5
It took an hour to hail a cab and get to the small brick building attached to the San Francisco Mining Association. Adam took his father to his office, which was little more than a janitor's closet with a desk in it. "But it has a window." Adam said.
The classroom was much larger. There was a great blackboard covering one wall and a large, sturdy table in front of the black board that had coring samples, rock samples, and miniatures of mining equipment and shoring models scattered across it. The seats of the classroom rose in a semi-circle around the lecture space, each with its own writing surface, and wells for ink and pens.
Ben sat to the side of the lecture space with a drowsy Elizabeth, listening to Adam tell stories about his students. Most of them he had heard pieces of in Adam's letters, but the classroom Ben had envisioned was vastly different from the one he sat in now. It made the stories seem new.
"The...pupils should be here in about ten minutes. They should all have spent the morning working on their final essays. I challenged them each to pick a structure in the city, pretend it was a mine, and "fix" the shoring at minimal cost."
"That actually sounds like fun." Ben said, smiling.
"Yes, well, the problem is, I will have to go to each and every one of those buildings if I'm to grade them on anything other than their descriptive skills."
Ben laughed. "You thought you could do that in two days?"
Adam made a face and shrugged. "I've learned a lot about teaching since then. Sarah laughs at the piles of papers I'm stuck grading and reminds me that most of her work is done by the end of the semester, because her students are doing it for her."
Ben laughed again.
As the students filed in Ben sat quietly with Elizabeth, who pressed hard against him at the influx of noisy strangers. Ben realized the mistake he made when he saw that most of the young men were the same age as the men that had taken Elizabeth. She had nearly buried herself behind the lapels of Ben's coat by the time he realized it and he calmly reassured her, knowing that she was pressed close enough to his chest, to hear his heart beating in panic. When his voice finally broke through to her, Adam had come over to them and was squatting in front of Ben, stroking Elizabeth's back.
After a moment Elizabeth came out of hiding and leaned toward Adam's open arms.
Adam stood and introduced his family.
"Gentleman, as you know this is your last class for the semester."
A general shout of glee went up and the boys laughed at one another.
"I have a surprise for you. This gentleman is Mr. Benjamin Cartwright. My father."
Ben smiled and stood, nodding to the boys. He didn't expect the excited murmurs, but he smiled softly and sat back down.
"And this darling lady is my sister, Elizabeth Cartwright. She'll be auditing the lecture today, so let us all watch our language and mind our manners."
That got a few more chuckles. Adam transferred Elizabeth to Ben and went about teaching his lecture.
As Ben settled back to listen he became lost in watching his son. Adam moved around the classroom as easily as he did on the back of a horse. He captured the boys with his charm, answered questions honestly and as intelligently as he could. He encouraged discussion, respect and community in the classroom, and Ben found that had he had Adam as a teacher when he was Adam's age, it would have been his favorite subject.
He began to see the parts of Adam that were wasted on the ranch. And as much as he wanted his boys with him, he knew Adam had had a taste of something better. It saddened him, and elated him at the same time.
When the class ended each boy came to the table to lay down his essay. Each shook Adam's hand, then came to shake Ben's hand, telling him how much he liked "Mr. Cartwright" as a teacher, or relating their favorite story of the famous owner of the Ponderosa. Ben beamed proudly, and shook each hand, Elizabeth in his other arm, her head on his shoulder. To be claimed by Elizabeth, and by Adam was a dual pleasure that he would fondly remember for the rest of his days.
Before they left the lecture hall, Ben stopped Adam.
"Son...I've never been more proud of you." Ben said. "You truly have a talent for teaching."
Adam gave him a tight smile, thanked him, and added. "Yes, but the paperwork, Pa…"
That evening Hoss' headache had improved enough that he was able to sit up in bed and remained awake long enough to swallow three bowls of broth, and two cups of coffee. Elizabeth stayed close as she could to Hoss once she had finished eating, telling her doll Emma to shush.
With everyone finally awake Adam presented his presents, starting with the youngest. "Sarah picked this out when we went down to Santa Barbara."
Ben's eyebrows went up. "All the way to Santa Barbara?"
Joe's eyebrows went up and he cooed, earning a glare from Adam.
Elizabeth was given the box and she tugged at the ribbons and ripped at the paper until she had it opened. Inside were piles of painted lengths of wood with notches in them. Some were round, and some were in the style of planks. Adam pulled a few pieces out and showed Elizabeth how to fit them together, forming a long rectangle. Elizabeth immediately immersed herself in building a haphazard bed that she then stuffed Emma into, telling her to sleep.
"What are these?"
"The man who sold them to us said he'd gotten the idea from a lawyer, of all people, who lived in Illinois. Apparently this lawyer's wife declared that their first child would be an architect, and she was so firm in her conviction, that she had her husband build a toy, like these. Except that the child wanted nothing to do with the toy. But..the barker has sold a few like it from time to time. He said the pieces were easy to make, and certain children seemed to like building with them."
Hoss picked up a few of the pieces, and a second later Joe was sitting at the end of the bed, with Elizabeth, building something new.
"I could make more of these easy. Even curved pieces." Hoss said.
All three of them watched Joe and Elizabeth until Adam carefully picked Joe's hands up away from the pieces and said, "Those are Lizzy's toys, Joe."
Joe squeaked in protest and Ben, Adam and Hoss laughed at him.
"Come on…" Adam said, guiding Joe toward the pile of gifts. "This one is for you."
"If you really want to build something, Joe, there are plenty of big logs on the Ponderosa for you to play with." Ben said, patronizing.
Joe gave them all a glare and opened his present. His eyes lit up and he grinned ear to ear, before he carefully turned the box around, and opened the lid. A set of 15, brightly painted, shining fishing lures sparkled in the light from the lantern.
Joe brought the box to the bed, and Elizabeth's toys were relocated to the floor so that she could play contentedly without being too near the hooks. Each one of the Cartwright men were instantly interested in the lures, touching them, looking at the detail and proclaiming just which fish would bite on which lure.
"Look at that one. Looks just like a baby trout." Joe said, pointing at a metal silver fish, complete with colored paint and scales, that danced on the end of a weight.
"This one is even tinier!" Hoss said. "Look at that thing. And it'll spin on the line, and these things right here will catch the current and make it spin all the more."
"There are more feathers on that one...than a native headdress.." Ben said, pointing to a hook that had a collection of colorful, fine feathers tightly bound along the shank of the hook.
"Some of these came from China, and some of these from the Bay. I figured the most Joe could do is provide dinner once a week, and the least he could do was confuse the fish."
Joe laughed, carefully putting each lure back into place. "These are great, Adam. Thank you, brother."
"Bid brudder, bid brudder. See me, see me." Elizabeth had abandoned her toys and was standing at the end of the bed, her hands out, fingers grabbing at the air. Adam showed her the lures, but wouldn't let her touch them, warning her twice that they were sharp, before Elizabeth gave up on trying to grab the brightest of the bunch.
Ben stood up and grabbed the next box, marked "Hoss.", and brought it to the bed. He could tell that Hoss was tiring, and Joe was moving more gingerly than he had been before. It wouldn't be long before Elizabeth realised she was tired, and would start fussing.
Hoss started to chuckle when he opened his box. He drew a lidded pitcher out of the wrapping that was almost bigger than his head.
"That is a beer stein."
Hoss' eyes lit up. "Beer-, you mean beer goes in this?"
Adam grinned and nodded.
Hoss gave a delighted groan and turned the large vessel in a slow circle. It was made of white porcelain with delicate blue etchings covering the surface depicting various parts of San Francisco. The trim at the top and bottom, the handle, and the hinged lid were made of pewter.
"That's gorgeous, Adam." Hoss said.
"Open it up." Adam said.
Hoss did and he grinned, before he upended the stein, letting the dollar piece land in his hand.
"That is for your first beer. I plan to have one with you, but just in case, I wanted you to know that I was buying."
"I'm gonna hold you to that, brother." Hoss said, gently dropping the coin back into the cup. Joe rose and took the cup to look at it, then passed it to Ben. Elizabeth was in his arms, her eyes already drooping.
Adam swapped burdens with his father, coaxing Elizabeth into her night clothes. Ben opened his box and found a small round pebble, smooth, and glowing like an ember. It looked for a second like gold, or a gem. "This is amber." Ben said. He held it up to the light and smiled. "Those are pine cone wings."
"And seeds." Adam said. "Perhaps the oldest pine seeds in North America, preserved for all time in amber."
"Where..ever..did you get such a thing."
"An archeologist friend of mine. We went to school together back east. He dug this up years ago. Since it had no cultural value, he sent it to me as a kind of a...a joke, I guess. I had it polished and had these flanges added.." Adam turned the piece over and showed his father the thin metal spines that could be bent out. "I figured you could add it to your saddle or hat or...anything you wanted to."
"I'd stick it right over the Ponderosa brand if I could do it without hurting the animals." Ben said. He stood and hugged his son, gently placing the piece of ancient history back into its box. He guided Elizabeth through the process of picking up her toys, then tucked her into the bed by Hoss. He ordered Joe to sleep on the cot, planning to sleep in the chair.
Adam looked around at the cramped sleeping arrangements and sighed. "Pa, you can all come back with me to the boarding house. There's plenty of room."
"No, Adam. We're alright here for one more night. Tomorrow morning, hopefully we'll hear something back from the police, and...even if we don't, I think we'll try to head home."
"In that case I best get home and start grading."
Adam ducked out of the room and Ben shut the door. He turned down the lamp and stood at the window in the gloom waiting for Adam to appear on the street. He watched his boy hail a cab and step up into the carriage, then stick his head out the window and wave. Ben was in a dark window, but somehow Adam knew he'd be watching.
Ben waved back, and continued to watch the street, thinking about the strange events of the past few days. He remembered Adam's lecture, and what he had said before the student's arrived, about Ben's stories being used as common examples. In fact the stories that the student's related back to him had been varied, and made the students sound more like old friends than total strangers.
The thought had Ben wondering and he found paper, pen and ink, and started jotting down thoughts and questions he wanted to ask come morning.