Playing Hooky

It had been a terrible winter. Heavy snows and ice storms had drawn the families of the Virginia City area together as never before. The snowpack was at record levels, filling valleys, piling huge drifts at barns, fences, and doorways. School had been closed much of the time, and Miss Jones had made sure students had a full week of assignments at all times in case they got snowed in and couldn't get to town. Mr. Spencer and his team of draft horses made regular rounds with a big snow plow, clearing access ways to houses, barns, and pastures so that neighbors could tend their stock or get to town for supplies at least weekly. Everyone pulled together to get through the harsh winter.

Spring was little better, as a sudden thaw and warm weather melted the snowpack on the peaks much too fast. Friendly brooks and streams suddenly became dangerous cataracts as meltoff flooded down much faster than the ground could absorb it. Roadways became rutted mud slides. Fences were washed away and torn up. Pastures became bogs. Farmers and ranchers were hard pressed to deal with spring planting, calving, and foaling season as maintenance chores ate up far more time for repairs than seemed available.

The Ponderosa didn't fare too badly through all this, though it made for far more "shut in" time than Adam, Hoss, or Little Joe would have wanted. The first few times Little Joe woke up to prodigious snowfall outside his window, he danced with glee at the prospect of no school. Dressing hurriedly against the chill, he'd bounded down the stairs prepared for a day of uninterrupted play, only to see his hopes dashed at the breakfast table by the glum aspects of his older brothers.

Pa had known what the weather would be like, and had made sure all their schoolbooks and materials were there at home, along with having all their assignments. Far from being the holiday Lil' Joe had hoped for, Pa had extra chores that had to be tended to... primarily making sure the water buckets and troughs were kept ice free, and that there was deep straw bedding kept clean in the barn stalls and wind shelters at the feeding stations for the pastures. The ranch hands from the Bunkhouse would take care of the herds at the outer pastures, but Pa and the boys would be responsible for all the paddocks and corrals that surrounded the main house and barn.

There was also extra wood to be chopped, straw to be banked around some of the garden plants and vegetables that needed to lay dormant through the winter, and horses still to be led to and from the barn so that they could get some exercise on days that weren't too stormy to be safe. Then, to top it all off, Pa insisted that the school schedule be adhered to, at least for Hoss and Lil' Joe. Adam was big and strong enough to do some of the heavy lifting work outside, and Hoss could do some of that at 13, but Lil' Joe, at 7 was pretty much stuck. Pa was a pretty good teacher, and Adam helped a lot when Joe didn't understand a word in his reader, or how to do a new kind of problem in his arithmetic book, but neither of them seemed as patient as Miss Jones was.

Once the weather finally broke and the snowstorms, and then the flooding and rains, were finished, Joe was busting out with cabin fever in the worst way. Warm weather and sunshine seemed to explode not only him, but all the kids his age, like popcorn in a fireplace. He wanted to catch up on all the outdoor activity he'd been denied for months, though it felt like it had been forever to him. No 7 year old boy was designed to thrive indoors, certainly not Little Joe. He was most definitely designed for boisterous "outdoor play", not for sitting quietly indoors... like at school.

His best friend, Billy Fletcher, felt just the same way, and they'd been fussing almost daily, to be allowed to go fishing and swimming as they loved to do together. Unfortunately, the fine weather was finally allowing families to catch up on lots of repairs and maintenance that had been put off. There wasn't yet enough truly leisure time for adults or the older kids to really take off, and there were still lots of chores to be done just because everything animal and vegetable was awakening to the Springtime as well.

Billy's "schooling" experience had been much the same as Joe's, as his Mama and Daddy were both educated folk that set high standards for him and his brothers and sister. With his Daddy being the Pastor, and the church so close to town and the schoolhouse, there'd been no problem keeping up with assignments and materials. He and Joe both had almost been relieved when school came back into session, as their studies were no longer so scrutinized by their parents.

So when school started back up really regular, and the nice warm spring weather hit, the school house windows were opened to the sounds of birds singing and bees humming, and it seemed downright impossible for either Joe or Billy to remain focused on their schoolwork for more than 10 minutes at a time. They weren't the only ones, but it seemed their daydreaming got noticed more than most of the other kids'.

Miss Jones, their teacher, truly understood the problem. She was even sympathetic to it. But there was nothing she could do, to solve it. Spring had arrived, but the material had to be learned as children of all grades prepared for their end of term exams before Summer vacation. She played some learning games with the children, like Spelling Bees, or making up stories by each student adding something by turns, or math quiz eliminations of boys' team against girls'... though she abandoned this quickly as the girls always won... or one grade division against another, each doing their own level of problem. But there was always homework, far too much homework in Joe and Billy's estimation.

One Friday in class, Joe managed to skive off his entire math lesson, looking like he was studying, but actually working on his composition and grammar instead. Miss Jones announced that the following week there would be an important math test, and she assigned a bunch of math homework for them. Billy and Joe had no intention of wasting so fine a weekend on anything as foolish as math homework or reading a new chapter, but decided to get their fathers to allow them to go fishing instead, after their chores. In this effort, they were wholly unsuccessful.

So neither Joe nor Billy completed the weekend math assignment, though they did all their other homework. Now, somewhat behind, they coudn't get Monday's math homework done either, and Tuesday's math class just confused them. Wednesday, much to their chagrin, there was a "pop quiz" in math, of 10 questions, as a practice for the major math test that was scheduled for Friday. Joe scored 20% on his, and Billy only 40%. At this point, the boys began to suspect that they may be in a bit of a pickle. Miss Jones asked them both to remain behind at the end of class.

"Boys?" she began, "I'm very concerned about these quiz scores. And I don't recall your turning in your homework the past few days, either. You are usually among my most reliable students, now what's wrong?"

"I don't understand the work, Miss," Little Joe started.

"Yes, Miss. There's too many numbers to the division problems. We don't understand about the subtract underneath, and multiply the divisor by the estimate, check the remainder, drop down the next number... all that," Billy elaborated.

"Well, boys, if you had paid attention to the lesson, and done the practice problems in the homework, this would be making sense. Do you want to take some time right now for me to show you both how to do these quiz problems?" she offered.

"No, Miss, that's OK, we have to get home to do our chores," Joe quickly offered an excuse, hating to be one minute longer in the schoolhouse than they had to be.

Despite her misgivings, Miss Jones agreed, "All right then, gentlemen. You have a lot to make up before Friday, so take these quizzes home with you and see if Adam or your parents can show you how to do this. I'd hate to see you do badly on Friday."

"Yes'm, thank you..." they both answered quickly as they grabbed their belongings and headed out the door.

"Whew!" Billy said. "That was close. We almost REALLY got kept after!"

"Yeah, that'd be awful," Joe nodded, as he headed around the schoolhouse to saddle Cochise and ride home. "But Billy?"

"Yeah, Joe?"

"What ARE we gonna do about that test Friday. I still have no idea how to do these problems."

"I dunno, Joe. Let's ponder heavy on that tonight, and maybe we can come up with a plan tomorrow," Billy suggested, as Joe finished with Cochise and mounted up to head home.

"OK, Billy. See you then!"

"Right, Joe, see you tomorrow."

The next day they'd done no more effective studying than they'd ever done, but Billy had a plan.

"Joe! I GOT IT! I know how to handle tomorrow's test!"

"Great! What's the plan?"

"We just won't take it! Let's go fishin' instead! Lots of the guys have had to stay home sometimes for calvin' or foalin' or gettin' stuff fixed up now that the weather's turned fine. Let's just leave home like we're heading to school, and then meet at our fishin' spot. Maybe we can even swim a bit, too!"

"Yeah!" Joe enthused. "That's a GREAT plan! Adam and Hoss won't be there tomorrow, 'cause they've gone to Carson City with Pa to buy some new stuff for the ranch, and Pa wanted them to see an exhibition of new ranching equipment. That's why they're not here today, they already left last night with Pa."

"Perfect. This should work out just fine," Billy nodded. "Tomorrow mornin' I'll meet you at our regular fishin' and swimmin' hole, OK?"

"Right. We should have a perfect day!" Little Joe said, confidently.

Friday morning dawned clear and warm. Joseph ate breakfast, did his morning chores, and saddled Cochise for their great adventure. He'd sneaked a big towel out of the house the evening before, during his chores, and set his fishing gear aside in the barn. He carried his schoolbooks out with him and put them dutifully in his saddlebags, in case Hop Sing or anyone was watching, as he put the towel and his little tackle box in the other saddlebag. He'd cut a pole when they got to the fishing hole, and share their lunches picnic style.

Joe got to the spot before Billy, since he was riding and Billy lived so close to the schoolhouse he just walked there. Joe had brought a halter with him so he could stake Cochise at a grassy clearing where there'd be shade and plenty of grass to chew on. He'd be sure to bring him to the water a couple times to drink. Then Joe prepared two poles for them, and finished just as Billy came trotting up, a bit breathless.

"Hey Joe! I MADE it!" Billy grinned from ear to ear.

"You sure did. Here's your pole, now let's find us some worms and grubs and see what we can do!"

The boys had an old tin can they kept in the bole of a tree for holding bait, and in just a few minutes had plenty to fish with. They spread out their towels, set their poles on little Y-shaped stick braces, and let their corks drift on the water's surface waiting for a bite. Together, they lay back naming shapes of clouds that drifted by, identifying birds by shape or call, talking about their classmates, their dreams of the future, and their favorite plans for the summer. They even, from time to time, caught a fish. It seemed, in every possible way, a perfect morning.

When the sun drew overhead, their shade was gone and they started to get really hot. They'd eaten about half their lunch pails, and drank from the lakeside, but they started feeling really hot.

"Billy? Want to swim some? I'm hot, and that water looks mighty inviting."

"Boy, I'd sure like to, yeah. But, do you think we should? We're not normally allowed to swim here without a grownup, even though it's really shallow right here by the bank."

Joe laughed, "Billy? We're already playing hooky and in for it if we get caught. But we're not gonna get caught, so who cares if we swim?"

"That's a point. What about swim clothes? I didn't bring anything extra."

Joe thought about it a moment, "Let's just skinnydip. Nobody's likely to come this way anyhow. And we won't stay in too long. Just long enough to cool off."

"Sure thing, Joe. What could possibly happen?" Billy asked, with a terrible sense of the ironic.

A/N: I enjoy the Bonanza universe, and hope you like some of these short sniglets that bounce past my mental movie screen from time to time. Please feel free to comment and/or review. Thanks for reading, hopefully enjoying! Grace to you, Gentle Reader! - Mort