I took a section from the previous chapter and pasted it here. It seemed to work better. This chapter was challenging to write, but I hope you all enjoy it.

After Adam and Hoss had left, Ben glanced around the room and saw Lizzie coming down the stairs with a rag. She walked slowly over to the office area and began wiping down the furniture.

"Thank you, Lizzie. Those spider webs were really starting to get out of control." Ben walked over to sit in the chair at the desk.

"You're welcome, Grandpa," Lizzie said sadly.

"Come over here," Ben motioned with his arm. "I haven't gotten my morning hug, yet."

He held his arms open and Lizzie stepped in to give him a quick squeeze.

"That little hug isn't going to last me all day," Ben said sadly as he cocked his head and looked at her with the hint of a smile.

Lizzie wrapped her arms around his neck and held on a little longer, this time when she tried to pull away, Ben held on tight and whispered, "I'm glad to see that you're trying to finish the list and I'm glad to see that your temper is back under control." He gave her another squeeze before letting her go and catching her hand as she pulled back.

"I love you, Lizzie," Ben said softly ducking his head down to look her in the eyes.

"I love you too, Grandpa," Lizzie said after a moment. "I'm sorry about last night."

"I know you are," Ben said reassuringly. "Tempers are hard things to control sometimes; I still fight with mine. Unfortunately, your temper has been getting you into a lot of trouble lately, hasn't it?"

Lizzie nodded slowly and looked down.

"Lizzie, all you can do when your temper gets the best of you is apologize and try to do better. I can see you're doing that…"

Ben frowned when all Lizzie said was, "Yes, Grandpa."

Ben stood. "All right, honey," he said with a smile. "Try to have a good day. I'll see you when I get home." He reached out to stroke her hair and then went outside to find Ruth, Joshua and Sally.

Ben located Joshua and his family watching the palomino.

"He's quite beautiful, isn't he?" Ben asked as he walked up.

"When can I ride him, Ben?" Asked Sally.

Ben frowned a bit at the use of his first name and said, "Oh, he isn't ready to be ridden by anyone. He's never even had a saddle on him. It will be a while yet before he can be ridden."

"I'll bet I could ride him. I'm a good rider."

I'm sure you are, but for now, that horse is off limits." Ben furrowed his brow and looked at Sally sternly for a long moment. Then he shook his head and said with a smile, "So, are we ready to head out? We have a long ride ahead of us today."

They walked over to the buggy and Sally started to climb into the front.

"Ah, ah, Sally, back seat," Joshua said.

"I told you already I can't see from the back seat," Sally said angrily.

Joshua reached out and picking Sally up he put her in the back seat. "And I told you, back seat." He said firmly.

Sally huffed, folded her arms across her chest and frowned. Seeing the petulant look on her face, Ben stifled a smile and coughed trying to cover the laugh that bubbled up unbidden. Joshua took the seat that he had pulled Sally from and after Ben had helped Ruth into the back, he climbed in next to Joshua and they rode out of the yard.

They had ridden for a couple of hours when Ben saw a quiet pond and suggested a break.

"Joshua, I seem to remember you had quite the ability to skip stones, maybe you can show Sally." Ben said as he helped Ruth down.

"What do you say, Sally? Do you want to learn how to skip stones?" Joshua asked as he reached out his hand to her.

"I guess," Sally said sullenly, ignoring the hand and jumping down.

As they walked off, Ben led Ruth to a shady patch of grass under some trees and spread out a blanket.

"How are you enjoying your stay at the Ponderosa, Ruth?" Ben asked as he settled down next to her.

"Very much, you have a lovely home, Ben. I can't believe how much land you take care of, it's overwhelming."

Ben laughed, "Sometimes it is, but we work together and get through the tough times."

"Do you ever miss the city? Pa said that you were in the east for most of your life."

"I did at first. It can be difficult out here, remote as we are. We have to be self-sufficient. The worst part is probably when one of us gets hurt. It is a long way to town. I have come to love the wide-open spaces, though, and I'm not sure if I could live in a city now. I think I would miss the elbow room."

That sat in companionable silence for a while, when Ruth said, "Ben, what happened to Lizzie's mother?"

"Scarlet fever: we lost Sarah over four years ago."

"Was Adam living with you at the time?"

"No, he had a place of his own, but after Sarah's death, he decided that he was going to need help with Lizzie. He couldn't leave her alone during the day since she was only four and truth be told, they both needed family around. I have always been glad that he made that decision to move back in with us. Adam was always involved in the ranch, so I saw him every day, but I didn't see Lizzie nearly as often. I've enjoyed having a little girl around to spoil."

Ruth smiled, "She is a darling little girl and I would hardly call her spoiled."

"Well, Adam is a good father and I think that the way he is raising her is pretty successful in counteracting any spoiling I might do." Ben laughed.

Ruth turned her attention to her father and daughter.

"Do you think there is any hope for Sally?" She asked timidly. "I fear my father and I have spoiled Sally to the point that there is no going back."

"No, Ruth," Ben said seriously. "I don't think it is too late. You and your father need to work together, though. You have to be willing to let her be angry and upset with you. Lizzie is not happy with either Adam or myself right now and although neither of us like it that she feels that way, we're riding it out and not trying to placate her. No one in the family wants to live with a child who has learned to get her way through temper tantrums and defiance."

Ruth glanced back at Ben when he said those words and then quickly looked away with a blush. Ben allowed the silence to settle between them.

Their attention was drawn towards Joshua and Sally when they heard her shouting, "I can't do it." She threw down the rocks in her hands and stomped back to where Ben and Ruth were sitting.

"Sally," Joshua said firmly. "It takes some time to learn. You need to practice until you get it."

"No, I don't want to learn!" She shouted.

"Sally, get back over here." Joshua called from the edge of the pond.

"No!"

Ben raised his eyebrows and looked pointedly at Ruth.

"Sally, your grandpa is calling you, go back over there." Ruth said pointing at Joshua.

"No!"

Ruth looked questioningly at Ben.

"Take her by the hand, Ruth, and make her mind you," Ben whispered encouragingly.

Ruth got up from the blanket and taking Sally's hand she all but carried her back to Joshua. Sally dragged her feet and pulled on her mother with both hands but Ruth continued her forward momentum with determination until they were back at the edge of the pond.

"You do not run from me and you come to me when I call, Sally," Joshua said shaking his finger in Sally's face.

"I can't skip stones and I don't want to learn," with that, Sally threw herself on the ground and began writhing around.

Ben watched the scene play out and saw Joshua getting more and more exasperated and angry. He stood finally deciding he probably needed to get involved.

Walking over to them, he gestured with his hand, "Joshua, Ruth, why don't you come back to the shade while Sally finishes up having her temper tantrum."

They looked at him with a bit of relief and followed him back to the blanket, leaving Sally on the shore.

They did the best they could to ignore Sally and started up a conversation amongst themselves. When Sally realized that they had left her alone, she stood up and walking over to them, she threw herself back on the ground near them and continued her tantrum.

"Joshua," Ben called over the noise. "Will you teach Ruth and me to skip stones? I was fairly good at it as a boy, but I haven't tried in years." Ben stood and helping Ruth to her feet, he stepped around Sally and headed back to the pond. "Have you ever skipped stones, Ruth?" He asked slipping her hand over his arm.

"Why, no Ben. I'm a city girl, not too many ponds to skip stones on there." She laughed cheerily, trying to ignore Sally and follow Ben's lead.

The three adults continued on to the pond and started collecting flat stones as the tantrum continued from the blanket.

"Now the trick is to find a stone that is almost perfectly flat and then you hold it in the crook of your finger and try to make it spin," Joshua let a stone fly off his finger and they watched it skip across the pond three times.

"It only skipped three times because I didn't throw it flat enough or fast enough."

Ben tried to skip the stone as Joshua had shown them, but his went directly to the bottom without skipping at all. Ruth was able to make her first rock skip once, but the second went straight to the bottom as did Ben's second attempt. The crying from the blankets had stopped and they continued to concentrate on learning to skip the stones. When Sally joined them at the pond's edge still whimpering and drawing in hitched breathes, they continued to ignore her.

"I want to try," Sally demanded.

" I seem to recall you said you didn't want to learn, Sally. I'm sure your mother and grandpa wouldn't want you to do something you don't want to do. You can just wait for us over on the blanket." Ben turned from her and laughed as his next stone skipped once. "I think I'm getting the hang of it."

Ruth laughed, "I thought I was too, Ben, but my last three stones haven't skipped at all." Her eyes darted towards Sally, but she quickly directed her attention back to the pond to watch her pa make his stone skip five times.

"Ha," he grinned. "Now that is more like it."

Sally picked up a stone and tried to make it skip, but it dropped to the bottom of the pond with a splash. She tried a couple more stones and then went to sulk on one of the rocks near the shoreline. Each of the adults tried a few more stones and then Ben suggested that they needed to be on their way. Ruth went over to Sally and taking her hand they walked back to the buggy and headed the last few miles into town.

As the buggy stopped in front of the land survey office, Ben leaned over to Joshua and said quietly under his breath, "Let Sally know what you expect from her before we go inside and what will happen if she doesn't behave."

Joshua nodded and got out of the buggy, lifting Sally down. "Now, Sally," he said, "in the meeting you need to be quiet and let the adults talk. You aren't to interrupt because if you do, you'll find yourself in the corner. Do you understand?'

Sally sighed, "Yes."

They walked into the office and Ruth got Sally arranged on a couch with a book before joining the men at the table. For the first ten minutes, Sally was quiet, but then she began to swing her legs and kick the couch leg. After a few more minutes she got up and demanded to be taken to the outhouse. When Ruth took her, she took a very long time. After they returned, Sally didn't go back to the couch, but she toured the room opening drawers and cabinets.

Ben became exasperated before Joshua did and finally said, "Joshua, perhaps Sally would be quieter in the corner?"

Joshua, looked over at Sally peering into yet another cabinet, and standing he walked over to her and closed the door. "Sally, I told you you would find yourself in the corner if you didn't behave quietly."

He steered her to the nearest corner and said, "We are almost finished, stay here until I tell you to come out."

"I don't want to stand in the corner!"

"You should have thought of that before you decided to disobey me."

Sally stood in the corner, but as the meeting resumed, she began to kick the wall.

Joshua stood, and walking over to her whispered in her ear, "If you do not stand there quietly and let us finish our meeting in peace, you and I will be looking for the nearest storage shed." He landed one mighty swat on her backside and went back to the table.

"My apologies," he told the surveyor who had a surprised look on his face. Joshua gave a glance to the corner and saw that Sally had settled down and breathed a sigh of relief. It was going to be another long day, but he was determined to keep his promise to Adam.

Hoss had made a point of working around the ranch until lunch. He headed inside around noon to find Lizzie sitting at the dining room table working at polishing the silver.

"Hey, Lizzie. When's lunch?" He leaned over to try and glance through the kitchen door.

"Hop Sing said he was going to bring it out in a minute." Lizzie said sadly.

"Well, let's move some of this silverware out of the way so we'll have room to eat." Hoss began moving piling the silverware up in a heap.

"Wait, Uncle Hoss, some of that's polished," she sighed an exasperated sigh and carefully made two piles.

Hop Sing brought out their lunch soon afterward and they began eating in silence.

"So, your papa's bein' pretty tough on you, huh?" Hoss said between bites.

"He's just being mean and unfair," Lizzie took an angry bite.

"Yeah, pas can be that way," Hoss growled in a low tone. "I remember your grandpa used to be that way…mean and unfair." Hoss shook his head and looked at Lizzie through hooded eyes.

Lizzie stopped with a bite half way to her mouth and looked up at him.

"I remember your grandpa had two sorts of mean and unfair: in general and in particular," Hoss spoke low like he was telling a secret and made his eyes into slits. "So, your papa, is he being mean and unfair in general or in particular?" Hoss put his elbow on the table and leaned in towards her.

Lizzie put her fork down and asked, "What's the difference?"

"Well mean and unfair in general means you can't do nothing to please them. You behave perfectly and they still ain't happy. Then mean and unfair in particular is when there's one thing in particular that they keep bringing up. They're like a dog with a bone, just can't let it go. So, what do you think? Mean in general or in particular?"

"In particular I guess…"

"So, what bone exactly is he chewing on, in particular?"

"The stupid list!"

"Yeah, I figured," Hoss said, nodding.

"He says I can't go outside until everything's done."

"But you're showin' him, ain't ya? You'll show him he can't be mean and unfair to you. You ain't gonna finish that list, are you?" Hoss hit the table with his fist.

"He said he wants it done by tonight and I only have a few more chores to do."

"So why are you giving in?"

"'Cause I want to go outside." Lizzie said emphatically. "Papa said that he wants me off restriction and I want to be off restriction too."

"He wants you off restriction? Somehow, that don't seem to square up with bein' mean and unfair. Hmmm…" Hoss paused and seemed to ponder what he had said. "Well, I gotta get back to work and you have that list to finish," Hoss pointed at the list and then headed out the door.

Lizzie slid over to the pile of silverware and picked up a fork thoughtfully.

As the afternoon hours dragged on, Lizzie saw that her list was almost finished. She looked up from folding the laundry that Hop Sing had given her, to see her Uncle Joe come in to the house.

"Hey, Lizzie, looks like you've put in a hard day's work. Has your grandpa come home yet? I didn't see the buggy."

"No, nobody is home but me and Hop Sing."

"Well, if you see him before I do, will you tell him I'm looking for him? I'll be out in the barn."

"Can I come out with you? I can help with the chores," Lizzie asked hopefully.

"Sorry little lady," Joe smiled. "I don't want us to get in trouble with your papa. Any outside chores that you need to do will have to be done with him."

"But, why, Uncle Joe? I don't want to spend time with him when he is being so mean to me."

"Lizzie," Joe said taking a seat next to her and picking up a towel to fold. "I think you know your papa isn't making you stay inside to be mean. He is making you stay inside so that you'll learn a lesson. Your grandpa used to do the same thing to me. He'd make me stay inside, usually when I had run off somewhere I'd been told not to go. Is your papa mean to you when you're doing chores with him?"

"Well…"

"Lizzie…"

"No, I guess not."

"You did something dangerous and your papa wants to make sure that he can trust you not to do it again. So, all the time in the house is meant to make you remember to obey him so that you don't end up restricted to the house again."

"I won't do it again, Uncle Joe. I hate being stuck in the house."

"I suspect that if you tell him that and have the list done when he gets home, the restriction will be over. I know your papa pretty well and if you keep fighting him on this, he'll get stubborn and make it last a lot longer than you'd like it to last."

"He did say he wanted me off restriction…"

Well, there you go. He's hoping you've learned your lesson and you just need to convince him that you have; that you accept that what you did was wrong and you deserved to be punished. That's the hardest part, you know, accepting that you deserved to be punished." Joe raised his eyebrows. "I remember once your grandpa sent me up to clean my room when I had gotten a little disrespectful with him. I went to my room, but I downright refused to clean it. He told me that until it was clean, I had to stay in my room except for meals. I waited him out for a week. I was stubborn, but he was more stubborn. I finally gave in and cleaned it. When he saw that I had finally given in, he said, "Joe, I didn't want you to have to stay in your room for a week, but you chose when the punishment was over. A punishment that should have been over in a few hours lasted a week because of your willful refusal to accept correction. He was right, Lizzie, and I never made that mistake again. Your grandpa always told me that he punished me because he cared about the man I was becoming. Your papa, loves you and cares about the woman you are becoming, try to not be stubborn anymore about accepting correction." Joe stood and kissed her on the top of the head and went out the door.