"Little Joe!" Ben cried, throwing his arms around him. The boy was surprised to find his father trembling. Ben squeezed him so hard that he thought he was going to break his ribs. "Thank God you're alright!" he crooned, stroking his hair. His voice broke for a moment as he kissed his son fervently. "Thank God!" The seconds ticked by and his relief suddenly turned to fury. He pushed him away. "So! You finally decided to come home, did you? Do you know how much trouble you've caused?"

"I'm sorry, Pa."

"We've had the entire area out looking for you! I told you to come straight home. Didn't I?...Didn't I?"

"Yes, sir. But I did."

"Yes, and headed straight back out again!"

"L'il Joe alright now!"

"No, Hop Sing, Little Joe is all wrong. Which he will soon find out. Go and tell the men to find the others, would you? I don't want people wandering about the landscape half the night."

"Yes, sir, Mr Ben."

Ben turned to Joe and pursed his lips. There was a terrible silence and he glared at him for so long that Joe dropped his eyes and studied the floor. Adam and Scamp watched them unhappily.

"I'm sorry, Pa."

"Oh, you will be, son. Sorrier than you have ever been in your life." His voice was shaking and hoarse. When Ben trusted himself to speak again, his tone foretold of Joe's doom. "Do you remember what I told you would happen if you gave us any more trouble? I mean, any?"

"Yes, sir."

"What was it?"

Joe mumbled something.

"Speak up."

"You said you'd thrash me." Joe's voice was almost a whisper. Ben started to unbuckle his belt. "Please, Pa! Let me explain!"

Ben doubled the implement in his hand and stood silently. "Go on, then. Explain."

"I...I...thought I could work out where they'd go. I know them pretty well, you see."

"I know you know them, Joseph."

"And...and then...I was gonna collar 'em and clobber 'em and bring 'em back to town. And you'd have had both of 'em. Wouldn't it have been worth it, Pa, if I'd got 'em?"

"No, young man, it wouldn't have been worth it. I don't care about them, I care about you. Nothing is worth your life."

"My life?"

"Yes, you stupid little fool, your life. If just one thing had gone differently today, you could be shot or hurt or worse. It's the most stupid thing you've done by far, and that is saying a lot." Ben shook his head and pinged the strap onto his hand. "I've never done this before and I was hoping I'd never have to – but...it seems you'll learn no other way." He pointed to the blue armchair by the fire. "Bend over that chair."

Scamp ran to him. "No, Pa, please!"

"Scamp - "

"Please don't thrash him, Pa!"

"I'm sorry, Scamp. He could've gotten himself killed. This must never happen again, Joseph. Not ever. Now bend over."

"No, no!" she cried. She tried to pull the belt from his hand and Adam gently restrained her. She buried her face against his chest and wept. The only time she showed any vulnerability was when her twin was punished.

Joe backed to the fireplace, his face white. "Pa, please..."

"Joe, don't make this harder than it already is! Do you think I want to do it? I have spent hours looking for you, dreading what I'd find, hoping against hope you were alright, that you weren't beaten or shot or stabbed. Every corner I turned I was expecting to find you with an arrow in your chest! When I saw you standing here..." he trailed off, speechless for a moment, "...when I saw you standing there, my first thought was to thank God. My second was to take the hide off you! Now do as I tell you and bend over that chair."

"Pa, I'm sixteen. I'm a man. You can't - "

"Can't I?" Ben seized him and bent him over the arm of the chair. Joe struggled so much he was practically standing on his head on the cushion, his legs flailing. Adam thought with grim humor that his little brother was merely giving his father more of a target to aim at.

"You had the courage to do it, now have the courage to take your punishment," Ben intoned. "Like a man."

At the mention of courage Joe stopped fighting, grit his teeth and dug his nails into the chair. Ben closed his eyes for a moment, steeling himself. He whipped the belt down as hard as he could. The only way Joe could stop from screaming was to bite on the material beneath his face. Ben used all his strength in the remaining five blows. The leather cut into him like licks of fire and the whimpers were wrest from the boy. They were like knives to Ben's heart.

"Alright, get up."

Joe did not move for a moment. He managed to silence his cries and slowly slid himself to his feet. Tears streamed down his cheeks and he was trembling from head to foot. The only sound was Scamp sobbing against Adam's breast. Ben felt like a monster.

"Now, Joseph, listen to me. What you did today was insanity. I hated doing that but I think you have the intelligence to realize what could have happened. Now you go to your room and stay there, hear me? And don't you dare come out."

Joe took to his heels but Scamp was beside herself. She launched herself at her father.

"You beat him! You beat him!" she cried, shaking and slapping at his arms.

"Marie!"

"Scamp, stop it!" Adam said. He took her shoulder but she pulled away.

"How could you, Pa? I hate you!"

"Marie, how dare you?" Ben shouted, avoiding her tiny blows and snatching at her wrists.

"It's OK, Pa." Adam grabbed her, lifting her off her feet. "I'll talk to her. Don't you dare kick me, girl!"

Ben was more upset than angry. Her words had cut him to the core. He wore himself out on the wood-pile in the dark and Joe allowed himself to howl once he had reached his room. Adam carried his struggling sister outside.

"Let me go!"

"Cut that out!" he cried as she kicked back at him for the hundredth time. "I mean it, Scamp!"

"Then let me go!"

Her boot connected very sharply with his shin and with a cry he dropped her onto the ground. She tried to scoot away but he slapped the front of her thigh with as much strength as he could muster.

It was a very hard blow and she yelped with pain. "OW! That hurt!"

"So does my shin!" he cried, rolling up his trouser leg. "Look! Doggone it, Scamp!"

Rubbing her thigh she bent over and saw she had taken his skin off. "Sorry, Adam."

"Sorry? You damn well will be!"

"Well, you grabbed me!"

"Because you were going for Pa! You know no fear, do you?"

"Look, I'm sorry I hurt you, I didn't mean to."

He was crying out in anguish, hopping about. "I'm gonna have one hell of a bruise!"

"Adam, I lost my temper. It's just that you're a lot stronger than me and when you grab me I can't get free and I hate that." She paused as he sank onto a bale, nursing his leg. She rubbed her stinging thigh and hissed with pain, then smiled, stretching her hand out to him. "I'm sorry, big brother. Forgive me?"

He glared at her and then rolled his eyes. "I hit you pretty hard, didn't I?"

She chuckled. "Yeah, I think I'll be feeling it for an hour or so. I bet there's a girt big hand print on my leg. But I deserved it." She waggled her fingers. "C'mon, take my hand." He reluctantly complied. "I am pretty impossible, aren't I?"

"There are times, younger sister, when I could wring your neck."

"I guess you wanna give me a lecture about Pa."

"What were you thinking of? Going for him like that?"

"Well, he beat Little Joe!"

"Little Joe had it coming. How would you have felt if instead of getting a tanning, he was laid out on the bed, dead?"

"Adam!"

"That's what could have happened! Going after Indians, half-cocked, on his own, a sixteen-year-old kid! He could have an arrow or a bullet in him, lying in a ditch somewhere, and we'd not even know!"

"It wouldn't have happened."

"Oh, come on, Scamp. Even Pa and I wouldn't do something like that. You know how stupid it was." He stared at her. "Don't you?"

Scamp worked her jaw, her green eyes slightly misty. "He didn't have to beat him, though."

"Pa was frightened. Joe was damn lucky he came back in one piece and Pa knows that. You know how much he loves him." He took her arm and turned her to face the house. They watched their father busy at the woodpile for a few moments. Adam lowered his voice, his mouth close to her ear. "And he loves you, too. What you said broke his heart."

She swung round in anguish, her anger immediately giving way to guilt. "Broke his heart?"

"Saying that you hated him."

"I...I didn't mean it."

"Why don't you go and tell him that?"

She gulped, drew her arm across her face and ran up to Ben.

"Pa?"

"Yes, Scamp?"

"I'm sorry."

"That's alright."

"Pa?" She took his wrist and he paused in his work, his face intense and tight. "No, really, I am. I don't hate you. I love you. Please believe me."

He wrapped his arms around her. "Of course I believe you, darling. I know you love me."

"It's just I was angry. I say things I don't mean sometimes."

"I know." He smiled at her and she kissed him hard on the cheek.

"Oh, Pa, I'm sorry!...I...I'm gonna see Little Joe now."

"OK."

Scamp found her brother sobbing on his bed.

"Oh, Scamp!"

"Little Joe!"

She comforted him, just as she had done when he had been spanked as a child. It was a long time before he could pull himself together and get up.

"You gonna be OK?"

"I guess."

"I wish you wouldn't do these things."

"What do you mean, you little hypocrite? You do them too!"

"Yeah, but not so bad!"

Later Joe disobeyed his father yet again. Ben was still outside and Scamp told him Hoss was awake and asking for him. He limped into Hoss's bedroom and commiserated.

"How's your arm?"

"Hurts. How's your butt?"

"Oh, you know about that?"

"Yeah, sis told me." Hoss gave him a gentle thump on the shoulder. "I wish you'd found them though."

"Yeah, me too." Joe shifted from one foot to the other, wishing he could sit down.

"Pa really blistered you, huh?"

"Yeah. Took his belt to me."

Hoss was surprised, then grunted in consolation. "Ah, Joe!"

After Scamp had finished her evening work she watched Adam muck out and scatter fresh straw on the ground. "You could help me if you like."

"No fear. I've done my chores."

"I thought you liked working with horses?"

"I do but I'm exhausted."

"Oh, are you, Grandma?"

"Shurrup." She shuffled up on a hay bale. "Poor Little Joe."

"He'll live." He gave a great groan as he shifted a vast bag of oats into the stall. "Oh, Scamp, for Pete's sake, give me a hand."

"I don't know," she grumbled, hopping down again. "What would you do without me, eh?"

"Shut up and shift."

"I wonder how much this weighs?"

"Couple of hundredweight, at least."

"Impossible for one person."

"Not for Hoss. He's built like an ox."

"A buffalo, more like."

"Now don't be rude. Remember he's got an arrow in his arm."

"Had an arrow in his arm."

She put in all her strength, managing to get her side off the ground, panting. Adam smiled. "I pity any boy who tried to mess with you."

"Ugh! Dang, this is heavy!"

"Nearly there."

It was so heavy she fell over it and lay flat on her stomach on the rough sack. "Phew, my heart's beating nineteen to the dozen. Now I really am tired. I'm going back in the house before you get me doing something else."

"OK, Grandma."

But she hovered. She had made up with her father but still found it impossible to believe he had actually beaten Joe. "He's never strapped any of us before."

"He did it to me once."

"Yeah, but that was about a hundred years ago."

Adam nodded grimly. "Carry on, younger sister, just carry on."

When she went back, Joe came down despite his father's order. He was silent and subdued, his face puffy.

"I thought I told you to stay put."

"I have to get some air, Pa. Please."

Ben shook his head. "Still can't do as you're told, can you? Now turn round, go straight back upstairs and stay in your room. Now."

"You OK, Little Joe?" asked Scamp, putting her hand on his arm.

"Guess." Joe glared at Ben for a moment before walking back to his room. Scamp hesitated before following him up.

They paused on the landing.

"I want to be on my own for a little while, Scamp."

"You really OK?"

"Yes! I told you!"

"OK, don't snap my head off!"

"I'm sorry, Scamp, it's just that it's hurting. A lot."

"I bet. Wanna go out tomorrow?"

"How can I? I don't even want to try to sit on a saddle and I ain't gonna walk."

"Sorry."

"No, I am. I'm taking it out on you and I don't mean to."

"I...just thought it might take your mind off things."

"Yeah, it probably would...if I could ride a horse."

They looked at each other. Her face was full of sympathy but a ghost of a smile quivered on their lips and they started to laugh, quietly at first, but then their guffawing reached a crescendo. Unknown to them, their father heard them from downstairs and his heart lifted.

"What do you wanna do, then?"

"Oh, I dunno."

"You gonna make up with Pa?"

"Are you?"

"I already have. Anyway, he didn't tan me."

"No, but you're mad at him, aren't you?"

"Just a bit upset for you, that's all."

He cupped her face in his hand. They had always been a similar height but now he was several inches taller than her. He patted her ear and gave her an affectionate kiss on the head. They were still mirrors of each other, Scamp thought. The same black, thick, curly hair, full lips and heavenly green eyes. They embraced and he closed the door behind him. She gazed after him with adoration. She would rather have her kidney removed than admit it, but her heart exploded with love for him.

Before he went to bed Ben wanted to talk to him. To Little Joe's dismay it was not the end of the punishment. He was restricted yet again and given so many extra chores he feared he would not be able to get them all done. He complained vociferously.

"Pa, you already thrashed me! Ain't that enough?"

Ben sighed. "Joseph, you're always asking I treat you as a man, aren't you?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'm going to talk to you as a man." He led him out onto the porch and sat down by the table. Joe was still sore and remained standing. "If you're adult enough you'll understand. I want you to try to see this from my point of view. You rush off into danger and do something so stupid it's a wonder you're still alive. I told you to go home. But you didn't. I had to make an impression on you that this has got to stop. Do you understand?"

"Doggone..." Joe muttered. "Yes, Pa, I understand."

"My main job is to keep my sixteen-year-old boy – who thinks he's a man – safe and out of trouble. I want to have you under my eye for a while. I want to know where you are and what you're doing. Then later, if you prove you're mature enough, I can loosen the reins a bit."

"You make me sound like a horse."

"A horse who's out of control. You've been in a lot of trouble recently, Joseph."

"I know."

"I heard you laughing with Scamp."

"Yeah."

"She's going to make a fine woman. Not an easy woman, but a fine one." He watched as a reluctant smile spread across Joe's face.

"She's a goofball. D'you know, she wanted me to go out tomorrow? I told her, I hate walking and I've no desire to sit on a saddle at the moment."

Ben nodded. "Yeah, I hated doing it. I don't like hurting you and I had to take the chance that you might hate me. Or even fear me."

"That's dumb, Pa. You know I don't hate you. I'm certainly not scared of you."

"I'm glad to hear that, it's why I came to a decision."

"What decision?"

"That is the last time I'll ever raise my hand to you. You're almost a man now and you have to start taking responsibility for your actions. I can't live your life for you and I can't keep tanning your hide as if you were twelve years old. If you haven't learned by now all I've tried to teach you, whipping you won't help."

"I'll try to be better, Pa. I really will."

"I know you will. You're a good kid, it's just that temper. I've tried to control it but it's as if there's a flashpoint in your head. There's a spark and then whoosh! The whole house goes up. And you're so stubborn. You've got to listen to reason sometimes, son."

Joe suddenly found the tiny loose thread on his cuff very interesting. "I know. I do try to control it, Pa. Honestly."

"I don't want you seeing those boys. I want you to swear."

"But they're my friends, Pa!"

"They're bad people. They're only headed one way, either to jail or the gallows. They're going to kill somebody one day, I think you know that deep down. Do you swear?"

"It's so unfair," Joe said sullenly, kicking at the floorboards.

"Joseph! Do you swear?"

"Alright! I swear!"

"I'll try to help you in every way I can, so if you're ever in trouble you can come to me. But you'll have to take responsibility for yourself. I won't bail you out all the time. You want to be a man, you'll have to be one."

Joe had been wanting to hear the words for so long he was surprised to find there was fear in his heart. It was as if his childhood had suddenly closed its doors forever.

"Pa?"

"Yes?"

"You'll be there for me?"

"I said so, didn't I?"

"I guess."

"If you lived to be a hundred – and I was miraculously still alive - you'd still be my son. Eh?" Ben saw the troubled look on his boy's face and gently nudged his chin. "Still my Little Joe?"

Joe's expression relaxed into a deep smile. "Yes."

"But...in the meantime you're on restriction and I've got a lot of extra chores that need doing. I want to make this punishment one you'll never forget. Because it'll be the last one."

"I won't forget." Joe grimaced, putting his hand to the seat of his pants.

"If you're a man I can't do that any more." Joe reddened. "Can I?"

"No, sir."

"Alright, go to bed."

Joe was to remember the whipping as the first in his life. And the last.