Joseph, My Son

Chapter 7

It didn't take long to arrange the wedding. It would naturally be held in the Williams' large home in town. Eleanor bought the material for an outstanding wedding dress and found a dressmaker who could copy the latest French styles as presented in Godey's Ladies' Book.

For their home, Joseph had picked a site higher up in the hills, (and with a grand view of Lake Tahoe), than Hoss and Prudence's place. Adam once again designed the house for his brother, this time a large, sprawling one-storey ranch house. With the help of his family and some of the ranch hands, the building was up in no time. While Eleanor would have liked to be living nearer to town, she understood that her husband-to-be needed to be close to where the cattle were. As Hoss had said to his father the spring before, Joe's strengths lay with the cattle production of the Ponderosa as well as managing the horse breaking and assisting Ben in sales of their livestock.

Despite the rapidity with which the wedding was coming together, The Hood's insisted that they wanted to attend, so the couple had made sure that Eleanor's parents could take their time making the journey from Sacramento to Virginia City. Her father's health remained very precarious; for every day spent traveling, another two would be spent resting. Anna Williams hoped that once her brother and sister-in-law had arrived in Virginia City, they could stay and enjoy the healthful air and fresh food. A few months in the cold and sparkling winter of the Nevada mountains would do her brother Andrew a world of good and so she started making inquiries about a suitable house away from town. It only took a few days before she heard that the Conklin family were looking to rent out their house , for the winter season, up by one of the many creeks feeding Lake Washoe. They were an older couple who had raised several children there, while operating a successful grist mill, but now that they were in their later years, they had a foreman who ran the operation for them. When the winter approached, they usually went south to their eldest son's home in Yuma, Arizona. The house, while not what either the Hood or Williams' families thought of as befitting people of their class, was well built and spacious, like a small version of the Cartwright's Ponderosa house. Anna would hire a cook-housekeeper for them and there was a horse and buggy included in the rent. She would be nearby and there wasn't any more or less that Doc Martin could do for Andrew than the Sacramento "professors" had to offer.

Eleanor was beyond excited that her parents were even considering making the journey; at first, she had assumed that her aunt, uncle, cousins, and all the Cartwright's would have to make the trip to California. However, her mother wrote that arranging a wedding as well as dealing with so many visitors to find accommodations for, was beyond her capacity. Considering how much of her time was spent caring for her father, even with whatever assistance Tom and Anna Williams could provide from a distance, it would not have been the wedding that she and her husband wanted to give their only child.

Her mother also wrote that the prospect of Eleanor and Joseph's marriage and the forthcoming trip, seemed to make her father rally. The atmosphere in Virginia City, was therefore even more joyous.

XXXXX

It was the first week in September and Prudence's wedding summer had end. The schoolhouse had been cleaned and polished, a supply of emergency food and clothing left by her and Hoss in the little apartment above the schoolroom and new school books and supplies had been stocked. Living on the Ponderosa meant she now had to get up way before dawn to make breakfast, leave a lunch for Hoss, make a sandwich for herself, milk the cow, collect the chicken eggs, and ride the hour or so it would take to reach the schoolhouse by 7:30 to warm up the room before the children arrived. The new first grade class was about the same size as the previous year's, but one of the boys immediately stood out to her. His name was Clarence, and he was tall for his age, but very thin. He had difficulty staying in his seat, more so than normal. He was impetuous and often spoke out of turn or waved his hand wildly so he could be recognized in order to answer. He also was unusually willing to wash his hands and face, she noted. He knew his numbers and letters, could already read out a few words and tried very hard to be helpful, but he quite clearly was not a typical boy for his age. In the past, she'd had some children in her classes who had needed help learning to calm down enough to stay seated, but in a day or two they usually were able to control themselves. More often than not, their parents had not taught them to sit quietly for any length of time. Clarence was different, though. He seemed to be compelled by some interior need to be in constant motion. He also seemed to be unaware that the other children in the classroom did not share his need to wash his hands repeatedly. She was concerned.

By the time she returned home at the end of the afternoon, Prudence realized that she was in for an exhausting year. The long hours, the ride to and from town and the chores that she had to somehow finish before bedtime nearly overwhelmed her. And it was only the first day of school.

Hoss swept her into his arms when Polly carried her into the yard. "You look so tired, Pru honey," he whispered into her hair as he held her tight. For the first time in years, she burst into tears. "I don't know how I'm going to do this, Eric. It's only the first day, and I already feel like I'm pushing a boulder up hill."

"We'll manage it together. That is unless you want to tell the schoolboard to hire someone else for this year?"

"No! I've put too much of my heart and soul into the school to give up now. And I have a new child in the first grade who has a lot of oddities. I don't think many teachers would be able to help him."

Hoss led her into their house. She was surprised to find that he had started dinner, and she accepted a cup of coffee from him gratefully.

"Well, as I see it darlin', you could either stay over at the school during the week or let me take on some of your chores. There's no need for you to milk the cow and collect the eggs before you make breakfast and leave for the day. I can do that easy enough. And I can eat leftovers for lunch. I knew you'd be really tired today, so last week I sat down with Hop Sing and wrote out some recipes that I can make for dinner. 'Course, he's always willing to make extra for us and send it over." Taking one of her hands in his, he rubbed it gently. "I'd certainly be happier to work a little harder than have you stay away all week."

Prudence looked tiredly at her husband. Since she'd already been crying over her exhaustion, it was easy enough for her to continue to cry over how good he was to her and how much she loved him for it. "Eric…Eric. How did I get so blessed to be married to a man like you?"

"You were just plain lucky. But I was even luckier, Pru. I was even luckier."

After dinner, she took out some sheets of paper and sat down at the kitchen table with her steel pen and started what turned out to be a long letter to her father. He was a long-time teacher and now he was teaching others to be teachers. She needed his advice on how to work with a child like Clarence. She didn't think that simple discipline was going to work, and she didn't want to cause him to become uncooperative and unwilling to engage in his education. The words seemed to pour out once she started, and it wasn't until Hoss reminded her that they needed to go to bed that she was able to conclude the letter.

The next day she hurriedly ate her sandwich during the midday break and then quickly went to the post/telegraph office to mail her letter to her father. She handed the envelope to Mr. McSweeney and opened her purse to pay for the postage when he handed her an envelope containing a telegram in return. "I had to send the boy out to Mr. Miller's place 'a fore this came in. I thought you could give this to Mrs. Williams on yer way back to school."

Prudence was surprised, but she took the message. She had just enough time to run over to Eleanor's house before she needed to get back to work and ring the afternoon bell.

The door was opened by the Williams' housekeeper who thanked her for the delivery. Prudence turned and rounded the corner of the wrought iron fence that separated the property from the wooden sidewalk, intending to swiftly walk to the schoolhouse. It was then she heard a stricken wail come from the second floor of the house. She turned around and ran back into the building and followed the sound of crying to Anna William's upstairs sitting room. There she found Eleanor and her aunt hugging each other tightly as tears streamed down their faces.

"What is it?" the young teacher asked.

"It's Father. He… he died in his sleep!"

In moments, Prudence had run back to the schoolhouse, dismissed the children for the day, and started galloping Polly to the Ponderosa. She and the horse barely skidded to a stop at the hitching rail when she called out, "Where's Joe?" Adam came running from the barn and Ben from the house. They'd never seen her so upset before and it worried them both.

"He's bringing some horses down to the lower corral", Adam answered. "I'll go get him".

Pru was breathing hard from the ride and Polly was lathered up. Ben had never seen either one of them in such a state. "What's the problem? Is it Eleanor?"

"Not exactly. It's her father. He's passed on."