Hoss climbed slowly from his bed and rubbed his stomach. It growled in response, which it had done earlier and awakened him out of a sound sleep. He smacked his lips and headed out into the hallway remembering the chicken they had had for dinner that night. As he walked past Sally's room, he thought he heard a sniffle. He stopped, holding his breath and heard it again. Slowly he opened the door to Sally's room.
"You all right in there little gal?" He whispered.
"Yes," came the tearful reply.
Hoss came into her room and sat down on the bed next to her, pulling her into the crook of his arm.
"Glad you're all right, I sometimes have trouble sleeping alone, so I'm glad you were awake I needed the company."
"Really?"
"Yeah, when we were coming across country in our wagon, I never slept alone," Hoss said conveniently leaving out that he was still a baby. "I slept with Adam and Pa in the back of that wagon, then of course when we moved out to the Ponderosa, Adam and me shared a room until the house was built."
"What was it like in the wagon?"
"Hot and dusty and long. Do remember how it was on the stage coach when you came here?"
"Yes," Sally said nestling down into the crook of his arm.
"Well, it was just like that, only it went on for six months instead of a few days."
Hoss kept talking and before long they were both asleep: Hoss sitting up, snoring, and Sally nestled into the crook of his arm.
"Hoss, Hoss!" Ben whispered. "Son, it's time to get up."
Hoss stirred and opened his eyes to see his father gently shaking his arm. "Time to get up, son." He said again.
Hoss worked himself out from under Sally, stood and stretched, trying to work the kinks out of his back.
"I musta fallen asleep in here," Hoss said, putting his hands on his back.
"I would say," Ben replied. "How did you end up in here?"
"Well, Pa, I got up to have some of Hop Sing's chicken and I heard Sally crying so I came in here and told her about the trip west and I guess we both fell asleep."
"You told her about the trip west?" Ben laughed.
"Well, I have heard your and Adam's stories enough times. I jest left out the part about being a baby during them."
Ben clapped him on the arm, "Well, I am glad that Sally had you taking care of her last night. Now, I need to get her up and ready for the day." Ben clapped him on the arm again. Hoss made his way back to his room as Ben began to rub Sally's arm to wake her.
"Sally, time to get up and get dressed." Ben said quietly.
Sally slowly opened her eyes and crawled out of bed.
"How did you sleep?" Ben asked jovially.
"Fine," Sally said in a grumpy voice.
"Since you're going to see your mother today, which dress do you want to wear?"
"The purple one," Sally said, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Ben walked over to the trunk and pulled out the first purple dress he saw.
"That's not purple," Sally scolded, "that's lavender."
"Oh, sorry, why don't you come and find it then," Ben said, with a small smile.
Sally sighed and walked over to the trunk and pulled out a lacy dress.
"Pretty fancy," Ben said conversationally.
"So?" Sally said rudely.
"And it has a stain on it," Ben said in a gruff tone pointing at the brown stain on the collar.
"But I want to wear it," Sally whined.
"Well, we won't be able to get it clean in time for you to wear it to town today; I'll give it to Hop Sing and he can wash it when he does the rest of the laundry."
"Can't he do it now?" Sally demanded.
"No, washing clothes takes time. You'll choose another dress."
"No, I want to wear the purple one." Sally said defiantly.
"Choose another or you won't be going to town," Ben said and left the room, just catching himself before he slammed the door.
He stalked past Adam as he was coming out of his bedroom.
"Pa?" Adam asked, trying to figure out why his father was angry.
"That child can go from sweet to disobedient in the blink of an eye," Ben said in an exasperated voice, pointing back at the bedroom he had just left.
"Do you want me to go in and deal with her?'
"No, she's my responsibility," Ben growled. "I said I would watch over her and watch over her I shall." Ben turned on his heel and headed back towards Sally's room.
"Pa, don't you think you might like to take a moment to calm down?"
"I am calm," Ben retorted, but he took a deep breath before opening the door.
Sally had put on the purple dress and was struggling to get the buttons fastened down the back when Ben came back into the room.
"Shall I assume from the fact that you are wearing the stained dress that you are not going to town to see your mother today?" Ben said in an overly calm voice.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, young lady, that I told you to choose a different dress or you wouldn't be going to town. Since you are wearing the purple dress I can only conclude that you have chosen not to go to town."
"You can't keep me from seeing my mama," she shouted.
"I am not keeping you from seeing your mama, young lady, you are doing that by deliberately putting on the dress I told you you were not to wear." Ben said loudly in return.
Sally, scowled, folded her arms, and put her chin to her chest.
"Now you listen, and you listen real well, if you throw a tantrum, you will be spanked and that is a promise. Now change your dress." Ben once again left the room and closed the door softly behind him and proceeded down the stairs.
Hoss had been listening to the exchange through the wall and after his father had left, he went to Sally's room and entered without knocking. He glanced at Sally, who still had her arms crossed and her chin to her chest. He walked over to the trunk and pulled out a green calico dress. He took Sally's arm and led her to the bed where he took a seat and started unfastening the buttons Sally had managed to reach.
"Now, you know, my Pa's real stubborn and when he says you won't go to town, you won't go to town," Hoss unfolded her arms and pulled the purple dress off. "And when he starts saying things like "that's a promise", it means he is about at the end of his patience and you really don't want to see him when he is out of patience. So, I think you should put on this really pretty green dress and make plans to wear that purple one after Hop Sing washes it." He held out the green dress to her. Sally reluctantly put her arms into the dress. "That's a good girl," Hoss said, as he turned her around and began fastening the buttons. "Better to go see your mama, even if it isn't in the purple dress. Now, you go and get your brush and comb and go to Adam's room. He's the only one of us that knows how to fix the hair of a pretty girl like you, all right?"
Sally nodded even though she still wasn't happy and snatched the comb, brush and ribbons off the dresser before stomping over to Adam's room. Finding the door open she stomped inside.
"Well, what's got you stomping around like a herd of elephants?" Adam asked mildly, looking up from his seat on the bed, where he was pulling on his boots.
"I wanted to wear the purple dress, not this ugly green one."
"Ah," Adam nodded, "and why are you in this ugly green one?"
"Because Ben told me I couldn't wear the purple one."
"He must have had a reason, what is it?"
Sally looked at him with a scowl and said, "Will you fix my hair for me?"
"I'd be glad to," Adam said with a smile, "as soon as you answer my question and ask me to fix your hair the polite way that I expect."
I'll do it myself," Sally turned to stomp out of the room, but Adam leaped up and closed the door.
"Yes, that was very successful the last time you tried, wasn't it?"
Adam took the brush and comb from her and sat down on the bed pulling her between his knees and keeping an arm around her waist.
"Tell me why you're so angry," he commanded.
Sally looked up to give a quick retort, but seeing the serious look on Adam's face, she said, "I wanted to wear the purple dress."
"We've established that. Pa said no, so he must have had a good reason. What was it?"
"It had a dirty collar," Sally finally ground out after a long silence.
"So, he wanted you to look pretty and clean for your mother when you visited her and you wanted to look dirty and unkempt…" Adam left the sentence dangling.
"No," Sally said after a moment, looking up at him quickly. Adam could see the light starting to dawn.
"Then how exactly were you planning on getting the dirty dress clean?"
"Hop Sing…"
Adam sighed, "Sally, even it Hop Sing had agreed to clean your dress for you, laundry takes time. Water needs to be boiled and then the dress would need to be washed and dried, none of that could have been accomplished in time for you to go to town. Pa thought it was more important that you see your mother today than that you wear the dress you wanted. Do you understand?"
Sally hung her head and nodded.
"Good, then ask me properly to braid your hair and we'll get you down to the breakfast table where you'll apologize to Pa for giving him a hard time about the dress, all right?" He held out the brush and comb to her.
"Adam will you please braid my hair for me?" Sally asked softly.
"Of course, honey," Adam said as he took her shoulder and turned her around with his left hand and put the brush and comb down on the bed with the his right. Sally sighed and stood still, while he gave her two braids.
"All finished, put those back in your room and I'll meet you at the breakfast table. You need to apologize first thing when you get downstairs, " he said, standing as he handed the brush and comb back to her.
"Thank you," she said taking them from him and walked across the hallway to her room.
Adam checked for Lizzie in her room and proceeded downstairs when he found it empty.
Lizzie was sitting in her grandpa's lap, telling him about one of her dreams when Adam came downstairs. He sat down in his chair and listened to the tail end of the story.
"That was some dream, Lizzie," Ben said in wonder. "I wish I could dream those sorts of dreams."
Hop Sing came out of the kitchen calling them all to breakfast and Lizzie jumped down from Ben's lap.
"Sally will be down in a minute, Pa," Adam said as they made their way to the table.
Adam held out Lizzie's chair for her and said, "My lady."
"Thank you kind, sir," she said as she sat down and Adam pushed her in.
Adam glanced up as he took his seat and watched Sally slowly making her way downstairs.
"Come on, Sally," Ben said in a bit of an irritated voice. "Breakfast is getting cold."
Little Joe jumped up to pull out Sally's chair, but she walked past him and stood at Ben's right arm. She looked over at Adam, who nodded at her, before she turned back to Ben, who was looking at her questioningly and said, "Ben, I'm sorry I gave you a hard time about the dress this morning. Will you forgive me?"
"Of course, Sally, of course I forgive you," he said sincerely, smiled and reached out to stroke her hair. "Now, why don't you take a seat? Little Joe is being a gentleman and holding your chair for you."
"Thanks, Little Joe," Sally said as she took her seat. She glanced over to see Adam smiling and nodding at her.
"You're welcome," Joe said and glanced around the table with a smile.
They began filling their plates and Adam said, "So, Lizzie, your uncles, the ranch hands and I are going to be branding cattle today, can we count on you for some help?"
"Sure, Papa," Lizzie said with a huge smile.
"I'm glad you will, things always go more smoothly when you're there to help."
Lizzie smiled at her plate as she cut into her pancakes.
"And Sally and I will be going to town to check on her mama," Ben said.
"Give Ruth our best, Pa." Adam said.
"Yeah, Sally, you tell her we hope she's feeling better real soon," added Hoss.
"We can do that, can't we Sally?" Ben said with a nod.