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"Hey Joe, I'll bet you half of your sandwich that I can make you jump up from where you're sitting without touching you." Mitch grinned at his friend as they were sitting under a tree during recess.
Little Joe frowned. "Alright... what do I get if I win?"
"Uhm..." Mitch rummaged through his lunch box. "My biscuit."
"Fine." Joe's eyes widened as Mitch pulled a magnifying glass out of his pocket and held it against the sun.
It took only a few seconds until Joe felt a stinging pain on his arm, so that he forgot all about the bet and jumped up out of surprise.
"Haha, you lost!"
Joe rubbed his arm. "Hey! How did you do that?"
"You see when the sun falls through the glass it's like you're multiplying the heat. My Pa started a fire like that when we were out hunting the last time."
"Let me try..." Joe held out his hand just when Ms. Jones rang the bell.
"Awww.", he sighed. "Can I try after school?"
Mitch chuckled. "You wanna burn the school down?"
"No... just wanna see how it works and burn... " He looked around. "Those bushels of dry grass over there."
"Sorry, my Pa is picking me up today and I wasn't even supposed to bring this thing with me." Mitch turned the magnifier in his hand before putting it back into his pant pocket.
"Joseph, Mitch! Quit your chatter and come along!", came a loud voice from the school entry which caused the two boys to stand up and drag their feet back to the class room.
oooOOOooo
"That does it!", yelled Ben as he stormed through the front door and startled Adam who was sitting at the desk, going through the ledger. "You know who's sleeping in his bunk next to an empty bottle of whisky when he should be out on the range hours ago?"
Adam scratched his head and sighed. "Carl?"
"Yes, Carl." Ben breathed heavily. "Give me the money box, please, I'll wake him up and then send him packing."
Adam turned slowly and opened the safe. "Maybe you should talk to him first and then decide."
"Adam, there has been enough talk... in two months he had been drunk on the job three times, had gotten into I don't know how many brawls with the other hands and had tried to turn the bunk house into a gambling establishment."
He pursed his lips and handed his father the money box. "He still is one of the best when it comes to gentling horses though."
Ben sighed. "Be that as it may, I've had it with him. I thought he would straighten out if I gave him a chance. But I was wrong." He took out several bills and headed for the door.
"Carl!" Ben towered over the young man in his bunk. "Carl! Wake up!"
He slowly opened his eyes and sat up as soon as he recognized his boss. Then he held his head and pressed his eyes closed. "Sorry, I must've overslept."
"Yes, and this was the last time. Here are your last month's wages." Ben held out the money to him.
Suddenly Carl was wide awake and jumped up. "You're firing me?! After I broke those crazy stallions that no one else was able to handle and spent days searching for your stinkin' calves and almost got myself shot when I hunted down them rustlers!"
"I thank you for the work that you've done and I paid you fairly. But you've been told several times that there is no drinking on the job and my patience is worn out.", Ben said in a dangerously low voice.
Carl clenched his fists. "You're gonna regret this Cartwright! You think you're the big man in this territory ordering everybody around as you damn please. You'll remember me, Cartwright, I promise you that!"
Ben forced himself to stay calm and pierced through him with his eyes. "I think it's best you pick up your things and leave right away."
Carl ripped the money from Ben's hand and started stuffing his clothes in his saddle bags. Ben walked outside and waited for him to get ready.
"Good luck, Carl.", Ben said stoically as the man walked out of the bunk house. Carl spat on the floor before he mounted up and rode off without a word.
oooOOOooo
Ben was still tensed when the Cartwright family had settled around the dinner table but tried not to show it.
"Do we have some more dumplings?", asked Joe and sat up to get a peek at the bowl standing close to Adam's plate.
"You're almost keeping up with Hoss today.", chuckled Adam and handed him the bowl.
"Well, I lost half of my lunch to Mitch today so I'm kinda hungry."
"How come you lost your lunch?", frowned Hoss and Little Joe told his family about Mitch's magnifying glass.
"Did you know that you can start a fire with a magnifier?", Joe asked excitedly, hoping that he could teach his Pa and brothers something they didn't know.
Ben cleared his throat. "Yes, I know, and I also want to inform you that a magnifying glass is no toy, so I don't ever want you to fool around with it without supervision. How come Mitch's parents allowed him to take it to school anyway? Those things are expensive."
"Well, they didn't exactly allow him to take it with him." Joe quickly took another bite of his dumpling.
"That's what I thought.", frowned Ben. "You best tell Mitch not to play around with it either so that he doesn't burn down his home by accident, understand?"
"Yes, Pa.", sighed Joe, disappointed that his father didn't share his enthusiasm about the new discovery.
oooOOOooo
Two days later, Joe was home alone after school, except for Hop Sing who was busy in the kitchen preparing preserves for the winter. His father and brothers had left early to attend a cattle auction in Carson City and wouldn't be home until dinner. Little Joe hadn't gotten a good night's rest since the cry of an owl had kept him awake, so he was tired and moody when he tried to do his homework. He had sat down on Ben's desk which he normally wasn't allowed to do, but it was the most comfortable chair in the house and nobody was there to see him. After making a few too many mistakes on his arithmetic exercise, Joe ran out of paper. He looked around the table and didn't see any so he opened one of the desk's drawers. Inside of it was a pile of paper and on top of it was a magnifying glass. Joe's tiredness suddenly diminished and he took it in his hand to scrutinize it. Then he put it back. Hop Sing might catch him with it and tell Ben. He took out a few pieces of paper and continued with his homework. When he was finally done, he leaned back in the chair, put his feet on the table and looked at the ceiling. Hop Sing would be in the kitchen all day and if he went behind the tool shed there was no way that he would be seen. The ranch hands were all out with the herd and his family would take at least three hours to get home. Besides, what he was trying to do would only take a few minutes and he would be really careful about it.
He stood up, took the magnifier out of the drawer and put it in his pant pocket. Then he climbed on the cabinet behind the desk to look out of the window and make sure nobody was there. He startled when he saw a man coming out of the bunkhouse. He recognized Carl. Adam had told him that Ben had fired him so Joe reckoned that he had forgotten something and was picking it up now. He waited for Carl to ride off, then told Hop Sing that he was going outside to do his chores in the barn.
Joe eyes lit up and he felt like a magician when the flames appeared out of nothing just because he had held the magnifier against the sun. He had put some hay on the dirt floor and tried different angles to see how quickly it would ignite. Joe had been taught about the dangers of fire from an early age so he always made sure to put it out with his boots before the flames were getting too big.
"One last one...", he mumbled with gleaming eyes as he set another pile of hay on fire when he suddenly heard Hop Sing calling him, his voice coming closer every second.
"Little Joe! Hop Sing needs your help!" Joe quickly stepped on the hay and hid the magnifier in his pocket.
"What you do there?", frowned Hop Sing as he came closer and saw him walking out from behind the tool shed. Joe took a few fast strides towards him so that he wouldn't smell the smoke.
"I... I thought I heard some coyote and wanted to chase it off."
"You need to give me preserve glasses while I'm on ladder putting them in upper shelf. If I gotta go up and down and down and up, it will take till tomorrow."
"Alright, Hop Sing." Little Joe followed him along, unaware that there was still a small spark gleaming in the hay behind the tool shed.
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