Joseph, My Son

Chapter 9

Their honeymoon started out well, although Eleanor knew very little about cooking. She could take care of the chickens well enough, but she was squeamish about cleaning out their nests. She had to be taught how to milk the cow, which Joe though was adorable. There was little else to concern themselves that first week. Joe's chores around the main ranch would be taken care of by his brothers and he and Eleanor were able to devote themselves to each other.

She hadn't realized how different life would be on top of their hill. There had never been a time when she hadn't had someone to cook and clean for her. While her mother and her aunt had done their best to teach her the rudiments of keeping house all on her own, Eleanor was still surprised at the difficulty of it.

After the Christmas and New Year's holiday, school was back in session. With it as cold as ever, Pru and Hoss knew that heavy snow was right around the corner. They woke up Wednesday to leaden skies. "You'd better be ready to stay overnight at the schoolhouse," warned Hoss. "I don't want you and Polly to try and make it back home if it turns into a blizzard."

Prudence agreed wholeheartedly. It was no surprise then that soon after the children had settled behind their desks, it began to snow steadily. By lunchtime the snow had become a blizzard, and she dismissed the children for the rest of the day. They all walked to their homes in town or nearby except for Clarence. Her "difficult" student lived on a farm just far enough out of town that he was too small to make the trip on his own, and even if he had been physically able, Prudence worried that he'd become too distracted by the goings-on around Virginia City to make it home in time for supper. When she kept a restraining hand on his shoulder while the other students left, he looked up at her with mild fear in his eyes.

"Isn't my Pa gonna come 'n get me?" he asked in a frightened, little voice.

"He might not be able to until tomorrow, Clarence. But you can stay with me upstairs. There's a little apartment there. I lived in it last year before I got married and it's nice and cozy. I keep it up just for situations like this. We've got plenty of food and we can play games. Think you'd be okay with that?"

"Yes'm!" he crowed, delighted at the idea of having an adult's attention all to himself.

Pru's father had answered her letter back at the beginning of the school year about how to approach the unusually active boy, and although no educators had really studied how best to teach such a child, she found his insights to be invaluable.

"I have found over the years, that such youngsters are typically as bright as their peers, but they seem to be especially unable to sustain attention in the face of what they find to be distracting. And much of that which they find a distraction does not seem to affect the typical child of the same age. It has also been my observation that the majority of these children are boys and many unconsciously have developed the feeling that they are not loved by their families, are burdensome, are thought of as 'trouble makers', rarely have true friends, and therefore, as they approach adolescence, fall in with a bad crowd just to have a group to belong to.

"My recommendations are to give this youngster as much positive attention as you can without making a spectacle of it, try to arrange the area around his seat so that it provides less distraction (both from a visual and sound perspective), and offer him a few minutes of private instruction during recess or at the end of the day. If you are able, speak to his family, and determine how they perceive the child and encourage them not to punish him for his impetuosity, but help them find ways to safely accommodate him within the household.

"In regard to his handwashing, this is something that I have not experienced with a young student, although I have seen one or two adults in my lifetime who seemed to have this fetish. I am afraid that I have no suggestions other than to make sure that excess washing does not cause him any injuries. I am sure that most educators would be delighted to have a young student in their classroom who is anxious to be clean-handed!"

Pru had followed her father's suggestions as best she could in a one-room school. Clarence had responded positively to her interest and was very willing to work with her even if it meant losing a few minutes of recess or making his father wait before they left for home at the end of the day. She had discovered that Clarence had had an older sister, but she had died of cholera before the family settled in the area, making the boy their oldest living child. He had a younger sister of about three years of age and his mother was expecting another baby around Eastertime. The farm was successful, supplying outlying families and the greengrocer in town with fresh vegetables and was able to support a couple of hired hands. Still, she realized, Clarence really blossomed when he had her undivided attention. She wanted to be careful and not single him out, but perhaps having him stay for a weekend with her and Eric would do the boy some good. She knew that her husband would adore having the little boy on their spread and sharing the excitement of their big horses with him. If the emergency overnight with her went well, and Eric agreed, she might suggest to Clarence's parents that the young couple to take him when his mother's confinement with the new baby occurred.

"Now you can help me bring more firewood upstairs. I filled the box this morning, but the snow coming down like this, I think it would be smart to make sure that we had more than enough inside."

"Yes, Mrs. Cartwright! The woodpile will probably get buried, and that would make it very tough to get more wood!"

XXXXX

If the chores she had been doing during the earlier part of the week had been difficult for Eleanor, they became doubly so with the snowstorm. There had been only a few flakes when she went to the barn, but by the time she had taken care of the cow and the chickens, it was snowing fiercely. Joe had taken Cochise and her new horse, Della, to the corral for a bit of exercise and when they returned to the barn, the three were dripping wet.

"Elly, can you brush down Della and then put a blanket on her?" Joe called out. He had usually done that, but obviously they didn't want her horse to stand there in the cold, dripping with melting snow, so she gamely took a currying brush to the animal.

"You've got to get deeper into her coat and get all the moisture out," commented Joe as he took the brush from her and demonstrated.

"I never realized how much work there would be on a ranch, even a small one! I don't know if I can handle it, Joseph. Maybe this wasn't such a smart idea, us getting married," she said as she began to cry.

"Hey there," he said as he pulled her to his chest. "Don't say that. I know what a big adjustment this is for you. You'll get the hang of it, and I'm here to help you. I believe in you. I believe in us. Don't forget, it's only been a few days since our wedding and everything these last few months have upset you. Now promise me, you won't talk about not wanting to be married, because I very, very much want to be married to you."

Eleanor nodded, wiped away her tears and took the currying brush back from her husband. When she finally finished, Joe gave her a big kiss and threw the blanket over Della's back.

"Let's go get settled in front of a nice, warm fire now that we've taken care of everything we needed to do out here," he suggested.

Outside of the barn, the snow was so heavy that they couldn't see more than a foot or two in front of them.

"Hold my hand and don't let go!" yelled Joseph over the howling wind. If Eleanor had said anything, he couldn't hear her, but he felt her gloved hand grip his tightly. Knowing what the winter storms could bring, especially up on their hill, he had strung a walking line between the barn and the house, and the couple followed it. When at last they made it into their house and shut the door to the wind and the snow attempting to enter, the leaned against it, and each other, just trying to catch their breath. Joe looked down at Eleanor's skirt. It was wet, muddy, and carried a significant amount of hay as well.

"Elly, next time we're in town, we need to get you some work pants. It'll be much easier on your clothes."

"Pants? I've said before, ladies don't wear men's pants. I've barely gotten used to the idea of wearing a split riding skirt. And I still would feel more comfortable with a buggy instead of on a saddle horse." Looking at her skirt, she was dismayed. How could she ever get it clean enough to wear in company again? That was another thing that upset her. She had seen how poorly most ranch wives dressed. Even Prudence wore an old gingham dress around her spread when she wasn't wearing a riding skirt or had guests over for dinner. It made her look so beggarly. And why didn't the other young woman demand that her husband buy her a buggy so that she could go to and from town in an appropriate manner!

Joseph sighed. This was the one thing that they didn't agree on. "I really don't want to go over that again. But you'll see when the snow stops you won't be able to go down the mountain with a buggy or even a buckboard, but you will be able to on horseback. Now," he said, drawing her into his arms, "how about continuing our honeymoon?"

"Don't try changing the subject, Joseph Cartwright!" Eleanor said, but jokingly. "If you want your bride to be happy…"

"Of course I want my bride to be happy! And there are so many ways to make her happy," he said, nuzzling her hair, then her cheeks and finally burying his mouth in her neck, causing her to make rather uncouth sounds as he kissed the soft flesh there. "Why, Mrs. Cartwright! How wanton of you!" he said as he abandoned her sweet neck and picked her up in his arms. "I'm just going to have to put you to bed!"

XXXXX

Night was falling. The snow had stopped, and the wind died so that all was still. Hoss knew that Prudence would stay in the schoolhouse, safe and warm, so he was not concerned about that. He would miss her in their bed tonight, but in the morning he would hitch one of the Clydesdales to the sleigh and go check on the rest of the family and then bring her home from town. He wondered idly if Polly would be able to follow in the big horse's tracks the next afternoon as he wandered out to the covered porch of their two-storey house. Looking up at the mountain, he saw a faint light from where Little Joe and Eleanor's house now stood. That was good. It meant that they were safe up there. They likely had more snow than he had down here. Turning to the northwest, he knew he wouldn't be able to see the big Ponderosa ranch house. There were too many large pines in the way, but up in the sky, he could just make out tendrils of smoke rising above where he knew his father, brother and Hop Sing were. They were alright as well. It was a good feeling to know that the entire Cartwright family were all and warm. He supposed that by taking down a few trees, the three houses would be able to signal each other by lantern. Even better, he realized, would be if they strung up a private telegraph line between them. That way they could be reached even in daytime. But that was a project for another time. Right now, he was going to go inside, make himself a hot supper and miss his Pru something awful.