Little Joe’s Jokes

By Tennessee

Little Joe loved to play jokes on people. At school he played jokes on the girls. Tess had a new bottle of ink on her desk. Little Joe snuck in the back door of the school. He took Tess’ ink and put some on the back of her desk. He put gum on the seat of Sue’s desk. When he went outside he had glue behind his back and he put glue on the back of Anne’s dress and on her hair. He caught a snake and put it in the teacher’s desk. When she rang the bell, all the kids went inside. The teacher opened her desk and the snake was moving around and she screamed and yelled, "Someone please get this snake out of my desk!"

Once they’d gotten rid of the snake the teacher asked Tess to hand out some papers. Tess got up and Sue said, "Tess, you have ink on your dress."

Tess looked and cried, "Oh no, this is my new dress."

Sue was going to help Tess give out the papers but she couldn’t stand up. Her dress was caught on her desk. Anne helped her get unstuck and said, "Sue, there’s gum on your dress." They looked at it and so did the teacher.

"There’s something in your hair and on the back of your dress too, Anne."

Anne tried to look but her hair was stuck to her dress. She started to cry. "My hair."

The teacher said, "What is going on here is someone thinks they are funny but they’re not. Who did this to all the girls and me?"

Nobody said anything.

"I’m waiting."

Anne gave Little Joe a look. The teacher said, "I know one of you boys did all this. So all the boys with write a report of five hundred words about playing jokes."

All the boys were mad. Hoss knew that his little brother had done all of it. He’d seen Joe smiling and laughing to himself.

Hoss told Adam what had happened at school. "I think Little Joe did it all, Adam."

"Do you know for sure?"

"Well, no."

Little Joe heard them talking. He got mad. I’ll play jokes on them too, he decided.

He went into the house. He got Adam’s new book and got some tea and poured it on the book. He got Hoss’ coat and put honey in the pockets. He then went to the kitchen and got the sugar and salt shakers and switched them around. He then went back outside. At supper, Ben put sugar in his tea and when he took a drink he made a face.

Hop Sing asked, "Is something wrong, Mr. Cartwright?"

"Hop Sing, I think there is salt in the sugar bowl."

Hop Sing tried a little and knew Ben was right. "I’m sorry, Mr. Cartwright. I don’t know how that happened." He put the dinner on the table. He’d made stew. When Hoss took a bite he looked at Adam and Adam looked at him.

Ben said, "This stew is sweet."

Hop Sing said he was sorry. He made them ham and eggs, making sure the salt he used was actually salt. Ben knew something suspicious was going on.

After supper Adam went to read the book and found the pages all wet. He tried to dry them. He looked at his little brother, knowing Joe had done it. He put the book under his bed. Hoss came in to get his coat to go outside. He put it on and he slid his hands into the pockets. "Oh no," he said.

"What’s the matter, brother?"

Hoss showed him. "There’s honey in my coat."

"Little Joe’s playing jokes again," Adam said. "We should tell Pa."

"No, Adam," Hoss replied. "I got a better idea. He loves jokes so much, let’s play a joke on him and see how he likes it."

When Little Joe was sound asleep, they got water and put it on his bed. They got his boots and nailed them to the floor. The next day they got up real early and when Hop Sing put Little Joe’s oatmeal on the table, they put salt in it. When Ben called Little Joe to breakfast, Joe jumped out of bed. He clothes were wet and so were his sheets. He dressed and when he tried to put his boots on he fell on the floor. He walked to the table in his socks.

"Where are your boots, son?" Ben asked.

Joe gave Adam and Hoss a look and took a bite of his oatmeal. He quickly grabbed his water and took a long drink. Joe was mad. "I hate both of you!" he yelled at his brothers.

"What’s going on here?" Ben asked.

Adam answered. "Little Joe has been playing jokes on everyone, so we played jokes on him.

Ben asked, "Everything that happened last night at supper, Little Joe did it?"

"Yes, Pa."

Ben looked at his youngest son. "No more jokes, is that clear?"

"Pa," Hoss said. "He played some jokes at school too." Hoss told Ben the story.

"Joseph, you will tell the whole class you’re sorry."

"Yes, Pa." At school Joe raised his hand and admitted, "I did all the jokes."

The teacher asked why.

"I thought they were funny. But they weren’t funny when my brothers played them on me."

"Little Joe, you will stay late at school every day for a week and clean desks. And you will write on the blackboard five hundred times ‘I’m sorry I played jokes.’"

Joe stayed after school the whole week. Playing jokes was not funny, he decided, and he never played a joke again.

The End