THE LOTTERY
One day the
Ladies Society had organised a lottery for all the inhabitants of Virginia
City. Of course the Cartwrights had heard about this too and they had decided
to go to it.
The sale of
the tickets went fast and of course the Cartwrights got approached to buy them.
Mrs Dora Nightingale came to Hoss and Little Joe Cartwright.
“Do you
want to buy tickets for the lottery?”, she asked.
“Of course
we do that. How much are they?”, asked Hoss.
“A quarter
a piece. There are nice prizes to be won”, said Dora.
“Make it
twenty”, said Little Joe.
“Then we
must be lucky for once”, Hoss reacted laughing.
They paid
and got the tickets.
“The draw
starts at four o’clock”, said Dora.
Somewhere
else Adam Cartwright with his dog Cody got approached to take tickets. He got
talked into it by Dolly Parker. The girl had blonde hair and blue eyes and
didn’t look very smart. Though she tried it to be it.
She walked
up to him and asked, “You probably will buy tickets for the lottery?”
“From you
surely. How much do they cost?”, asked the eldest Cartwright boy.
“For you 25
cents a piece”, said Dolly.
She thought
to be smarter than Adam but he said, “Just give me ten of a quarter.”
She counted
ten and gave them to Adam. He gaveher two and a half dollar.
Then he
said, “I don’t know if you know it but 25 cents is the same as a quarter. Have
a pleasant afternoon.”
Dolly
looked at him angrily.
Ben
Cartwright walked with his grandson Mitch of five over the market when Dora
Nightingale came to them.
“You
probably will buy tickets for the lottery on behalf of the church?”, she asked.
Ben looked
at Mitch and asked, “Shall we do it?”
“Alright”,
said the boy.
“Give us
ten tickets”, said the rancher.
He paid the
money and got the tickets.
“The
lottery starts at four o’clock here at the market square”, she said.
When the
woman was away asked Mitch, “Grandpa what is a lottery?”
“That is a
game of chance whereby men can win prizes with bought tickets”, Ben explained.
“You always
say that a game of chance is gambling and that it is wrong”, Mitch said amazed
and not understanding.
“That is so
but sometimes it is allowed. This lottery is done to get more money for the
church and that is a good cause”, said Ben.
“They
mustn’t look up strange if all prizes go in the direction of the Ponderosa
ranch”, the boy remarked dry.
“I wouldn’t
count on it”, answered the rancher.
No one
could suspect that the Cartwright family run go away with all the prizes.
When all
tickets were sold out the Cartwrights came to the wagon where Ben had put Mitch
upon.
“How many
have tricked you out?”, Adam asked mocking Hoss and Little Joe.
“Ten each
and for how many have they swindled you?”, asked Hoss.
“The same
as you”, was the answer of Adam.
“We bought
as many as them”, Ben said calm.
Mitch went
to sit next to Cody and kept silent. He was tired which the others noticed.
“If we win
a prize we let Mitchy collect it”, said Hoss.
“Then I can
keep on walking”, the youngest of the couple reacted.
The grown
up Cartwrights started to laugh but they didn’t know that it would be that so.
The draw
began at four o’clock exactly. Reverend Calderwood did the drawings.
He drew the
first ticket and said, “The first ticket where a prize falls upon is number 234.
The winner of this ticket gets this delicous chocolate cake baked by Mrs
Grenville. Who has the winning ticket? There must be a winner.”
Hoss said,
“Mitchy, come here and go and get that cake. We have that ticket.”
“I said
that we would win”, his nephew reacted quick-witted.
Ben lifted
him from the wagon and Hoss gave him the ticket. Mitch walked to the reverend
and gave the ticket whereafter he got the cake.
Mitch kept
on walking up and down and quite soon all cakes were in the wagon. It was
understandable that everyone with much jealous looks watched at the
Cartwrights.
When the
lottery was over the reverend said, “The strawberrycake was unfortuantly the
last one which we could give away. Congratulations to the ones who won
something and unfortuantly not congratulated to the ones who won nothing.”
Hoss looked
at all the cakes and said, “Well, Hop Sing doesn’t have to bake a cake for a
while now. Seeing that we got more than enough.”
“You can
eat them all alone easily”, reacted Little Joe.
It was good
that Hop Sing had a week vacation so that the Cartwrights had plenty enough to
eat with the won cakes.