Little Joe Falls in Love

By Tennessee

When Little Joe turned 12 years old, he started thinking of girls as more than friends. When school started, Little Joe did not want to go back to school; he wanted to stay home and help with the horses. But his pa said, "You are going back to school, son, now that we have a new teacher." You will like here, wait and see."

Hoss did not have to start school for a few more weeks. Adam was out of town on a buying trip for a few weeks. But he was out of school now, anyway.

The first day of school Little Joe was late. Sue had a seat next to her saved for him. As he sat, Little Joe asked, "Where is the teacher?"

"She’s over there talking with someone."

When the teacher came to her desk, she said, "Hi, my name is Miss Snow. This is my little sister, Cindy. We just moved here, and she has no friends yet. I hope we will all be good friends."

Cindy’s desk was right next to Little Joe and Sue’s. Little Joe could not take his eyes off Cindy, and he helped her a lot the first day. They all ate lunch together. Little Joe didn’t tell his family about Cindy at supper. But that night when he and Hoss were going to sleep he said, "Hoss, there’s this new girl at school. She is pretty and sweet and all day I helped her. Her name is Cindy. She’s the teacher’s sister. She was sad, so I tried to make her feel better."

Hoss said, "It sounds like you might be falling for her."

"What do you mean?"

"Little brother, you are growing up and starting to like girls for more than friends."

Little Joe said, "No way, not me. I don’t want to act like you and Adam do when you two are with Tess and Ann. That makes me sick the way you act with girls."

Hoss smiled and said, "Wait and see, little brother, wait and see."

They went to sleep right after their talk. The next day Sue asked Little Joe why he always helped Cindy. And looked at her all the time. He said, "I’m just trying to be friends with her."

When Cindy came in, Little Joe pulled her chair out for her. And she thanked him. Sue talked to Cindy a lot that day, and they became close friends. Cindy went home with Sue to meet her family, and Sue went home with Cindy the next day. They were the best of friends, but they never asked Little Joe to come with them.

Three weeks passed. Adam was home from his trip. Hoss started school that Monday. So did Tess and Ann. Adam rode with all of them to school and kissed Ann goodbye and said, "Have a great day, sweetheart. I love you."

Hoss asked, "Ann, is that Cindy?"

She said yes.

Hoss said, "Little Joe loves her, I think. He talked to me about her."

Miss Snow was nice. Hoss and the girls liked her. Adam was waiting to take Ann home after school. Hoss said, "Adam, that is Cindy. The girl Little Joe thinks is cute."

Little Joe saw his brothers looking at Cindy and got on his horse and rode off.

Ann said, "Adam, this is Cindy Snow. Cindy, this is Adam Cartwright."

She said, "Nice to meet you. Why did Little Joe ride off. He was going to take me home."

Adam said, "Sue can ride with me and Cindy can ride with Anne." Hoss and Tess rode with them. They saw Little Joe’s horse, so they stopped to see if he was all right. He was just looking at the water, so they rode on.

Cindy asked, "Why is Little Joe so sad?"

Sue said, "I don’t know, but I think he likes you."

"As a friend?" asked Cindy.

"No, as a girlfriend. Ever since you came to school, he can’t take his eyes off of you."

Adam and the rest smiled at each other and kept riding.

Cindy said, "I thought Little Joe was looking at me a lot, but I would have never thought he liked me as a girlfriend."

After they took all the girls home, Adam and Hoss went back to see if Little Joe was still at the lake.

When they got to the lake, Little Joe was still there looking at the water. Adam and Hoss got off their horses and walked over to him. He did not hear them coming and jumped when they said "hi."

Adam said, "Cindy is cute, and she is nice."

Hoss said, "I think so, too."

Little Joe said, "All I do day and night is think about her. The other day I almost kissed her."

Adam said, "Little Joe, you are getting to the age when you start looking at girls and want to kiss them. As you get older, you’ll want to be with them more and more."

Little Joe said, "I like a lot of girls for friends, but Cindy I like more than ever."

Adam said, "Let’s go home."

When they got home and ate supper, Little Joe said, "Pa - "

Ben said, "Yes, son?"

"When did you start liking girls?"

And Ben said, "Oh, about your age, son."

Little Joe said "goodnight" and went to bed.

Ben looked at his two older sons. "Your brother is in love with a girl, isn’t he?"

They told Ben about Cindy. He said, "Your little brother will fall in love a lot before he finds the right one. When he becomes a man, he’ll find the right one for him."

As the weeks went by Little Joe fell more and more in love with Cindy. But Cindy had her eyes on a boy named Tony. He was new in school, and she began to spend all her free time with him. Tony walked her home and they ate lunch together. Cindy ran over to where Sue and Little Joe were eating.

"Tony asked me to be his girlfriend," she said. "I said yes."

She ran back to Tony and kissed his cheek. Little Joe got up and ran away from them. Sue ran over to where Adam, Ann, Hoss, and Tess were eating. Adam had come to spend lunchtime with Ann.

Sue said, "Little Joe needs you. Cindy likes Tony, and she is going with him. She kissed him and Little Joe ran that way."

Adam and Hoss went running after him. He was under a tree. He was crying.

Adam said, "We’re sorry this happened, Joe."

Hoss said, "We sure are."

Little Joe said, "Just leave me alone. Please go."

Adam looked at Hoss and Hoss knew that Little Joe needed Pa. He went back and got his horse at the school and rode home. Ben was working on the barn when he heard Hoss yell, "Pa, where are you?"

Ben ran out of the barn. "Pa, Little Joe needs you."

Ben got on his horse. Hoss told him everything on the way. When they reached Little Joe, Ben got off his horse and Little Joe ran to him. Ben put his arms around him and said, "Son, I know how you feel. When I was your age, something like this happened to me."

Little Joe looked up at Ben with tears in his eyes and asked, "It did?"

"Yes, son. But in time, you’ll forget about it. Let’s go home."

Little Joe spend the whole weekend thinking about what Pa had said. On Monday when they got to school Cindy was sorry that she’d hurt Little Joe. Sue had told her. For weeks, Little Joe did not say one word to Cindy. One day at lunch he saw she was crying. Tony was in love with a new girl he’d met over the weekend. He was moving to a new town and so was Spring, the new girl.

Little Joe asked, "Are you all right?"

And she said, "I’m so sorry if this is the way I hurt you."

Little Joe said, "You get over it in time. Cindy, we can be friends it you want, but I’m not going to be in love with you again. Maybe when I get older things won’t hurt as bad if they don’t work out."

She kissed his cheek and said, "I hope you’re right."

Sue, Cindy, and Little Joe were the best of friends and they did everything together. Adam, Ann, Hoss, and Tess were by the lake one day watching the kids playing.

Adam said, "They are good friends now."

Hoss said, "They are great friends now." He kissed Tess and said, "I hope they’ll always be as good of friends as they are now."

Adam said, "Little brother is not so little anymore, Hoss."

The End.