After Abel took the photograph, Adam set Cat down and walked over to ensure that water was now flowing into the dry stream. Cat walked over to the lake and started taking off her boots, moccasins and socks. Ben saw her and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I want to look inside one of the beaver houses to see what they look like and if they'll play with me."

"Catherine, I already told you that those beavers are wild animals and not to be trifled with."

"What does that mean?"

"It means that you shouldn't bother them. Beavers spend a lot of time sleeping during the day and would get very upset if you disturbed them. Would you like it if someone came into your bedroom in the middle of the night and woke you up just to see what it looked like or ask if you wanted to play?"

"No, I guess not."

"The beavers wouldn't like it either and they could bite you. We'll ride out here some evening before sunset so you can see the beavers but you are not allowed to go in the lake with them." Cat thought her father was wrong and was determined to go swimming with the beavers. Ben saw the determined look on Cat's face and said, "Do not disobey me on this Catherine. I can guarantee that you will not like the consequences."

Ben walked off to talk to the men who had been digging the channel so Cat finished taking off her boots, moccasins, and socks. Then she pulled her pants legs up and sat down with her feet in the lake. Adam had watched the conversation between his father and sister so he walked over to Cat and said, "You are in big trouble little girl. I know Pa told you not to do that."

"Pa just said I couldn't go swimming in the lake. He didn't say I couldn't put my feet in the water. Even if he did say I couldn't put my feet in the water, you can't tell me what to do. You're my brother, not my Pa so I don't have to listen to you. Now go away." Adam bent down and pulled Cat away from the lake.

Ben walked up to the men who were sitting around relaxing after a hard day's work digging in very hard soil. "Men, I want to thank you for digging that channel today. I know it was very hard work but the end result was worth it. Don't worry about finishing whatever you were working on before Pete asked you to come here. I'm giving all of you the rest of the day off. Enjoy yourselves. You have earned it. Since today is payday, for those of you who want to go into town, I'll get your pay ready as soon as I get back to the house."

While Ben was busy talking to the men, Joe noticed Adam pulling their sister away from the water's edge and hurried over to them. He pushed Adam away from Cat and said, "Why don't you leave her alone? She wasn't doing anything wrong. You don't need to go bossing her around the way you did with me when I was a boy. Pa's here and he'll deal with her if she's doing something he said not to."

"I know that Pa told her not to go near the water and she's sitting her with her feet in it. I'm taking her to Pa so he can deal with her."

Joe shoved his brother and said, "There you go being Mr. Bossy Boots again. How do you know that Pa told little sister to stay away from the water? Maybe he just told her not to go in it."

Adam shoved Joe back and said, "Because that's what I would have said if I were Pa." He grabbed Cat's arm, intending to take her to Ben when Joe hit him. Adam hit Joe back and a fight ensued.

Hoss saw his brothers fighting, ran over to where they were pulled them apart and demanded, "Jus' what in tarnation do you two think yore doin? Yore not settin' a very good example for little sister and Pa's gonna skin ya alive. You know how he feels about us fightin' with each other!"

Ben turned around and saw his middle son holding his brothers apart and stormed up to them. "Just what on Earth is going on here?"

"I don't know what started it, but them two was goin' at it real hard and I didn't think they should be fightin' in front of little sister," replied Hoss.

"And just exactly what were the pair of you fighting about?"

"He was pulling Cat away from the lake and I told him to leave her alone. You're here and he doesn't need to go bossing her around the way he did me when I was Cat's age. He was always bossing me around and I'm not going to let him do it to Cat."

"I know that you told her to stay away from the water so I was taking her out of it. It appears that you are going to go too easy on her just like you did with Joe when he was growing up."

Ben sighed. It seemed that even though they were grown up now, his eldest and youngest sons still hadn't patched up their differences from years ago. "Catherine, were you in the water?"

"No Pa. I was just sitting here with my feet in the water. I pulled my pants legs up so they wouldn't get wet. See, my feet are only wet to just above my ankles."

"Adam, your sister was not doing anything wrong. Even if she had been, since I am right here, it was not your place to try and discipline her. If you had asked me, I would have told you she wasn't doing anything wrong. We will discuss how I handled your youngest brother when he was a boy and how I intend to handle your sister at a different time and location.

Now, I am going to put this fight down to the fact that you are both very hot and tired. However, I do not want to see this behavior repeated for any reason. If I am around and you think your sister is doing something wrong, let me know and if she is misbehaving, I will deal with it. If I am not around, the eldest brother who is with your sister will be in charge of her. However, you are not to spank her for any reason. Until she has been living with us a while and become used to being part of a family, I will be the only one to spank her. Hop Sing may also deal with her as he deems necessary. Now I suggest that the two of you get on your horses, go cool off, and find something constructive to do for the rest of the day. Hoss, thank you for stopping your brothers from fighting. I would not have been angry at you if you had thrown them into the lake so they could cool off. In fact, you probably should have."

"Well, I shore thought about it Pa, but I just didn't want to disturb the beavers. They might have got awfully mad and come after me ifn I had thrown Adam and Joe in with them."

Ben laughed. "You may be right about that son. Catherine, I am very glad that you did not go in the lake with the beavers. Now put your boots back on and let's go. I have to pay the men."

"Can I stay with Hoss?"

"That's up to Hoss. How about it son? Are you willing to look after your sister?"

"Shore Pa. Why Cat ain't no trouble at all and ifn she does decide to give me a hard time, I'll just hang her on a tree branch until you can deal with her."

Cat giggled. "Make it a real high tree branch Hoss. I want to know what it's like to be at the very top of a tree."

Ben sighed. Cat had only been home for three weeks and she was already giving him more gray hairs than he already had. "Alright Cat. You may stay with Hoss. He's in charge of you and if you misbehave, he has my permission to give you a swat if you need it."

"Don't worry Pa. Little sister and I will be just fine. In fact, since it's still pretty hot outside, we might just go to Lake Tahoe and do some swimmin'. There might even be some fishin' poles laying around we can use. I won't need to swat her ifn she don't listen to me. I'll just turn her upside down and tickle her until she wets her pants just like I used to do with Joe."

"Go on you two before I change my mind and make both of you spend the rest of the day working. The barn needs cleaning and wood always needs to be cut and stacked."

"Come on big brother. I don't want to clean the barn and stack wood. I want to go fishing and swimming."

"I'm commin' little sister. I don't want to do them things either. Adam and Joe can do them. They was fightin' not us." Just in case Ben was changing his mind about letting Hoss and Cat spend the rest of the day fishing and swimming, Hoss picked Cat up, quickly walked over to her horse and set her in the saddle. After putting her puppies in her saddle bags, he mounted his horse and the two of them rode off toward Lake Tahoe.

Ben laughed at how quickly his son could move when it came to avoiding work. Then he walked over to where Abel and Sam were waiting. "Abel, if you'll follow Sam and I, we'll get you to the house. You can park your wagon next to the barn. That should be a good place for you to develop your photographs."

"That will be fine Ben. Thank you. Please tell me how many copies you want of the pictures I took today."

"I'll sit down and figure that out as soon as I pay the hands."

"That will be fine. I am eager to see your house and ranch. Sam here has been telling me all about it."

"I'll make sure to give you a proper tour while you're here. Now if you're ready, let's go. I have a bunch of hands waiting for their pay so they can go to town."

As they were riding back to the ranch, Sam asked Ben, "What was the fight all about? Was Adam being Mr. Bossy Boots again?"

Ben laughed. "I didn't know that anyone outside the family knew that Joe used to call him that."

"I heard Joe call Adam that several times when I stayed with you. It wasn't my place to interfere with your sons so I just let you handle things."

"To answer your question, yes, Adam was being bossy again. I told Cat that she couldn't swim in that lake but I never said she couldn't get her feet wet. Adam decided his little sister shouldn't even be getting her feet wet and was going to deal with her himself until Joe stopped him. While I am happy to see Joseph defending his sister, I do not condone my sons fighting with each other for any reason. They're old enough to know how to settle their differences without using their fists and I certainly hope Adam and Joe will have resolved their differences before they return to the house."

The men reached the house and Ben showed Abel where he could park his wagon under the shade of a tree next to the barn and invited him into the house. After showing Abel which bedroom he would be using, Ben walked outside to take care of Abel's horses. While he was doing that, Adam and Joe walked in leading their horses and still quarreling. Ben looked at them with fire in his eyes. "I thought I told the two of you to find something constructive to do. Quarreling with each other is not constructive. Now, since the pair of you seem to unable to find anything constructive to do on your own, I will do it for you. As you both know, this is a large ranch and it takes a lot of work to keep it running properly. That work includes cleaning the barn and cutting and stacking wood. Joseph, since you are always trying to get out of doing your share of the work around here, you can cut and stack wood. Adam, you can clean the barn. I am going to go and entertain our guests."

"Where are Hoss and Cat?" asked Joe.

"Your brother and sister went to Lake Tahoe to fish and swim."

"That sounds like fun. I think I'll join them."

"You will do no such thing Joseph. You had the opportunity to do just that when you left the lake with the beavers. Instead, you chose to continue arguing with Adam so now you can just stay here and cut and stack wood. I want to see all of those large logs cut and stacked before supper so I suggest you get busy." Ben walked into the house where he found that Hop Sing had already brought a fresh pot of coffee into the great room.

Hoss and Cat rode out to Lake Tahoe to swim and fish. "How are we going to catch fish when we don't have any fishing poles with us?" asked Cat.

"Don't you worry yore little head about that. Ol' Hoss always has fishin' poles stashed around here. Let's swim first sos we can dry off while we're fishin'. After we're done swimmin' I'll rustle up some fishin' poles and we'll see if we can catch us some supper."

They swam and played in the water with Cat's puppies for a while when Hoss said it was time to get out of the water because they needed time to dry off before going home. He found two fishing poles and Cat asked, "How are we going to dig for worms and what are we gonna put them in? We don't have a shovel or cans with us."

"Little sister, one thing yore gonna learn is that ol' Hoss is always ready to go fishin'. You just go look in my saddle bags and bring me what you find." Cat felt around in Hoss' saddle bags and started laughing when she found a small shovel, a stringer and a tin can. She carried them over to her brother who smiled at her, patted her on top of her head and said, "See, what'd I tell ya? I'm always ready to go fishin'. I've got poles hid all around this ranch. I'll start showin' ya where they are but ya gotta put them back when yore done usin' them sos they're there for next time."

While they were fishing, Cat asked, "Hoss, can I ask you a question?"

"Shore Punkin. Ya can always ask me anything'."

"Why does Adam hate me?"

"What do ya mean? Adam don't hate ya. He loves ya a lot."

"No he doesn't. He said I was a nuisance and a pest and he was gonna spank me twice today and I wasn't doing nothin' wrong."

"Well, older brother takes bein' the oldest too serious sometimes. He gets some funny notions about what he thinks little kids should and shouldn't be doin'. He was that way with Joe when he was little too. That's why Joe calls him Mr. Bossy Boots and Yankee Granite Head, 'cause he was always tellin' Joe what to do. Adam always thought Pa let Joe get away with too much when he was little but Adam weren't always around to see how Pa handled Joe, especially when he was away at school in Boston. Pa didn't have to be as hard on Joe as he was on Adam 'cause when Adam was growin' up, he and Pa was travelin' west and a kid could get killed ifn they didn't obey adults right away.

Ya see, Adam had to grow up too fast. His ma died right after he was born and then Pa decided to leave Boston and head west. I was just a baby when my ma was killed by Indians and Adam had to take care of me while we was with the wagon train. He still had to take care of me when we got here 'cause Pa was busy building the ranch. Sos he didn't get much time to be a little boy. Once Hop Sing came here, he helped look after me and then Adam had a little more time to do kid things, but there was still a lot of work he had to do around here. He was half grown by the time Pa married Little Joe's ma so he had even more to do on the ranch.

Just 'cause Adam bosses you around and threatens to spank you, don't mean he don't love you. He was the one that took the whip away from Mrs. Warren and broke it. I can guarantee you that ifn it had been a man who attacked you, Adam woulda half killed him. Then Joe and I would have finished the job. I'll talk to him tonight after our guests are in bed and tell him he's gotta quit bossin' you around unless Pa says he's in charge. Ifn he's in charge then he's allowed to boss you around. I'll make sure both Adam and Pa know ya think Adam hates ya, which he don't.

'Don' worry about Adam callin' ya a pest and a nuisance. He used to do that to Little Joe all the time. Joe used to follow Adam around everywhere he went an' kept getting' in Adam's way when he was tryin' to do his chores. He got tired of it one day, grabbed Joe and hung him up by his belt on a nail in the barn. Boy was Pa mad when he walked out to the barn and saw his baby boy on that nail. They probably heard him yellin' all the way in Carson City. It was before Joe's ma died, so Adam musta been about fifteen or sixteen then. Adam thought he was a man and too old for one of Pa's discussions in the barn. Pa showed him he was wrong and ol' Adam had a real hard time sittin' still in school the next day. One thing ya gotta learn is that Pa says as long as we live under his roof, we gotta abide by his rules or suffer the consequences and it don't matter how old we are. Now don't go thinkin' that Adam was the only one to get in trouble. Joe got scolded and a swat fur getting' in Adam's way and I got in trouble too, only it was the next day."

"I didn't think you ever got in trouble Hoss."

"I didn't too much, but Adam not bein' able to sit 'cause Pa gave him a whippin' was more than me and my friends could take. When we was little, Pa had this rule about not laughin' at the other and not tellin' anybody else what happened when he got in trouble and ifn we did, we got in trouble from Pa. Well, Adam used to go around tellin' all the kids he was perfect. Of course I knew different so when Adam got that whippin' and had trouble sittin' still in church, I told all my friends what happened and all of us laughed at Adam. That made him real mad sos when we got home from church, he told Pa about me and my friends laughin' at him. That meant Pa and I had a discussion in the barn, I didn't get dessert that night and had to go to bed right after supper. Not getting' dessert and having to go to bed at the same time as my baby brother hurt more than the spanking Pa gave me.

One other thing ya gotta learn about Adam is he hates bein' called Mr. Bossy Boots. He also hates it when Joe calls him a Yankee Granite Head. Now, ifn ya decide to go callin' him any of those things, and I know ya will 'cause you and Joe are cut from the same cloth, ya better run real fast and have a hiding spot where Adam can't find ya. 'Cause ifn he does, I can guarantee that you won't much feel like sittin' down when he finishes with ya. I'm tellin' ya this 'cause I love ya little sister and I know sure as shootin' that you're gonna get mad at Adam one day and call him one or both of them things. Then he's gonna get even madder at you and ifn Pa ain't around to stop him, he'll want to fix it so's ya can't sit down for a week. Like I said, he takes bein' the oldest too serious sometimes and he's even worse when Pa leaves him in charge. Now, let's see how many fish we got and how many more we need to feed everybody. How many people are there this time?"

Cat counted on her fingers and teased, "There's Pa, Adam, Joe, me, and Hop Sing so that's five. Mr. Sam and Mr. Goss makes seven and you make twelve 'cause you eat enough for five people."

Hoss grabbed his sister and started tickling her. "Why you little scamp. I ought to do like Adam threatened to and feed ya to them beavers. Maybe they'd like to chew on a little girl for a while instead of trees."

Cat giggled and tried to get away from her brother but he was too strong. After a few minutes she cried, "Hoss stop! I'm gonna wet my pants!"

Hoss stopped tickling Cat and said, "Go behind them bushes over there and take care of yore needs. Just be sure to check for snakes before ya drop your britches. Then we need to catch more fish if we're gonna have enough to feed everyone." They fished a while longer then Hoss said, "It's getting' late. We gotta start for home."

"How do you know it's getting late?"

"'Cause the sun is startin' to get low in the sky."

"Ok, but how do you know it's time to go home?"

"Ok. Let me see ifn I can explain it to you. Do ya know where the sun rises and sets?"

"Yes. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. What does that have to do with what time it is?"

"Don't be in such an all fired up hurry. I'm gonna show ya. Grab me a stick, will ya please?" Cat found a stick and handed it to Hoss. "Thank you. Now let me draw you a picture to show ya what I was talkin' about." He drew a curved line in the dirt and a person standing under the middle portion. "Now we'll say the right side of this line is east and the left side is west. You know that as the sun rises, it gets higher in the sky. At noon, it's directly overhead. Then as the day gets later, the sun starts getting' lower in the sky. Take a look where it's at now. It's getting' close to the tops of the mountains. That means it's almost five o'clock and it'll be gettin' dark in a few hours and we need to go home. I'll get Pa to let ya spend some time with me so's I can teach you how to tell what time it is by where the sun is in the sky. Right now, we need to get home. I don't want to have to listen to Pa and Hop Sing yellin' 'cause we're late for supper. Besides that, I'm hungry. Call your puppies and let's go."

"Joe says you're always hungry."

"Joe's wrong. I ain't always hungry."

"When aren't you hungry?"

"Right after I finish eating."

Cat laughed. "You're silly Hoss."

"That could be. However, I know fur shore ifn we're late for supper, both Pa and Hop Sing will yell at us."

Hoss tied the stringer of fish to his saddle horn and helped Cat mount Beauty. Then he put her puppies in her saddle bags and mounted Chub. Cat laughed as Hoss grabbed the fish and pretended to eat one. "Hoss, don't eat the fish now. We have to cook them first. Besides that, if you eat them now, there won't be enough for everyone else."

"Don't worry little sister. I'll save a small one fur ya."

"Hooooss. I need more than one small fish to eat. My puppies need to eat too. So does Pa and everyone else. Besides that, you could get sick if you don't cook the fish first."

Hoss let out an exaggerated sigh. "Alright little sister. I won't eat them now. I'll wait until they're cooked. Then I'll eat all of them."

Cat giggled. "Pa will get mad at you and yell at you if you eat all of the fish. Then Adam, Little Joe, and me will laugh at you."

He pretended to growl at Cat and teased. "Brat. Just remember I can always sneak into your room after you're asleep and tickle you until you wet the bed."

"Pa and Hop Sing will yell at you if you do. Then me, Joe, and Adam will laugh at you again."

"You have all the answers today, don't ya Squirt. I'll get ya, never fear. Maybe I'll use you for bait sometime. Ifn I catch a whale, Pa won't be mad at me 'cause I used ya for bait. A whale will feed the whole family for several years."

Cat giggled. "You have to catch me first big brother. I can run faster than you and climb trees higher and faster than you can."

"You just think you can Squirt. We'll find out one day."

"Hoss?"

"What's up Punkin?"

"Do you think Pa will get mad at me if I tell him the beavers caught the fish for us?"

Hoss laughed loud and long. "You go right ahead and tell him that. He'll think it's downright funny. But what are you gonna tell him when he asks what the beavers look like?"

"I'll tell him I didn't get to see them much 'cause they were throwing fish up on the shore too fast for me to see them and I was busy throwing the little fish back into the water."

"I tell ya what Squirt. The way you tell tall tales, you and Sam Clemens oughta get together. Maybe he can write them down for ya. I'm still laughin' over ya tellin' Adam ya jumped Sport over a ten mile high mountain when ya first got here and went fur that ride with Pa."

They rode into the yard where Joe had just finished stacking the last of the wood he cut. He helped Cat down off her horse and took her puppies out of the saddle bags. "I'll take care of Beauty for you. Why don't you get the fish from Hoss and show them to Pa and Hop Sing? Then I'll meet you and help clean them."

Cat hugged her brother. "Gee thanks Joe."

"My pleasure little sister. Now go and show those fish to Pa and Hop Sing so we can get them cleaned."

Cat got the fish from Hoss and walked into the house. Hoss looked at all of the wood that had been stacked and said, "It seems like Pa kept ya busy this afternoon."

"Yeah, he was in the barn when Adam and I got back. We were still arguing and of course Pa got angry at us. He said since we couldn't find anything constructive to do, he would find something for us. I had to cut and stack wood while Adam had to clean the barn."

"Well little brother, ya got nobody to blame but yourself. Ya know how much Pa hates it when we argue so the two of ya shoulda stopped before ya got home."

"Yeah, I know but Adam just makes me so mad the way he tries to treat Cat."

"It makes me mad too but I know better than to get into a fight with him when Pa's around. Let's get these horses put up so's we can help little sister clean them fish we caught. Would ya believe she said I eat as much as five people?"

Joe laughed. "Well big brother, you do eat a lot and to Cat it probably seems like you eat enough for five."

"Yore probably right about that little brother."

Cat carried the fish into the great room and said, "Look at all the fish me and Hoss caught Pa. We got enough for everybody and Hoss."

Ben laughed and pulled his daughter into his lap. "I see that. However, you should have said Hoss and I, not me and Hoss."

Before Cat could answer Ben, Sam said, "Cat…"

"Yes Mr. Sam?"

"Let me teach you a little trick I learned when I was around your age. It will help you to remember when to say I or me in a sentence. Break the sentence into two parts and see if it makes sense to say me or I. For example, you said 'Me and Hoss caught a lot of fish.' If you break that sentence into two, you would say Me caught a lot of fish and Hoss caught a lot of fish. Does it sound right if you say 'Me caught a lot of fish.'?

"No it doesn't."

"That's right. Does it sound right if you say 'I caught a lot of fish."?

"Yes it does."

"Excellent. Now let's try another sentence. 'Pete played marbles with Jack and me.' Break it apart and see if it sounds right."

"Pete played marbles with Jack. Pete played marbles with me. That sounds right."

"Very good. If you remember that little trick you'll always get it right."

"Thanks Mr. Sam. You're the only one who's ever eggsplaned it to me."

"That's alright Cat. Now you had better show those fish to Hop Sing. By the way, the word you meant to use is explained."

"Oh, ok."

"Don't worry about it too much. You're young and will eventually get it right."

Cat took the fish into the kitchen. Hop Sing looked at them and said, "Very good. Catch lots of fish. Supper almost ready. Clean fish and put in smokehouse."

"But the fish will spoil if we don't cook them tonight."

"No worry. Clean and put in smoke house. They no spoil."

Cat was confused but took the fish outside where she found all three of her brothers waiting to help clean them. "Hop Sing said supper's almost ready and to put the fish in the smokehouse. What's a smokehouse and why won't Hop Sing cook the fish tonight? I may as well just give my puppies as much fish as they'll eat and throw the rest in the trash heap. They'll spoil before tomorrow."

"The smokehouse is that little building with the small chimney behind the outhouse," said Adam. We always keep a small, smoky fire in it. The smoke keeps meat and fish from spoiling before it can be cooked. When we slaughter a steer, we hang the meat in the smokehouse so it won't spoil. We do the same when we return from hunting. After we clean these fish, we'll put them in the smokehouse and then Hop Sing can cook them tomorrow. I'll show you when we finish here."

"Are you sure the fish won't spoil? Why is the smokehouse so far from the house?"

"Yes little sister, I am positive the fish won't spoil. The smokehouse is far from the house and barn because there's always a fire in it. If that little chimney gets blocked up and the smokehouse catches on fire, the house and barn won't catch on fire too."

"Oh ok. Hoss, Joe, is Adam right or will the fish spoil?"

Adam was about to scold Cat for doubting him when Hoss elbowed him in the side. "Yes Cat," said Joe. "Adam is right. The smokehouse keeps meat and fish from spoiling. You've seen how big steers are. One will feed the family for several weeks, even the way Hoss eats. If we didn't have the smokehouse, we would have to butcher a steer every day because the meat would spoil. This way, we only have to do it when we're running low on meat. We'll show you the smokehouse when we finish cleaning the fish."

They finished cleaning the fish and walked over to the smokehouse. Adam opened the door, propped it open with a small board and said, "Do not ever come in here without propping the door open, especially if nobody knows you're in here. You could get trapped and the smoke would eventually kill you. After you prop the door open, push on it from behind to make sure it's going to stay open. I'm going to work on a latch that will open from the inside as well as the outside. That way you can't get trapped in here." He pointed to a shelf and said, "We're going to put the fish on that shelf." Cat carried her fish into the smokehouse and piled it up on the shelf.

"Not that way Cat," said Joe. "We have to lay it out flat otherwise it won't smoke properly. See, how the shelf has holes in it? That's so the smoke can get to both sides of the fish."

Once all of the fish were on the shelf, they walked out of the smokehouse and Hoss closed and latched the door. "I'm going to go and see Fury," said Cat. "I haven't seen him since right after breakfast.

"We'll all go and see him," said Hoss. "Why don't you go and get a lead rope out of the tack room? Then we can put Fury and Lady into their stall for the night and feed them."

"I don't need a lead rope for Fury. He follows me everywhere."

"Yes I know Punkin, but we need one for Lady. She ain't like Fury & won't follow unless she's got a lead rope on."