Normally an early riser, Ben found the combination of more than a week of unsatisfying sleep during the trip back home and the current comforts and pleasures of his wife gave him little motivation to be the first one out of bed. However, Mary and Hannah were up early again the next morning. Mary had not eaten much supper the previous evening because of the emotional end to the day; so now her tummy was growling.
"I'm hungry, Hannah. "You hungry?"
Hannah nodded.
"Let's get cookies." Mary was remembering the delicious sugar cookie from yesterday.
Hannah's eyes were bright. "Coooookie!"
Mary held a finger to her lips. "Shhh...People sleeping."
Hannah mimicked her sister, putting a chubby finger up to her mouth and blowing on it. Mary quietly opened the door and took Hannah's hand. Slowly they crept down the hallway and carefully padded down the stairs. Once on the main floor and seeing no one, they ran to the kitchen. They entered cautiously and were relieved to see that Hop Sing was not there. He had gone to the chicken house to get the eggs for breakfast, however it was taking longer than usual to find enough after Mary's escapade of the previous day. Mary scanned the kitchen and quickly located the cookie jar. She pushed a chair to the shelf, lifted the lid on the jar, grabbed two cookies and gave them to Hannah. Then she took two more for herself and climbed down. She pushed the chair back to the table, helped Hannah up on it, and climbed on beside her sister.
"Good, Hannah?"
Her little sister nodded enthusiastically.
The two girls were happily sitting together enjoying their cookies when Hop Sing returned. He immediately cut loose in Chinese, waving his arms.
"No little girls in kitchen! No cookies for breakfast! Out of kitchen! Out of kitchen!" He scolded them loudly attempting to shoo them away, but then fell back into his native tongue.
Hannah dropped her cookie and tearfully clung to Mary who wrapped her arms around her little sister.
Mary came to her sister's defense. "You made Hannah cry! That's not nice!"
After hearing the commotion, the kitchen was suddenly filled with the remainder of the household, all still in their night-clothes.
"What is going on here!" Ben bellowed.
Having rapidly summed up the situation, Hoss chuckled and motioned with his head for his brothers to go back to bed. He grasped his sleepy younger brothers by the shoulders and led them away half-stumbling out of the kitchen. Joe did manage to sneak his older brother a sleepy smile remembering when it was the two of them on the receiving end of their father's wrath. He hoped Pa would not be too hard on Mary.
Kate picked up Hannah and whisked her away not wanting to expose her to any more loud voices.
The frustrated Hop Sing shouted to his boss. "Little girls in cookie jar! Make mess in Hop Sing's kitchen!"
Ben held up his hand to the cook and took Mary by the arm. "Mary, I believe we need to have a necessary talk!"
Wearily Ben sat down in his chair. Placing his large hands on her upper arms, he moved Mary directly in front of him.
"Mary, why did you get into the cookie jar without permission?"
"Hungry." She mumbled with her head hanging low.
"And why were you so hungry?"
Mary shrugged.
"Because you hardly ate any supper last night. And why didn't you eat much supper?"
She shrugged again.
"Because you were upset about the things that happened yesterday afternoon. And why were you upset?"
She peeked at Ben, and then whispered her confession. "Disobeyed."
"A little louder, please."
"Disobeyed." She repeated it with only slightly more volume.
"That's right, Mary. And now look what happened. You got little Hannah into trouble, too. You are the big sister, and you must show her the right things to do, not the wrong ones. I have tried to be patient with you, Mary, but now I feel you need a little help remembering what are the right things to do. And if having a sore bottom is the only way to help you remember, then so be it."
Ben laid Mary across his knees. The little girl was trembling. Her Mama had swatted her a few times for misbehaving, but her Papa had never laid a hand on her. Ben was struggling, too, feeling her little body shaking. He took a deep breath and gave Mary two good smacks on the behind. She sobbed as if her heart would break. Ben quickly took her in his arms.
"Please, Mary, I don't want to ever have to do that again, but I will, if I have to. I love you and I just want you to be the good girl that I know you can be.
Mary wanted to be good, but sometimes she just wanted other things more. Still, she did not want to hurt Hannah. In her mind, Hannah was all the real family she had. She sat there in Ben's arms, but what she really wanted was her Mama and Papa and to have things back to the way they used to be. Knowing that it would never be left Mary truly sad.