Ponderosa Chores

By Tennessee

Ben was going out of town for a month. He hoped everything would run ok with the Ponderosa. He left Adam in charge, and Adam planned to show his pa he could run the ranch as well as Ben could.

Ben left at daybreak. After Hoss and Little Joe had left for school, Adam remembered that Ben wanted the cattle moved to the other side of the Ponderosa. He decided he could manage it by himself. It wasn’t easy, though. The cattle stampeded and knocked down a fence that kept them within the border of the Ponderosa. They all took off and he couldn’t catch them all, though he tried all day.

When his brothers came home from school they saw the cattle going everywhere and tried to catch them. It took them the rest of the day to round up all the cattle. The next day they had to fix the wire before Pa got home. It took all day to fix all the fencing the cows had knocked down.

The next day Adam tried to fix the horses’ pen and make it bigger. He wasn’t yet done when his brothers came home from school. They helped him and they got it done right after supper but they didn’t have time to do the rest of their chores.

Adam knew his brothers would help him show Pa he was a man. The house needed some repairs, and Adam decided he’d tend to them and surprise Pa. The roof was leaking in a couple places, so he’d fix those too. His brothers helped him when they weren’t in school.

The next day Adam chopped wood all day and stacked it near the house. The weeks passed fast but Adam had a difficult time completing all the work he’d planned to do. His normal daily chores suffered. Hoss and Little Joe were behind on their chores too, though they did make sure all the animals were fed and taken care of.

Ben came back a week early and when he went in the barn he could not believe his eyes. It had not been cleaned since he’d left. And the boys’ room was a mess. Clothes were everywhere.

Adam was out in the field when Hoss and Little Joe rode up to tell him they were going to catch out up their chores before Pa came home. "Anything else you start, you have to do by yourself," they told their brother.

Adam laughed and said, "I’m all done with all the extra projects. Let’s do our chores together."

They neared the house. "Oh no, it’s Pa," Little Joe said. "He looks mad."

Ben walked up to them. "What have you boys been doing? Not your chores, that’s for sure." His face was red. He pointed. "You boys tend to those horses and then wait in the barn."

Ben looked at all the work he was going to have to do. He met the boys in the barn and looked hard at them. "Would you care to explain, Adam?"

Adam said, "I did all the work you hadn’t gotten to and Hoss and Joe helped me."

"But you did not do your regular chores at all. Did you at least feed the horses and cattle."

"Yes, sir," Hoss and Little Joe assured.

"All right, Hoss and Little Joe, you can go. I want to talk to Adam." He turned to his eldest. "Adam, son, what got in to you? I left the Ponderosa for you to run and look at it. You are in big trouble. You will do all the chores that were neglected while I was gone. And you’ll be doing your brothers’ chores for a whole month. Is that clear?"

Adam hung his head. "Yes, Pa."

"And if you run out of chores, you can be sure that I’ll find more for you to do, son. I’m very upset at the way you handled things. A man has to plan. He takes the time to think things through. You didn’t think things through at all, Adam. Now get to your chores."

"Yes, Pa," Adam said softly.

Hoss and Little Joe were in their room when Ben came into the house. "Adam’s going to be doing your chores this month," he told them. "But you two will write me a report about how you should always do your chores, do you understand."

"Yes, Pa," they said.

Ben was still mad a few days later, but he looked at everything Adam had accomplished and was impressed with the boy’s work. He’d taken special care with each task. He rode home with a smile on his face. Perhaps the boys would make good ranchers one day. They just had a few things to learn.

Hoss and Little Joe did the report and told Pa they knew now to always do their chores no matter what. Adam knew his pa was right to make him do extra chores; he’d learned what a man had to consider when running a ranch.

A month later as they all were riding to town Ben said, "You did a good job on the extra chores you decided to do while I was gone, I want you to know that, but . . ."

The three boys finished his sentence for him: ". . . but regular chores come first."

They all laughed.

The End