One day, Gil was looking through the attic. He found an old banjo. Curious, he tried to play it. Which didn't sound very nice. He continued to play it, until his Uncle heard the noise coming from the attic."What's that noise?" said Slim. He heard it coming from the attic. Slim followed the noise to the attic. He found Gil messing with a dusty banjo. "You idiot! Don't ya know how to play it properly?" said Slim in a annoyed tone. "I thought it was the right way to do it." said Gil innocently."Don't ya know how to play it?" Gil asked. Slim thought for a moment. "Not really buy I can tech ya. I'm mostly good at playing guitars" said Slim. That afternoon Gil learned how to play his banjo better. "Now that's how ya do it!" said Slim impressed.
One rainy evening, it was quite boring. It was the weekend. Slim didn't have to work today. Phil wanted to play outside, whether it was raining or not. Slim only scolded him. If he played in the rain, he would catch a cold. Slim didn't want to have a sick nephew and pay for his medicine if needed. He didn't want to take a day off from working to take care of Phil if he got sick, either. Junior was already sick and Slim was trying to save money for the medicine he needs. Neither of the boys didn't have much toys. They had to share, which wasn't very fun. It was more fun to them, when they would have the chance to play outside on sunny days. Especially Bill, it was a chants to be around the animals. He loved animals the same way as his father that he will never know. Gil didn't mind the rain, he would sit on the couch and practice his banjo. "I wish it would stop raining!" said Phil. "Quit your whining. When it rained and I was your age, I played with my toys." said Slim. "I'm tired of playing with the same thing over and over." said Phil. Slim took a piece of paper and folded it multiple times. He then took a pencil and wrote in it. "What is that?" Phil asked curiously with amazement. "This here is a Cootie Catcher. Ya fold it certain number of times and you pick a color. Spell the color while folding it the same number of the letters spelled in the color. Then ya get a message, like a fortune." Slim explained. "Got it?" Slim asked. "Got it!" Phil replied happily. Phil played with the cootie catcher all day long without complaining.
Now.
"So, my banjo belonged to dad all along?" Gil asked. "Yes. Didn't you figure that out before?" said Slim in annoyance. "Now, we got to get going. We have cattle to steal." said Slim. Phil, Bill and Gil rushed to the stalls. They saddled up their horses. Slim saddled up Junior, then they rode off into the night. After about a 2 hour travel, they arrived at the Hanson Ridge ranch. "Now, let's get moving!" said Slim. "What were we supposed to do again?" asked Gil. "You idiot! Your job is to check if the coast is clear! Ya' know, if anyone is watching us!" yelled Slim. "Get busy and hurry up!" he yelled again. Phil, Bill and Gil climbed off of their horses, while their uncle waited.
The lights in the farmer's house were off. "I think no one is awake." said Phil. "Should we check the pastures?" Bill suggested. "Yeah." said Gil. They rushed over to the pastures. All the cows were asleep peacefully. Calfs were close to their mothers, others were alone and others preferred to be close to each other. "Seems safe to me." said Bill. "Let's go tell uncle Slim." said Phil. They reported back to Slim. "Good. We'll be making money soon enough!" said Slim with pride. "Where's my-" before he could finish. Gil handed him a mysterious object. "Thanks." said Slim. Everything was quiet, but was then broken by a strange song. All the cows woke up following the melody, as if they were in a trance. Bill opened the fence door to let the cows follow Slim. The lights turned on in the farmer's house. Slim kept yodeling as he got on Junior. Followed by the boys on their horses and the cattle.
Luckily, they weren't caught. "What now?" asked Gil as they rode out of the ranch. "Simple you blockhead, we go home and wait for Mr.Weasley." said Slim in more annoyance. Another long trip to home passed, the boys were told to count how many cows they stolen in one night. "1,685." said Gil. Slim wasn't pleased with the results. "Tell me you miscounted." said Slim. "I miscounted." said Gil. "Not literally, you brainless chicken!" Slim yelled. "Mr.Weasley expects 3,000. He won't be here for another day or 2, I suppose we could steal from the Dry Gulch ranch tomorrow night. Since we were almost caught in the act." Slim explained.
The next morning.
Interested to hear more about their backstory, the boys woke up early to tell their uncle that they wanted him to continue. Slim agreed. "Could ya fast forward, when we are a little older?" Bill asked. "Yeah, it's kind of boring." said Phil. "Ok then." said Slim. "When y'all were older, my talents were still unappreciated. Ya know what that means." Slim started off.
In the story.
After losing one job after another, the little family couldn't take care of much animals of their farm. Slim couldn't afford enough food to feed some of the animals. Unfortunately he had to sell some of them like the cows and Wilson's pet rooster. Fortunately Slim didn't get rid of Junior and the boys horses. They were like family. No one should sell family. They were getting bills too. Sometimes Slim couldn't pay them full price, sometimes he couldn't pay at all. Other times he could. They were just too expensive. He couldn't afford much food either. He couldn't feed himself or his nephews.
One day Slim was going to find another job. "Will ya be back soon?" Bill asked. "Y'all are old enough to take care of yourselves. I'll be back. I hope this one won't go down hill like the others." said Slim as climbed onto Junior and left. The boys waited for him to come back. In the house, Phil went to his room and pulled out a map of all the ranches that Slim worked for and was fired from. He examined it carefully. He took out a red crayon and marked an X on the map. He counted the total of X's on the map. The only place on the map that didn't have an X on was a ranch. It said "Dixion". Phil was shaking.
He ran into the living room. Gil was sitting on the couch as usual. "We're doomed!" Phil shouted. Bill walked in from the kitchen. "What?" he said confused. "Is the world gonna to end?!" said Gil with a fright. "No! Look!" said Phil as he pulled out the map. "I cain't read it." said Gil. "I don't understand." said Bill. "Uncle Slim was being fired from his jobs. This is the last one!" said Phil as pointed to the unmarked spot on the map. "Do ya know what that means!?" he asked in worriedly. "No." said Bill and Gil. "Uncle might get fired! It means we cain't have a place to live or anything! We'll be on the streets!" said Phil. "What are we gonna do?!" Gil shouted. Then the boys started panicking and running around in circles. Then they stopped after feeling dizzy.
The next morning. Slim came back with good news. He had found a job. He didn't know that this one would be the last. The boys didn't want to tell him. They wanted to keep it a secret and hope he wouldn't find out. So far 7 months had passed. Slim worked for other ranches for almost a year. Some lasted weeks, some lasted less than a random number of months. Slim and the boys secretly hoped that this job would last forever. Unfortunately not may people are fond of yodeling, eventhough it can hypothesize cows, which is an easy way for rounding them up.
With Slim at the age of 42 and the boys at 19. So far, the boys learned the ways of their uncle. They weren't very smart, but loyal to him. One foggy night, Slim came home. He was in a bad mood. The boys didn't know what happened. Slim walked in the house and slamed the door behind him. The boys were at the table playing cards. "You alright there uncle Slim?" Bill asked. Slim was silent for a moment. "Y'all should know what happened." he said. "Did ya fall asleep on the job and was embarrassed?" Phil asked. "NO YOU IDOIT! I WAS FIRED AGAIN!" Slim roared with anger. It was loud enough to make the boys afraid. "Don't think I know about ya secret y'all been keeping to yourselves." he said. The boys were confused. Slim went into Phil's room. He came back holding the map of all the ranches he worked for. "Oh yeah. We forgot about that..." they said simultaneously. "Y'all knew?! Ya didn't tell me?!" Slim yelled. The boys didn't know what to say. "I've worked for all the ranches in the state. I guess we are gonna live on the streets." said Slim. The boys were upset. They wouldn't
have a roof to live under, afford food or take care of animals.
After that, there was notices left on the door of the house. It said to pay the rent and or bills or the land they live on would be auctioned off. With no job or money left, Slim, Phil, Bill and Gil packed their things. The got on their steeds and left the place they grew up at. With nowhere to go, they went into the desert. "What do we do now?" asked Gil. Slim was angry inside. He was angry at everything. Then he had an idea. "We'll be stealing." said Slim. "What?" said Phil confused. "We'll be outlaws! It's the only path we have left!" said Slim. "Come on!" said Slim. They traveled the old west, until night. "Uncle Slim, where are we going?" Gil asked. "Nowhere important. Since we have no roof over our heads we'll sleep here tonight." Slim replied. Slim slept next to Junior and the boys slept next to their horses. It was cold, strange sounds were heard all around. At least the stars looked nice tonight.
The sun rose from the sky. Slim woke up his nephews rudely. "Wake up!" he yelled as he shook each of them violently. They woke up. "I've found out what we're gonna do now that we're outlaws." said Slim. "What are we gonna do?" Phil asked. "I said we'll be stealing. We'll be stealing cattle from ranches at night." Slim explained. "What are we gonna do with it?" Bill asked. "Before I can go deeper into the plan, I'll have to hire a smuggler." said Slim. "What's a 'smuggler'?" Gil asked. "Y'all are really that stupid! It's someone who deals with the black market! It's very illegal, but ya can make a lot of money if ya don't get caught." Slim explained. "How are ya gonna find one?" Phil asked. "We'll go in town. We need to keep a low profile, so don't mess this up. Got it?" Slim asked. "We go it!" the boys said simultaneously. "Good! Now get on your horses, we have work to do." said Slim. They all saddled up and went to town.
HAPPY 15TH BIRTHDAY HOME ON THE RANGE!!! It's April 2nd! It's better than April Fool's Day. Awww, a good story is going to end soon. I'm not too good at writing, sorry for that. I won't let that stop me for writing a good story. Some ideas were discarded, because it would change the ending I had planed and didn't make sense from the movie. Hope you enjoyed. Goodbye!