EASTER AT
THE PONDEROSA
It was nearly Easter. Mitch was very busy and drove his father, Grandpa
and Uncles to madness with questions about the Easterbunny.
The boy asked one morning during breakfast, “Does the Easterbunny actually exsists?”
“Of course he exsisits. Who else brings
the cloured eggs around?”,
Hoss asked directly.
“People do that”, his nephew reacted.
“That’s what you think but we know better”, Little Joe said.
Now was Mitch a bit confused. He was six years
old but his father and Uncles were much older and they still believed in the Easterbunny.
“Why do you believe in the Easterbunny anyway?”, Mitch wanted to know.
Adam, Hoss and Little Joe looked at each other for a moment.
Adam said then, “Everybody believes in the Easterbunny.”
“I have never believed in him”, Candy reacted.
“I don’t believe in him either. If everybody believes in him, how comes
that I have never seen him?”, was the following
question of Mitch.
Nobody had an answer to this. They ated
silently from then on.
After breakfast the brothers with the foreman and Cody went to the herd.
“Mitch you stay by Grandpa and listens to him”, Adam said seriously to
his son.
The boy nodded.
Underway Adam said with an unruly sarcasm in his voice, “We will let
that little boy of mine make believe in the Easter Bunny. Let’s see if he is still ao unbelieveable what concerns the Easter Bunny.”
Hoss and Little Joe looked at each other laughing and knew they would
get another adventure.
“We are gonna give Mitch a fit by the Easter Bunny and Candy too if we succeed. Hoss, you go as the hell and
get your suit of the Easter Bunny. You put it on and go home dressed like that
to scare the kid”, Adam continued.
Hoss smiled and said, “That will be a laugh but a run for our lives if Mitchy finds out that we have done it.”
He turned his horse chub and rode to
Adam and Little Joe rode to the herd to do their chore.
When Hoss arrived in town he rode straight away to the sewing atelier of
Mrs Green. He stopped and dismounted. After his horse was tied up he went
inside.
He asked Mrs Green, “Mrs Green, do you havethe
suit of the Easter Bunny ready which I
ordered?”
“It is ready for you. Will you take it along right away?”, she asked on her turn.
Hoss nodded and paid for the suit. Herafter he
went to away to give his nephew a fit. He didn’t know that others were also up
to something as the Easter Bunny.
At the Ponderosa Mitch asked, “Grandpa, may I play outside?”
“Go. But do stay around”, Ben said.
The boy nodded and went outside to play on the yard. He didn’t have to
go to school because he had Easter vacation. Mitch went to play at his
favourite spot near the oak because there was a lot of shadow. But when he was
playing with his glove and ball suddenly the Easter Bunny appeared.
Mitch pitched the ball to the Easter
Bunny and said, “Catch it then.”
The visitor caught it and threw it right away back but it was so hard
that the ball hit the head of Mitch and the boy lost conciousness.
Mitch fell down on the ground and the Easter
Bunny took him to his shelter. The brown glove and the ball got left behind at
the yard.
At the moment that Hoss rode upon the yard he didn’t see his nephew
playing anywhere. When he arrived at the ranchhouse
Hoss saw the glove and the ball of Mitch lying. He jumped from his horse and
picked up the objects. Hereafter he went inside the ranchhouse.
He said to Ben, “Pa, I don’t want to say much but Mitchy
is gone. His glove and ball were lying alone at the yard.”
“He was onthe gowith
that glove and ball. He knows that he may not leave the yard alone. We are gonna look for him. What are you doing here anyway?”, Ben wanted to know while they went outside.
“I collected the suit of the Easter
Bunny which I had ordered for the children of the orphanage and it was Adam’s
idea to give Mitchy ome
great fear by letting me appearat the yard as the
Easter Bunny so that Mitchy would still believe in it”,
Hoss explained.
Ben said laughing, “Then I wish you a lot of luck because Mitch doesn’t
believe in nothing anymore. ”
They mounted on and left the yard.
Mitch woke up in a hotelroom in
“Who are you and where am I?”,
he asked directly.
“We are the Easter Bunny Gang and we kidnap little children to make them
believe in us”, the first Easter Bunny said.
“You don’t exsist at all”, Mitch claimed
laughing.
“Shut up little one”, the second Easter Bunny said.
Mitch did keep his mouth shut but remained giggly.
“We keep him here till we got his father and Uncles here as well. Then we send Ben Cartwright a letter with the
request for ransom so that he will be as poor as a churchmouse
spending Easter with his sons and grandson”, Easter Bunny number 1 said.
“I don’t want to say very much but my father and Uncles are all very
grownup and they can beat you easily”, Mitch said suddenly.
“Give that kid an easteregg so that he can keep
that piece of mouth of his for a moment”, the boss of the gang whispered to one
of the others.
Mitch got a chocolate egg which he ate right away.
“Are you haivng any more of your own kind?”, the young Cartwright asked.
“You will get
with the whip if you say that one more time” Easter Bunny number
3 said.
Mitch began to enjoy it to rile his hijackers.
“Do you know why you don’t see any Easterchildren
here?”, he asked laughing.
“Why is that then?”, the curious foursome wanted
to know.
Mitch answered, “Because there are no female Easter Bunnies.”
“Very funny. Are you the greatest
joker at home?”, the gang leader asked.
“Most of the time, yes. But not
the friendliest”, Mitvch reacted.
“Who is that then?”, Easter Bunny number 2
wanted to know.
“That is the knob of the door because it gives everybody a hand”, was the
dry answer of Mitch.
It was clear that the Easter Bunny Gang had no sense of humour because
except Mitch nobody laughed at the joke.
“May I have a basket with eggs too?”, the boy
asked then hopeful.
He got that and at once the boy ran out of the hotelroom
whereafter he threw the eggs on the ground behind
him.
The gang ran after him but slipped over the eggyolk.
Mitch ran out of the hotel straight into the arms of deputy
Clem Foster.
“Clem, there is a gang of Easter Bunnies in there and they kidnapped me
from the Ponderosa”, Mitch said gasping.
“Come on bewcause then we are gonna arrest them”, the deputy said.
They went insoiide the hotel and the gnag was lying all over each other cursing and scolding at
each other because they had let Mitch go.
“You are under arrest”, Clem just said.
Mitch was standing by watching and laughing and the authority carrier
found it also entertaining. With support of Mitch the gang got tied up and
taken away to jail.
After the arrest of the Easter Bunny gang Mitch was alone again in
“I got kidnapped by a bunch of Easter Bunnies but I am alright. Can we
go home?”, the young Cartwright asked.
“We go. You
go on my horse as well”, Ben said calm.
Together
they walked to Buck who was waiting with Hoss. Grandpa and grandson Cartwright
mounted on and the returntrip to the Ponderosa had began. Undereway Mitch told what
had happened.
Arrived at
home Hoss got sent back to the herd so that Ben and Mitch were alone at home.
After lunch
Hop Sing came with two packages.
“Mr
Cartwright, this little one is for Mr Adam and Little Joe and the big one is
for Mr Hoss”, the Chinese cook said.
Mitch
looked at the packages but didn’t say anything. He would save his reaction for
when the boys would get it. Ben received the packages and went away with his
grandson.
Underway
Mitch asked, “Grandpa, why do people actually celebrate Easter?”
“People celebrate
it because the commememoration of the ressureaction of Jesus. He died three days before at the
cross to firgive us from our sins”, Ben explained.
Of course
Mitch didn’t understand a thing about it and asked, “How can someone who is
dead become a live again?”
“That is
normally not so but Jesus is the son of God and that is why he could do it”,
the rancher replied.
“And which
meaning does the Easter Bunny havethen?”, Mitch wanted to
know.
“People has made that up himself. Easter is each year in the Spring and then there
is a lot of new life like lambs and flowers in our backyard where you play a
lot. To celebrate that you see a lot of eggs because that is the sign of new
life”, Ben told.
“I hope that those teasings of a father and
Uncles of mine don’t bother me with their nice ideas around the Easter days”, Mitch said
light-hearted.
“Last year
you delivered them a mean trick too”, Ben remarked.
“That was
only because they do it to me the previous year for letting me search for the Easter eggs”, the boy reacted.
When they
arrived at the herd the three boys looked at the same time in the direction of
Ben and Mitch. Adam and Little Joe had heard from Hoss what had happened to
Mitch and they felt like to take that gang to task.
When Ben
had dismounted he said to his three sons, “Here are your sandwiches. The big
package is for Hoss and the little one is for Adam and Joe.”
“Grandpa,
you say it wrong because the big one is for daddy and Uncle Joe and the small
one is for Uncle Hoss”, Mitch said directly.
Adam, Hoss and Little Joe looked at each other questionable and Mitch
gave Ben a quick wink which the rancher understood.
“Mitch says it right. I am sorry Hoss but you will have to do it with
less sandwiches this time”, Ben said with a pokerface
while he gave the packages to his sons.
He mounted on his horse again and rode home again with his grandson.
Adam, Hoss and Little Joe looked at the wrappings but found no names on
the paper.
“That little lad is up to something with us if you ask me”, Adam said
during their break.
“Yes, but what? You know that pa is standing behind him when we tease
him”, Little Joe remarked.
Adam nodded and replied smiling, “Still we are gonna
scare him with Hoss as the Easter
Bunny. Tomorrow it is Easter
and when he is in bed tonight you go as the Easter Bunny pay him a visit to warn him that
when he teases us one more time he will get an adventure.”
Hoss and Little Joe were rolling over the ground laughing.
During dinnertime Adam, Hoss and Little Joe were very corny but they
didn’t say why.
Mitch was also very busy but he was that always when there was something
going on around the house.
Ben said, “I hope that you are tomorrowmorning
a bit quiter or other wise you won’t get any of you no eggs from the Easter
Bunny for breakfast.”
“I don’t want to have them because I know that they come from chickens
and not from the Easter Bunny. They are
just people dressed up as Easter Bunnies”, Mitch remarked dry.
“Kid, you go to bed after dinner and tomorrow you surely will get
something from us for your Easter”,
Adam said.
“Okay”, Mitch said.
In the evening Mitch was puit to bed at the
usual time when Hoss came into the ranchhouse dressed
up as the Easterbunny. Ben and Candy looked amazed but
didn’t say anything. Hoss just went upstairs. Adam and Little Joe were away
because they had nothing to do with it like they said.
Hoss knocked at the door of the bedroom of his nephew and went then
inside.
“Mitchell Jonathan Cartwright, I have heard that you don’t believe in me
at all. That’s why I have come in person to prove to you that I actually do exisist”, Hoss said.
Mitch went to sit and looked at the Easter Bunny. Then the boy burst
into laughing.
“I know for sure that it is you Uncle Hoss! You walk like you always
walk and your voice is the same so you can’t make fool me. Goodnight!”, Mitch said screaming with laughter.
Hoss noticed that Mitch really didn’t believe it and rushed downstairs.
Like there been a little tornado had taken place in the Cartwright household
that way Hoss ran out of the house. Ben put his book down and Candy the paper
and they went to the bedroom of the youngest Cartwright.
“Mitch, what is the matter?”, the rancher asked
amazed.
“Daddy and his brothers tried to trick me by letting Uncle Hoss dressed
up as the Easter Bunny appear in my room. That was no success at all”, Mitch
said still laughing.
The raqncher went to sit on the bed sand Candy
was rolling on the floor laughing.
Ben said whispering, “I know how we do it. Tomorrowmorning
you go and get the coloured eggs and you put them at our plates. When they find
out that they have none they will stop with their jokes. Goodnight son.”
“Same to you Grandpa, Candy”, Mitch said while he went to lie again.
“Goodnight Mitch”, the foreman said.
Adam and Little Joe waited near a few trees for the return of their
brother.
“Adam, there he comes”, Little Joe said.
“And?”, the eldest Cartwright boy asked..
“That little boy of yopurs really doesn’t
believe in the Easterbunny. He recognized me right
away and to make it even worse he began to laugh at me”, Hoss said groaning.
His brothers couldn’t stop laughing anymore. Now Hoss became even
angrier than he already was.
It was Easter Day. Hop Sing had
set the breakfasttable very festively. Mitch had put
the coloured eggs near his oplate and those of Ben
and Candy.
When Adam,
Hoss and Little Joe came downstairs they saw that they hadn’t got any eggs.
Hoss asked
his father, “Pa, I really feel like eating an egg this morning. Why didn’t we
get one and you, Mitchy and Candy did?”
“Because you don’t deserve them. How dare you to give a little boy a fit by
appearing as the Easter Bunny late in the evening in his bedroom while you know that he
needs the sleep so badly?”, Ben asked strict but teasing.
“He teases
us also so much”, Little Joe reacted excited.
“Joe is
right”, Adam said.
Then Mitch
asked from the stairs, “You are not eating your own kind, are you?”
“Mitch, we
will do it never again if you never do it to us again”, Adam said on behalf of
his brothers.
Mitch
nodded but he had laughing eyes so that Adam knew more than enough. Still it
became a jolly Easter despite all teasings of the Cartwrights and
Candy to each other.
THE END
MAY 2002