What Comes Naturally

By Texas2002/Nancy

Rating: G

This story follows "No Shortcuts"

Note: The name of the chief of the Washo/Washoe Indians is a "best guess."

I didn’t wanna go with Adam and Hoss to bring back that bull from the Eagle Ranch and after I heard them arguing about that shortcut that wasn’t there I was real glad I didn’t go with ‘em. See, I didn’t wanna go ‘cause I had important business, too. A coupla days before they left I traded Wendell for a genuine Indian bow and arrow.

Wendell didn’t know much about it. He didn’t even know how to use it. It had a string stretched so tight that it barely went "thwong" when I plucked at it.

We traded and in no time I had the bow and Wendell had that real nice slingshot that Pa made for me. I showed my bow and arrow to Mr. Larsen. He said it was a bow for someone to learn with and that it was just right for me.

That bow and arrow was the reason why when Adam said Hoss and him were leaving in the morning for the Eagle Ranch I said I’d stay home and take care of things while they were gone.

Pa’s right eyebrow went up. Hoss and Adam, they looked at each other kinda funny. And then Pa said, "That’s very kind of you, Joseph." He sounded like he was full of questions but he didn’t ask any.

I didn’t wanna tell him about my bow and arrow ahead of time. Pa’s always wanting us to learn how to use something from someone who’s good at it. That’s why Pa and Adam taught me how to shoot a rifle back when I was a kid. Hoss is a good shot but Pa and Adam are better. Adam told me that I’m a natural with a rifle and now I can almost shoot a needle off a pine tree. I can shoot a cone out of a pine tree without breaking the twig and Pa says that’s pretty good shooting. Hoss just says, "Dang" and whistles.

Pa or Adam or Hoss don’t know how to shoot a bow and arrow so I figured I’d learn how to shoot the bow and arrow and then when I got good I’d show Pa how good I am and Pa would smile and tell me that I’m a natural with a bow and arrow and then if he wants I can teach him.

That morning that Adam and Hoss went to go get that bull they got up while it was still dark. Real dark. And they weren’t quiet about it either. So after my early morning chores like getting the eggs and milking Buttercup and all that, Pa and me were having breakfast and he said, "Which of Adam’s and Hoss’ chores do you plan to do?"

I wondered what he meant because I hadn’t said I’d do their chores for them I’d just said I’d stay home and take care of things but that didn’t mean I’d do their things. Golly, I’ve got plenty of my own things to do. "Chores?"

That was all Pa was waiting for. He told me a list that I thought would never end. But it did. And when it did, I said, "I won’t have any time to . . . rest."

Pa slid his tongue from inside one cheek to inside the other. I think he does that sometimes when he’s trying not to smile because you can watch his eyes and tell. "You can . . . rest . . . this evening."

"If I get all those finished can I –" I needed to sound like I would still be working. "Can I ride out and check the cattle for Adam? Wouldn’t want anything to happen after he’s been working so hard with them."

Pa tilted his head back and narrowed his eyes.

I waved my left hand because I had some griddlecake speared on my fork that was in my other hand. "I could be out there and back before supper."

Pa rubbed his chin and then he nodded that I could. "After you finish your chores." He held up his pointing finger and said, "And you will not stray too far. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir!" I saluted like a soldier and clunked myself right on the forehead with my fork and that griddlecake.

I never worked so hard and then I worked even harder after lunch and by then I saddled Paint and I figured I had a coupla hours of sunlight left. Pa was sharpening an ax by the side of the barn and Zeke, Pa’s pig, was watching him so I did like Adam and Hoss do and I swung into the saddle and I tipped my hat and said, "Pa."

Pa smiled and nodded. He said to be careful, like he always does with all of us. Then I whistled for Smoke and I made sure not to run Paint until Pa couldn’t see or hear.

Figuring whether to practice with the bow and arrow or check the cattle real close was no problem. When I rode past them, the cattle were fine ‘cause they were used to being out and they know how to eat grass and it wasn’t like there’d been a storm or anything that could hurt them. But I sure needed to check my bow and arrow. I hid them over on the other side of the little lake that Pa calls "the pond" and no telling what could have happened to them. A bear could drag them off or pirates could take them or a bunch of squirrels could maybe even bury them. My bow and arrow needed me a lot more than those cattle and that was plain as molly.

I got to the hiding place and I got off Paint and I was all ready to get my bow and arrow and practice shooting at fish again. I can get one like that with my slingshot but shooting fish with a arrow isn’t as easy as you’d think. And when you miss you have to wade out and get it and most of all you have to be sure not to hit a rock because if you did that it could ruin the arrow.

I walked over to the hiding place. But it was gone. The bow, the arrow, and everything. Gone. Smoke sniffed around but he didn’t find anything except a frog and he doesn’t bother those like he used to. And there wasn’t a track anywhere and I wondered what could take a bow and arrow and not leave a track and I was still wondering when I rode Paint up to the corral.

Pa was wiping his hands on a rag and he had his sleeves rolled up and he smiled but then he frowned and narrowed his eyes because he was looking up at me on Paint and it was still sunny and he didn’t have on his hat. He looked down at Smoke and Zeke when they touched noses and then he looked back up at me. "How are the cattle?"

"Oh-" I waved a hand so he’d know everything was fine-"they’re fine. Eating and standing around and fine."

Smoke started barking at something behind me and Zeke took off that way ‘cause he thinks he’s a guard dog, too.

Pa looked past me and he really frowned. I turned in the saddle and there was this wagon with high sides on it with a man driving it and then two men riding horses alongside it. I could see the top of something in the back of the wagon and whatever it was was big and brown.

The man driving the wagon pulled it to a stop and I got down from Paint. Me and Pa walked over to see what was going on and to tell Smoke and Zeke to hush.

"Mr. Cartwright?" The man riding a real pretty roan tipped his hat and after Pa said, "Yes" the man said, "I’m John Carlton." He waved toward the man who was sitting on the wagon and said, "That’s Frank" and then he waved at the man beside him and said, "This is Pete. We’re from the Eagle Ranch."

Pa said, "I see" but the way he was frowning I could see that he didn’t.

"We were headed to Eagle Station to pick up a load of freight so Mr. Williams asked us to bring the bull along." He swung out of the saddle and the other man, Pete, he did, too. "We thought we might meet Adam on the road . . ." He kind of left it there.

Pa shook the man’s hand and then he shook Pete’s hand and he nodded to Frank who was on the wagon and Pa said he was surprised they hadn’t seen Adam and Hoss on the road because they’d left this morning.

I was walking over to the side of the wagon and jumping up so I could see through the side and then there was a snort and a banging that caused everyone to look at me. Pa didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. I stepped back and waited for them to walk over so Pa could see the bull.

"He’s a mighty fine one," Mr. Carlton said. He had the longest moustache and when he talked it went up and down. "All the way out of Mexico."

Pa was busy looking over the bull and he said, "I see" and this time I could tell that he did. Pa knows a whole lot about animals and I could tell that he liked that bull. I probably would‘ve, too, if I could’ve seen it.

"Well," Pa said and he looked around, "I guess we should get him out of there."

I wasn’t gonna miss that for anything but I had to take care of Paint so I ran back and I did that faster than I’ve ever done it before.

Hop Sing was out on the porch and he asked me what was going on so I told him and he said that probably those men would need to eat and I said I reckoned so and then I ran back because I figured they could use all the help they could get.

And then Pa asked me to get a little bucket of sweet feed. We make the sweet feed out of oats and some things and corn – Adam and Hoss are still showing up with baskets of corn every so often – and then we mix in some molasses to sort of coat it all. All the animals love it except Abigail and John Adams, but they’re cats.

I ran back to the barn to get the sweet feed and Smoke and Zeke were having a great time racing with me. We got back to the wagon and I started to hand the bucket to Pa but he shook his head. He said we needed every man to help out and Mr. Carlton said he wanted me to just sort of lay a trail to where they wanted the bull and then shake the bucket so the bull would hear it rattling around. Mr. Carlton pointed down to the low meadow and I said, "Yes, sir!"

When we were talking at supper they said – Mr. Carlton and Frank and Pete – they said there are two ways to load a bull like that. One way is when they get him to go in with his head toward the front of the wagon and from the way they described it, it takes a lot of work and prodding or just a little bit of sweet feed. The other way you can load a bull is to get him into the wagon backwards. That sounded like a lot of work and prodding.

Well, they’d loaded the bull so he was facing the back of the wagon and it was real easy to get him out of there. Pa and Frank propped a wide piece of wood at the end of the wagon for the bull to walk down and then Mr. Carlton and Pete opened up the back and they had a rope around the bull just in case. But Frank said Santana was a nice bull. Just about the time he said that, Santana decided he was ready to get out of the wagon.

When a bull decides he’s ready to do something he can move a lot faster than he looks like he can. And I’d just started laying the sweet feed. I started shaking the bucket and tossing out the sweet feed like I do with the chicken feed. Santana really likes sweet feed. A lot. He was eating it as fast as I could get it out of the bucket and I thought I was staying a good way ahead of him so I couldn’t understand why Frank and Pete started shaking out loops of rope. Pa said for me not to move suddenly and I wondered why he said that and why Pa and Mr. Carlton were moving so slow toward me.

And then Zeke got interested in the sweet feed. It was so funny.

We found out the first time Zeke ate griddlecakes that he likes molasses. Honey, too. But mostly molasses. And that’s what’s all over the sweet feed. I kept kicking my boot toward Zeke and telling him to get out of the way and then Pa yelled at Zeke. Smoke started barking because Pa was yelling. I was trying really hard not to laugh.

Pa yelled at Zeke and Zeke wasn’t paying attention. Smoke was barking. And the bull didn’t like the noise so he started snorting and then he got mad at Zeke and started trying to shove him out of the way. Smoke got mad then because he thought the bull was trying to hurt Zeke. Smoke thinks he’s Zeke’s big brother so he pushes into things when he doesn’t need to and he was barking and all the bull wanted to do was just eat the sweet feed and follow me and just be left alone. That’s all that bull wanted, I could tell.

That’s when the roan horse got upset. Mr. Carlton tied him to the corral after he got here but I guess all the noise and the new place spooked him because he started pulling at the reins. Mr. Carlton jerked his head that direction and Pete took off toward the horse. And all this time I was walking along just pouring out that sweet feed real slowly and Santana was tagging along. But Zeke and Smoke were fussing by then. Smoke was being bossy just like a big brother and he was telling Zeke to get back by the barn like Pa was telling him to. Smoke can herd cattle by himself and you would think that one little pig wouldn’t be that much of a problem. But Zeke was.

All I can figure is that Zeke thought Smoke and him were playing a game. So he’d run around squealing and Smoke would try to turn him and then Zeke would cut the other way and every time Zeke would come running along between Santana and me he would reach down real fast and get some sweet feed. Santana was getting mad about it all and I had a pretty good idea that he had a temper like Adam does.

Pa gave up on helping Mr. Carlton and Frank with the bull. He rubbed his hands from the top of his face to the bottom and I knew what was coming so I slapped my free hand up to one ear. Sure enough, Pa yelled, "Zeke! Smoke! Stop!" and then he pulled in air and he shouted, "Now!!" They stopped with a yelp and an oink.

You know what? Even Santana stopped walking. Yep. And he looked over his shoulder at Pa but then he got interested in the sweet feed again and he started following me again.

Pa put his left arm out and pointed to the front porch and Zeke and Smoke knew what that meant just like Adam and Hoss and me do. He means for you to do whatever he said for you to do. And you don’t say anything except maybe "Yes, sir, Pa" when he points like that and you do what he told you faster than you ever did it in your whole life. Then you walk way around him the rest of the day. But then Pa’ll smile or tease and he’s all right again.

And everything was fine again but then Santana and me got down in front of the lower corral. You know where that land slopes down and that’s where all the water from the troughs runs. It’s muddy down there when it’s dusty everywhere else. I sorta slipped backwards and I landed on my behind and I dropped that bucket of sweet feed.

I think Pa called out to me but it wasn’t like I could do anything ‘cause Santana had his head so close to me I could feel that warm air coming out his nose. He looked a whole lot bigger than he looked before. And he looked real big before. Mr. Carlton said to just stay still.

I guess Mr. Carlton knew that I wouldn’t be nearly as interesting as that sweet feed and he walked over really slow and he picked up that bucket. And after Santana’d eaten all that sweet feed around me, Mr. Carlton shook that bucket and there was enough in there to make noise and Santana just followed him like a puppy. Only his ears didn’t bounce like a puppy’s do.

I couldn’t wait to go to town and tell Wendell and the others about how I’d been so close to a bull that he’d breathed on my face. I didn’t see any reason to tell them I wasn’t standing up when it happened.

Pa got to me then and he did just like Adam and Hoss do. He was all worried and he asked me if I was all right and then he got kinda upset and said, "Why didn’t you watch where you were going?"

Well that was a pretty dumb thing to ask but I learned not to tell Pa he’s dumb so I just told him I couldn’t see behind me when I was looking ahead. Just to be sure, I said, "Sir." It worked. He put his hands at his waist and he blew out a real long breath and then he told me to go clean up for supper so I did. The back of my pants were wet and cold and heavy.

While I was cleaning up and working out the story I was gonna tell Wendell and everyone that’s when I remembered about my bow and arrow.

I was still trying to figure out what happened to it when Mr. Carlton and Frank and Pete and Pa and Hop Sing and me ate supper. That’s when they told me about loading a bull and how many cattle they have on the Eagle Ranch and Pete said that Mr. Williams who runs the ranch has a son and maybe sometime we can meet. And then Frank said how Dade, that’s Mr. Williams’ son’s name, Frank said how Dade was real good with a slingshot.

I must’ve done something, I can’t figure what, because Pa looked over at me with one of those quiet questions. He doesn’t say anything it’s just this look he gets. I started eating again and then Pa said, "There aren’t many boys Joseph’s age around here. Only a friend’s two sons. The rest of the boys tend to be in town."

That was it! I bet anything it was Sean and Aidan who got my bow and arrow. It’d be just like them. I didn’t want any cobbler and I went straight to bed because I wanted to get up extra early and go over to the McNally place and get back my bow and arrow.

Pa called to me the next morning when I was leading Paint out of the barn. Mr. Carlton and Frank and Pete spent the night in the bunkroom but they were up and gone when I got up. And I got up early.

"What do you think you are doing?" Pa asked.

I told him I had all my chores done ‘til after lunch and I was going over to the McNallys’ and I’d be back in plenty of time for lunch.

"First of all," Pa said while he was walking up to Paint, "you do not tell me where you are going."

But he’d asked! I opened my mouth to tell him that but Pa was by my left leg and talking again.

"Furthermore, you have not finished your chores. Have you forgotten that you are helping with Adam’s and Hoss’ chores until they get back?"

I guess I had. But I didn’t want to tell Pa that because he was upset enough.

"Get down." He pointed at me and then at the ground while he was talking.

I could tell he wasn’t understanding so I told him that I had to go over to Sean’s and Aidan’s because it was something real important. Real, real important.

He said, "Jo-seph" so I swung out of the saddle muttering things. That’s when he made me stand there while he gave me a long, hard talk that made my breakfast feel like a cold lump. And then he told me that I would do Adam’s and Hoss’ chores and I would do them without fussing. And I did and I did them fast and then I remembered to ask if I could go but Pa wouldn’t let me because he said I had been sloppy with some of the chores and I needed to take care of them again. So that’s what I got for asking if I could go. I got twice as many chores. I wished I’d just gone on and not asked.

That’s what I did after lunch. Pa was acting funny like he was thinking about something else and Hop Sing and him were talking about how Adam and Hoss should be back by now and maybe Pa should ride out toward Eagle Ranch to see if he could find them. They were so busy talking that I left after lunch. I’d done my morning chores and most of theirs. And I didn’t ask Pa and that way he didn’t say no so I wasn’t doing what he’d said not to. So it wasn’t like Pa would get upset or anything.

Sean and Aidan weren’t there at their place when I got there. But Mrs. McNally said she thought they were coming over to my place to see if I wanted to go fishing. There were just all kinds of people going towards each other and not meeting. Adam and Hoss were going towards Mr. Carlton and Frank and Pete and none of them saw anybody. And I was going to the McNally’s and Sean and Aidan were going toward me but we didn’t see anybody. But it was plain as molly to me that Sean and Aidan were not going toward me and I knew right where they were going.

Sure enough, they were there. Over there in that rock fall north of where my secret cave was before Pa found it. I tied Paint and then I walked up really quiet, like Hoss taught me when we first started hunting, and I even thought ahead like Adam’s always saying. I thought ahead about how I didn’t want to surprise them when they had that arrow on that bow because one of them might turn and shoot me. I was really proud that I thought ahead and I decided I would tell Adam about it some time when we were fishing or something and Pa wasn’t around.

I watched Aidan shoot the arrow and then Sean went running off to find it and I ran and grabbed Aidan from behind and we rolled all the way to where the land is flat. By then I was on top of him and I pinned him to the ground and told him he had my bow and I wanted it back. And then I yelled just like Pa, "Now!"

Aidan tried swinging at me but he isn’t near as good as I am and I grabbed his hands and pinned those to the ground and I told him I was about to break his nose and he said, "Oh yeah?"

I would’ve given him a good one then and maybe a black eye, too, but I heard a horse running off and I looked up and Sean was on it. And he was making straight for home, not even trying to help his brother.

That was all Aidan needed, me looking away. He pulled hard and he got his hands back and he slugged me in the stomach with each of them and I fell over. Then he ran for his horse and he yelled that I could have the bow and arrow for all he cared and by the time I got on my knees he was gone, too.

He didn’t hit me that hard and it didn’t take me much time to stand up again. I figured my bow was where I’d grabbed Aidan and I climbed back up there. And my bow was broken right where you hold on to it. It was broken like a piece of kindling and the string was just laying there. I was so mad that I kicked at it and then I picked it up and then I threw it down and then I stepped on it and broke it into a bunch more pieces. I didn’t even look for the arrow. What was the use anyhow?

On the way home I remembered what Pa said a bunch of times about not leaving without asking. I was in for trouble but I didn’t care what happened to me when I went back home. I didn’t care about anything. But I was sure gonna figure out a way to get back at Sean and Aidan and I was gonna get back at them so bad they would never bother me again in their entire lives. I took care of Paint and then I started on the same chores I’d been doing ever since Adam and Hoss had gone. And I didn’t care about anything. I slammed things and I kicked things and I yelled at Smoke and Zeke to leave me alone and they knew I meant it because they did. And then it was time for supper and I was walking to the porch and Pa rode up on Buck.

He stepped off of Buck before Buck was even stopped and he dropped the reins and he walked to me with those big long steps that nobody can keep up with, not even Hoss. He jerked off his gloves and he said, "Would you like to explain where you have been?"

He says that all the time these days. Would I like to explain what I was thinking? Would I like to explain what I was doing? Would I like to explain why? And I was tired of explaining. And I didn’t care and I just turned around to go in the house.

Pa moved as fast as that bull did. He stepped up on the porch and he grabbed my arm and he held his hand up not far from my behind. My behind and Pa’s hand had been in touch just a while back and I gave up. If he was gonna do it, he was gonna do it and I couldn’t stop him. But Pa put his hand back down and he leaned toward me and he looked all over my face. He reached out and touched my cheek and it hurt so I pulled back.

He said, "How did that happen?"

Well, I didn’t know what he meant so I touched there and it hurt again. But there wasn’t any blood or anything on my fingers so it wasn’t bad. I said I didn’t know.

But Pa said, "I think you do."

I wanted to tell him how the bow was all broken and there was no use looking for the arrow. But I’d wanted it to all be a surprise when I got good at it and I could show him how and now I couldn’t show him how. I told him that I fell.

He said, "Fell."

And I said, "Yes, Pa." I sure hoped he didn’t ask anymore and he didn’t. He stood up straight and then he jerked his thumb over his shoulder toward the door and said we’d talk later.

I walked past him and I washed up for supper and I ate and then I went to bed. Pa came in and we talked about not asking to leave and I figured he’d probably do what he didn’t do on the porch because Adam and Hoss weren’t there in the bunkroom. But after a while he didn’t and he said good night. After I got over being surprised that he didn’t, I let Smoke in to sleep and I let Zeke in, too, and that felt better just having somebody there. I sure hoped Zeke didn’t make a lot of noise because he wasn’t supposed to be in there and I just didn’t need anything else going wrong so I went to sleep.

I got up the next morning and did my first chores. I didn’t see Pa anywhere and right before I took the eggs and milk in I saw Buck was gone. I took the eggs and milk to the kitchen and the breakfast that Hop Sing was cooking sure smelled good. It was venison and biscuits and potatoes and something that looked sort of like an egg but it was cooked different than all stirred up together.

"Where’s Pa?" I asked and I watched that egg. It was white around the edge and it was yellow in the middle. It looked like the sun in the middle of a round cloud. "Ma used to make these in New Orleans," I told Hop Sing. "But she’d put them on this bread and then she put this stuff on top of them that tasted kind of like lemon." I wrinkled up my nose so he’d know I was serious. "I didn’t like them."

Hop Sing smiled and he said he would make some of the stirred up eggs for me. This round one was for him. And then he said, "Father left early but will be back for lunch. He says for you to do chores . . . and not leave." Hop Sing looked at me sideways and I nodded.

That was fine with me. I didn’t have my slingshot that I traded with Wendell and I didn’t have the genuine Indian bow and arrow and I didn’t have Adam or Hoss to go fishing with and the Washoe were busy moving where they spend the spring and summer fishing by the river. I bet that Hoss and Adam decided to make a camping trip out of it and then they found a good place to fish and boy were they gonna be surprised when they got home and we had the bull. Then I could hear Pa say, "Would you like to explain where you have been?" to Adam. Unless he was real mad and then he’d say, "Where in thunder have you been?"

I ate breakfast and it was as good as it smelled. I took some extra to Smoke and I even gave Zeke a biscuit and some potatoes ‘cause he was real quiet in the bunkroom and then he was real quiet following me out in the morning. They tagged along while I did chores and I didn’t want to do the chores twice so I took my time. I had lots of time now that I didn’t have my bow and arrow.

Pa walked in the house right as Hop Sing and me were sitting down for lunch. He hurried to wash up and sat down at the table and said, "Sure looks good, Hop Sing." And I wondered because it was just sandwiches and how good can a sandwich be? Pa looked at me while he bit into his sandwich and he raised his eyebrows and his eyes looked like he was real happy. Then he sipped some hot tea and started talking to Hop Sing but he was up to something. I can always tell when Pa’s up to something.

After lunch Pa and me walked outside and he put his hand to my back and we walked to the barn where he had something he needed help with.

When we got in there, he didn’t say anything and then he walked over to the workbench and he picked up something and it was my arrow!

I stopped right there and stared at it. Pa stood beside me and he twisted it around between his fingers. "This is one of the finest looking arrows I’ve ever seen," he said.

I told him that I don’t know very much about arrows and he leaned down but he was still standing beside me so I could see how he was holding it. I never knew that Pa knew so much about an arrow. Golly, I didn’t know there was that much to know about an arrow. He held it one way and then the other and then he held it pointing away and closed one eye and looked down it and then he handed it to me and told me to look how straight it was. He said the flint point was a little damaged but he thought maybe we could take care of that.

"But-" I looked up at him and he smiled.

"But?"

I held up the arrow. "It’s not much good without a bow."

Pa rubbed at his chin. "I thought about that, too." He walked over to the stall where he keeps Buck, except Buck was out in the pasture, and he made some noise looking for something. He said he’d been over to see Min Du We about trading for some smoked fish and then he turned around and he was holding a genuine Indian bow.

For a minute I thought it was mine and breaking it hadn’t happened and I wondered what in molly I was gonna say when he asked me if I would like to explain anything.

But Pa walked to me and he smiled and his eyes smiled. "It was the only one they could spare. Min Du We said it’s really for someone who is more your size than mine." Pa turned the bow this way and that and he was holding it up toward the roof when he said, "I wasn’t sure if you know how to use one of these though."

I opened my mouth to tell him I know a lot about using one but before I could say anything he slid his eyes and looked at me from the bottoms of them and raised his eyebrows.

I don’t now how Pa knows the things that he knows but he knew about me and my bow and arrow. I know he didn’t see me because I was real careful and there was no way he saw me. And when he found that arrow how could he know it was mine if he never saw it before? I can’t figure it out. But Pa knew.

"I could teach myself." I tried to sound like I don’t know as much as I do. But he knew. We kind of left it there and he handed me the bow. "Golly, Pa! Thanks!"

I reached out for the arrow and Pa cleared his throat and put his hands on the sides of his belt. "When Adam and Hoss get back, I think they need to take care of your chores for a day. That will give you time to go to the camp so one of the men can show you how to use a bow and arrow."

Really? He was gonna let one of the Washoes show me how to use it?

Pa ran a hand through his hair and he pointed to the bow. "I’ve always wanted to know how to shoot one of those so I thought you might teach me after you learn."

I said, "You bet!" and Pa’s eyebrows went up and he leaned his head to one side. "Not a bet, Pa, just a bet bet."

He grinned then and motioned toward the stack of empty feed sacks. "Why don’t we fill one of those with hay after we finish chores? Make a target."

I never finished chores so fast in all my life. And I did them right. And then we filled that feed sack and we took it out in the meadow away from the cattle and I shot the arrow smack in the middle of it. Then I held my breath ‘cause I made a big mistake. I’m pretty sure nobody ever hits the smack middle of anything the first time they shoot an arrow.

"Joseph," Pa said and he sounded real serious. He was gonna ask me if I would like to explain how I did that. I just knew it.

Pa put his hand on my back and I waited, trying to figure out what I could tell him that wouldn’t be all the truth but wouldn’t be a lie.

And then Pa said, "I wonder if you could do the same thing with your slingshot."

The end