Hoss and Petey, having returned from town
and stowed away the items
requested by Hop Sing and the rest
of the
family, were now trying to
get past the cook, without him
seeing what
Hoss was holding in his
right hand. Petey,
with the innocence of the child that he was, was
convinced that if he walked very
softly and
didn't speak, he would
become invisible to Hop Sing. He was
rather
in awe of the little
Chinaman, who could often be heard yelling,in Chinese,
as he went
about his chores. As he didn't
always appear
to be angry, Petey was
not sure why he yelled so much, but
it still
scared him. His Mama
yelled, sometimes, but that was when
she was
sick and had been
drinking her medicine. Petey
didn't think that Hop Sing had the same
sickness, as his Mama, but he wasn't
sure.
Hoss seemed a bit scared of Hop
Sing, too. Petey found that
kinda
funny, as Hoss was so much bigger than the cook, but there was
no
doubt who was the boss of the Ponderosa, at least in the
kitchen.
Hoss tried to conceal the package
behind his
large frame, and he too,
walked on his tiptoes, trying not to
draw
attention to himself. Hop
Sing, who was sitting at the table,
cleaning
the silver and
glassware, did not seem to be aware
of them
creeping across the
kitchen, until they were almost into
the
dining room.
"What you doing, Mistah
Hoss?" said Hop Sing. "You act like boy
caught with hand in cookie jar."
"Huh?" said Hoss, turning round to
face the cook, and moving the
package, as he did so. "I ain't bin stealin'
cookies, where
d'ya get
a notion like that from?" and the
young
man looked quite indignant at
the idea that he would steal.
"You often do," said Hop Sing, and
Hoss couldn't deny it, as he did,
sometimes.
"Well I ain't
doin' so, now," said Hoss. "Come on Petey, let's go."
"What you trying to hide, then?"
demanded Hop Sing. "If you not
guilty, no need to act like thief in night."
"What're ya jawin'
'bout, Hop Sing?" said Hoss, still trying to
pretend that he had no idea what the
cook
meant.
"You have something in hand. What is
it?" said Hop Sing.
"Oh, d'ya
mean this?" and he held up Petey's hand.
"It's Big Shorty's
hand, of course. Do ya
need glasses, Hop Sing?"
"I mean in other hand," said Hop
Sing, beginning to lose his
patience. "Hop Sing no time for all
this foolishment."
"Oh, right, in the other hand,"
said Hoss. "Just summat I picked up
in town. Must get on, things to do,
chores
and stuff, ya know how it
is?"
"I fought we was gonna
go to my room and eat that Chinese meal we
picked up in town, Hoss," piped up Petey. "You said we could and I'm
hungry."
Now that Petey
had
let the cat out of the bag, or the meal out of the
paper, Hoss wasn't sure what to say,
but he
needn't have worried, as
Hop Sing made up for his lack of
words, and
a lot of it was in
Chinese. He grabbed his rolling pin
and
began chasing Hoss round the
dining table.
"You bring food from town to this
house, and Chinese food, too? You
not like Hop Sing's
cooking no more? Fine, Hop Sing go back
you go town for food," and the cook
headed off to his room and began
packing.
By the time Ben, Adam and Joe
returned to
the house, Hop Sing was
sitting on the porch, surrounded by
his
possessions. Hoss had done
all he could to try and talk the
cook out of
leaving, but nothing had
worked.
Ben, Adam and Joe were soon brought
up to
speed, by Petey, as neither
Hoss nor Hop Sing seemed able to get
out the
story, coherently.
Ben told the rest of the family to
go
indoors and he sat down, next
to the cook.
He spent a long time just listening
to Hop
Sing listing his
grievances, the main one being that
he
wasn't appreciated, and Ben
promised that if only he would stay,
then
Ben would make sure that
the family, especially Hoss, treated
him
with the proper respect.
As usual, Hop Sing eventually calmed
down
and agreed to stay, just as
long as Hoss promised never to buy
food from
the Chinese restaurant
again.
Hoss was happy to agree, the food
wasn't
that good, anyway, and he
had a sneaking suspicion that the
cook
wasn't even Chinese, his name
was Patrick Murphy!
THE END
Little Joe forever
Lynne