They wanted the land for the railroad and they thought some of it was on silver strikes too. They were wrong. That land was only good for grazing and the railroad didn’t need much for their right of way. Union Pacific even made their siding and yards on the other side of the state. Flanagan and Harrison and Chadwick killed an awful lot of people to just to get acres of grazing land. Then they killed a whole lot more to keep it a secret. They tried to kill the Cartwrights when we were in Boston and Phil started turning up all the evidence.”
Mrs. Thackery started to cry and Joe held her in his arms just as he had when her family had first been killed years earlier. Joe could feel tears starting to fill his eyes. Involuntary tears swept down his own cheeks. Joe hadn’t thought of Amy Duprey and finding her and the weeks that followed for a long, long time. He had kept all those memories buried deep inside him the same way his Pa had hidden the trunk full of Marie’s things up in the tack room attic.
He had kind of pushed it all aside for a long time. Joe didn’t want to cry over Amy Duprey ever again; he wanted to push all those memories back to where he had buried them. Joe wished he could go back to the comfortable place he had been until seeing Meg’s mother reminded him. The woman was Amy’s mother too. He hadn’t wanted go to the place that seared his heart to recall.
Seeing how sad Mrs. Thackery years later made Joe Cartwright look at the whole thing from her eyes.
Joe realized he had been so young and so foolish and naive when Amy had been murdered. He was a little boy playing at being a grown man. He thought of how much life he had led since that first romance. Almost as many years had passed since the Duprey’s were murdered as he had lived at that time. He had been barely seventeen when they were killed and he was now thirty-two years old, closer to thirty-three. All he thought about when he was seventeen was his own selfish feelings, how his own life had been changed and how his own heart was broken and how sad Little Joe Cartwright was feeling. All of his thoughts had been on his own loss of Amy and his own disrupted life.
He was far too young then to comprehend what horror Mrs. Duprey had just gone through. She had violently lost her husband of twenty years, two of her children and her home. Her entire life changed in one afternoon while she and Meg were visiting at the Newkirk’s house on the Ponderosa.
There had not been more than a small wooden crate of things that Joe and Hoss and Dean had been able to pick out of the ashes, a chipped teapot, an iron frying pan, Mr. Duprey’s broken watch, a few spoons and a charred book about raising horses. Joe even remembered the name of the book “Scientific Horse Breeding in America- Volume One”. Joe was a grown man now and realized that the poor woman had nothing left to remember her family by, not a tintype portrait, or the family bible, not a love letter from her first husband, Amy’s baby booty or a lock of Allison’s hair. She had nothing of that time of her life but her memories and Meg. Meg too had nothing of her childhood but the memory of finding her sister’s bloody body.
“Meg’s stubbornness got her through that hard time, Joe.” She sighed and took a hankie from her pocket and blew her nose. “Maybe that is why she is a bit wild and won’t settle down. You know, for a while she thought that it had something to do with you Cartwrights.”
”With my family?” Joe was shocked.
“Not that you dear folks burned the place or …. Or hurt my children and my husband.” Mrs. Thackery sighed.” She thought God did it.”
”God?”
”You know how Mr. Duprey had it in for your Pa over that cattle deal. He would never admit he was totally wrong and Ben Cartwright was making an honest sale. He thought he was cheated and even the judge couldn’t tell that stubborn cuss different. For no good reason, Joseph. He hated your Pa over nothing, he did. He just hated people for no good reason. He hated you because you were a Cartwright and one time when you were a sweet tiny, little boy you fell over the church pew into Mr. Duprey’s lap. He liked to let a grudge fester.”
”He hated me for falling on his lap?” Joe was astonished. “A grown man hated a little boy for being restless in church?”
She nodded. “It was just after your dear mother died and your Pa was having a hard time tending to you boys. You were trying to be friendly and just sort of fell over the back of the pew right into our laps.”
Joe chuckled at the story. “I used to get into a lot of trouble in church. Still do sometimes when the sermon gets too long.”
“Mr. Duprey told the girls never to have dealings with any of you. And Meg knew that you and Amy were sweet for each other. She knew her sister was sneaking out to see you too, Joe.”
” I really wanted to marry her. She was the first girl I was ever seriously in love with M’am. She was a very wonderful girl.“ Joe held her hand and looked into her eyes. “She really was special.”
She smiled at his kind comment “ She was, Joe and she thought you were pretty wonderful too. Mr. Duprey forbid us to ever set foot on the Ponderosa. The day they were killed, Meg and I were on the Ponderosa. We were at the foreman’s house.”
”I remember. The ladies were making jam or something, baking cakes?”
”Quilting. We were finishing a quilt for Melissa Peter’s wedding. She was to marry Jack Fischer.”
Joe smiled. If Meg’s mother only knew how badly that forced marriage worked out she would be aghast. Jack was a womanizer like Mr. Fischer and Melissa was the head of the church ladies who were trying to close down all the sporting houses and saloons so that her husband would have to stay home with her once in awhile; not that anything would help either of them.
“Meg thought because we went over to the Ponderosa that day against her father’s orders, God had destroyed her family and her home as punishment. She was just a little girl and she was so sad and confused. It took along time for her to tell me all this and I finally set her straight.”
“Maybe that is why she won’t ever come to visit me on the Ponderosa. She never really wants to meet my Pa too.”
”Your Pa was very good to us, Joe. Did you know that he bid up the price on the Circle D cattle I sold? Mr. Thackery told me years later. We were already married. Fred told me that your father took him aside and gave him a goodly sum of money for us. Ben knew we would never take any money from him. But he knew Harrison had pretty much stolen our land and needed help. He made sure that we thought Mr. Thackery got all that money from the cattle he auctioned.”
”I never knew that.” Joe was so proud of his father’s quiet generosity. Even though Mr. Duprey hated Ben Cartwright, Pa had done the decent thing for the man’s widow. He didn’t put the poor woman in an humiliating position of offering her charity but made arrangements for her to receive the money and keep her dignity.
“Joe, I know my Meg loves you with all her heart.”
”I love her too. More than any girl I ever knew.”
”But Joe, she may run away from you if you try to make her marry you.”
”Maybe she won’t. I’m willing to hang on to her, Mrs. Thackery.”
”You just do that, son. I pray you do. Just give her a while
Chapter 7
Ponderosa Ranch
Early August, 1872
It had been a disgusting long day full of the type of work that tended to make him wonder for the moment why he’d ever missed the Ponderosa the summer he was in the hospital in Boston or why he even stayed on the ranch at all. Maybe he should just run away to sea or go join the circus or sail to Africa or China or work for Stoddard and Bruce in San Francisco…anywhere but on the back of a horse chasing cattle in the dirty never ending choking heat. Hoss was supposed to deal with the cattle raising on the Ponderosa but Hoss was dead. Joe was supposed to deal with the horses, not the stupid cattle herd.
Why did he stay and not run off?
Joe Cartwright knew why he stayed. This was his home. Even on the best day he had in Boston he missed the Ponderosa. He couldn’t enjoy staying in any city for more than a couple of weeks. Even on the worst frigid cold winter day or the most brutal heat of summer, the Ponderosa was his home and he would never live anywhere else, ever. From the time he was born, he knew he would never do anything but work on this ranch.
The hands had found a half dozen head trapped by a rockslide. Some had struggled to climb over the uneven terrain to get to the water hole and had injured themselves badly. They’d had to shoot one cow to put her out of her misery and now they had another orphaned calf to try to raise in addition to the three others from the day before. Casey Newkirk offered to take care of them and Joe was glad he did. The foreman’s youngest boy was growing up to be a top hand.
The sun was blazing down singeing everything and everyone. The glare was intense and the heat shimmered off the horizon. The sunlight, direct from above and bouncing back with a dazzling intensity from off the dry baked earth and yellowed grass, was enough to sear a cowboy’s tired eyeballs right out of his roasted skull. Ben pulled his hat brim down to shade his face from the glare. The heat burned through Joe’s tan shirt and sucked the moisture right out of his tired body. The land was as dry as powder and the range grass had turned into straw from the lack of rain.
The yellow dust seeped into every crevice of the men’s bodies and was kicked up by the horses and the cattle. It blew into everyone’s eyes and noses and made their sweat turn into tan mud that dried and crusted and made everyone itchy and thirsty.
“What do you think Pa?” Joe stretched his shoulders as he sat on Cochise. His right shoulder would still act up when he worked to hard despite the surgery. Joe knew he better ease off or he would be looking for trouble again.
”It’s pretty bad, son, Don’t think I have seen it so dry in years.” Ben leaned back in his saddle. “If we don’t get rain soon we may really need to sell off some of this herd early. The cattle going to start loosing weight or dying off for lack of water and grass.” He took a sip of water from his canteen and handed it over to Joe. The water in all the canteens was hot and metallic tasting and didn’t quench anyone’s thirst.
His son leaned forward in the saddle and watched as the men started moving the cattle down towards the branding corral. The job was not going easily at all. The day was hot and the fires made it hotter. Ben imagined that hell couldn’t be much hotter than the branding corral was that day.
”Think we should bring them up to higher pasture?”
Ben shook his head. “Hays and I were up there a few days ago and it is just as bad. Parched and dry. The water holes are far too low for this time of the year.”
”Doesn’t look good Pa. “Joe sighed. “I don’t ever remember it being so dry for so long.”
”Last I remember like this was the year Adam started college. It was pretty bad. I wasn’t sure we would make it that summer.”
“I don’t much remember that summer Pa. I was only six or seven. What did you do?”
”I prayed hard and worked harder.” Ben sighed at the memory. “Didn’t have enough help then either and I had to watch out for two small boys too. You rode with the round up that year, Joe. As little as you were Hays thought you worked better than some of the crew we had… that is how bad the drovers were. Most of them were disgruntled miners or greenhorns from back east who could barely ride a horse. A little kid barely out of diapers did a better job. We’ll get through this.”
“You promise, Pa?” Joe smiled. His father always managed to make him feel better.
Ben smiled weakly. “We did before and there is no reason we won’t now. Pray hard and work harder,” He didn’t look as confident as Joe wished.
“We are pretty short handed too.” Joe was mentally thinking of how few good men they had working cattle and that they still were short handed at the lumber camp too. Maybe his nephew Sam could be drafted to help out a bit.
“We’ll figure it out son,” Ben Cartwright closed his eyes against the bright sunshine and rubbed a tired hand down the bridge of his nose
“Think we should start the drive early and sell them off before they start dying off?”
”It’s your call Joe. You make the decision.” Ben kicked Buck into a trot and moved up the incline towards where Hays was working with some new hands. Joe Cartwright looked at his father’s broad back as he rode away.
His decision? What was his Pa doing? Why should he decide and not his father? What was this all about? Joe took off his hat and wiped his forehead with his sleeve. The way he figured it, it was either start the fall round up earlier or start moving the cattle to the higher meadow. But Pa said the higher meadows were dried out too. Joe rubbed his shoulder and wished it would rain.
“Hot enough for ya? I could use a beer, Joe,” one of the men hollered as he rode past Joe sitting silently on Cochise.
“You aren’t the only one!” Joe shouted back. He needed to decide what to do with the round up in the next few days. Joe realized he wouldn’t be going into Virginia City for a beer for a long time and it would be even longer until he had time to see Meg Thackery.
The day was getting hotter and the hands were getting more behind with each passing hour. They wouldn’t be done and back to the house until past nightfall. At least it would be cooler when the sun went down and Joe could talk to his father and make a decision about the round up. They could see how many hands they really had and what cattle prices were.
The stew and beans at the chuck wagon were filled with gritty dust that crunched under the men’s teeth. The men felt rushed and over worked and gobbled down their lunches and rode out. At the center of it, ornery, idiot cattle that didn’t have the sense to stay out of trouble or not break their legs or knock down fence lines or step on the cowboys who were trying to tend them.
Shortly after lunch, one of the older hands, Zeke Crawford got knocked down flat by a yearling heifer he was releasing from the branding corral and was out cold when his head hit the hard ground. The men carried him over to the chuck wagon where the cook put him in the shade with a wet cloth on his sunburned baldhead.
Two of the newer hands working the branding fires got heat stroke and Joe had to send them back to the bunk house with a third man in the buck board and it made them even more short handed.
That was difficult enough, but soon tempers flared and before the Cartwrights knew what was happening, two cowboys were punching each other over some card game or petty argument weeks earlier. Joe and the other men pulled them apart and Ben wound up getting someone’s fist in his eye. He tried to keep on working but the eye swelled up badly from the punch and from all the blowing the dust. Ben looked worn out and Joe had to insist that he go home and put something on his eye and get out of the heat before he too got heat stroke and passed out.
“We can manage Pa. It will just take an extra day to move these damn stupid cattle. This heat can’t last forever and your eye is swelling up. Go check on the men we sent back and get the paper work up to date. I’ll take care of things here.”
The two men had to be sent to separate tasks until their tempers cooled off. It wasn’t even close to quitting time and Joe was worn to a frazzle. He still had to decide about the round up. They really needed rain.
Chapter 8
Kate Cartwright stood behind the front counter of the Enterprise office entering the last notation on the work schedule for the following week. The day had been so overwhelmingly hot that she let her staff go home as soon as the work was done. They were going to come in before dawn when the day was still cool and start printing early. Kate was getting ready to lock up the front door when she saw her brother in law Joe pull up front in Ponderosa buckboard.
Joe jumped down and took off his hat and wiped his sweaty forehead with his sleeve. The afternoon was brutally hot. Joe walked over to the horse trough and plunged his face into the water. Katie noticed that Joe had stuck his whole head under the water just like he did when he was a small boy and shook his head like a wet dog. Water was dripping down the back of his neck into his dusty tan shirt. His hair was plastered to his head. Already curls were beginning to spring back and lay on his forehead and his shirt was drying in the heat.
Looked up and waved when he saw her standing in the front window.
“You ready to go home, Katie? You promised me dinner if I picked up that load of supplies for you. The buck board is out front.” He smiled and waved at her.
”It sure is hot, Joe. I’m just about finished. She hollered through the door. He walked across the wooden sidewalk and entered the office. Joe watched her lock up the office and picked up a box of manuscripts from Phil Bartlett that she was taking home to edit.
“How’s everything on the Ponderosa?” Kate asked as she locked the front door. As stifling as it was inside, it was like a blast furnace outside.
Joe shook his head grimly “Water is drying up, Pa told me to decide if we should sell the heard earlier than usual. What do you think Pa meant?” Joe picked up the other box that Kate handed him and he put it in the back of the buckboard.
”He meant for you to decide what to do with your cattle, Joe,” he lifted Katie up onto the wagon seat and walked out into the street to check the harness on one of the horses.
“Me?” Joe decided that the harness looked fine.
“Joe, for years you always griped endlessly to me about your Pa telling you what to do and treating you like a kid. And you complained he would discuss ranch business with only Adam all the time and treat you like a lowly cowhand.”
”And Adam bosses me around.”
“Does he? Still?” Kate sat on the high wagon seat and looked down at her brother in law standing next to the team. “When was the last time my husband told you what to do?”
Joe stopped and looked up at Kate. He scratched his head and tried to remember. “Not for a good long while, Kate. Before we went to Boston. When he lost his temper that I got hurt so bad breaking that horse.”
”Not since then?” Kate smiled. “That was a long time ago. Joe, Elizabeth wasn’t even born. Now she is walking and talking. That is a long time.”
Joe nodded “You are right, Katie.” He climbed up in the wagon next to her. His hair and shirt were totally dry.
”I always am, Little Joe. Maybe Ben thinks you know what you should do running the Ponderosa as well as he does, maybe better.”
Joe was taken aback. As long as he could remember, he complained that no one respected him and everyone treated him like a kid. He hated his father treating Adam like his right hand man and then his oldest brother bossing him around. Adam bossed him around worse than Pa. Now Joe was complaining that his father was turning over a decision to him and that Adam was no longer telling him what to do.
“Maybe you know more than either Adam or your Pa do about making this decision or maybe your Pa is just tired of taking care of every thing and everybody for decades. Maybe he needs to lean on you and take it easy for awhile.”
Joe slapped the reigns on the team and the wagon headed up the street towards Katie and Adam’s house. “Think Sam wants to ride with me on fall round up? We can use the extra hands.”
Chapter 9
August 7,1872
Dear Meg,
We are having longest dry spell in years. We spent the last week digging out water holes and moving cattle. We will be starting the drive early and we really are short handed. Don’t know how soon I can get free to see you. Hope you understand.
Joe
August 15, 1872
Joe,
See you when you are free. I have no ties on you. See if I care what you do or who you see. Do what you want. I’m very busy too. Meg
Chapter 10
Scattered campfires dotted the flat dry range where the Ponderosa herd had been brought for the night. The night was cold after the blazing hot day and the weary men slept close to the warming fires.
Four tired young cowboys on horseback sat night watch guarding the herd. Only one other cowboy remained awake, Joe Cartwright, the trail boss. Young Casey Newkirk was one of the night watch and Joe felt the only one with any capability. Just as his father had told him about being short handed years ago when they had the last bad drought on round up, the same thing was happening this year. He even convinced Adam to let Sam ride with him even though the boy was missing some school.
Joe Cartwright sat drinking hot coffee and looking thoughtfully at the flickering sky. The men had worked a long, full day and he didn’t want to disturb anyone else’s sleep by his restlessness and worry about the clear hot weather turning bad. Lighting sparked off the mountaintops and a few clouds blew across the face of the moon.
The soft lowing of the cattle was a comforting sound to Joe. He had grown up going on the round up and listening to that sound at night telling him the herd was safe and calm. He remembered sleeping under one blanket wrapped around his father when he was very small or in between Hoss and Adam when he was a little older. He remembered sitting eating dinner at the campfire laughing at the cowboy’s bawdy stories with Dean Newkirk. That was the year Hoss and Adam tricked them into competing on rounding up strays. Joe smiled at the memories of his brother and Dean.
Sammy rolled over in his blanket roll and looked up at him, “Uncle Joe? Is everything ok?”
“Checking on the boss part of your duties now?” He softened the words with a brief smile “Go back to sleep, Doc. Everything is fine. I’m trying to figure what the weather is going to be tomorrow and the next few days.”
Sam got up and sat close to his uncle. “Grandpa is snoring. Listen.”
Joe smiled. Ben was sound asleep curled up under a blanket near the fire. “Hope he doesn’t stampede the cattle with his snoring. We don’t have enough experienced men to count on in one of those snoring stampedes.” As much as Joe was joking, there was a thread of truth to his joke. They were short handed and not too many of the men were hardened trail hands.
“He knows you are taking care of everything fine and that is why Grand pa is sleeping so soundly, Uncle Joe.” Sammy rubbed a hand across his wind burned face.
Joe smiled and put his arm around Sam’s shoulders. “Guess you sleep sound when you know someone is watching out for you.”
”My Pa said you are doing a good job but I shouldn’t tell you cause you’ll get a swelled head. But Mama said I should tell you and you would be proud.”
Thunder rumbled the distance and for and instant Sam trembled and slid closer to Joe. “Maybe it’s going to rain. We sure need it.”
“Maybe it is just heat lightning, Sam.”
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