Boom! Boom!

by MagdalenMary495

Disclaimer: The characters and situations of the TV program "Big Valley" are the creations of Four Star/Republic Pictures and have been used without permission. No copyright infringement is intended by the author. The ideas expressed in this story are copyrighted to the author.

Part 1

On the first day of July in 1876, Victoria Barkley stood in her rose garden a willow basket looped over one arm. Looking almost like a rose herself in a pale pink blouse and dark green linen skirt, she snipped yellow roses filling the basket with their beauty and fragrance. Just busy work, Victoria smiled to herself, to keep her hands occupied while she waited impatiently for Jarrod’s family to arrive. Ever since Nick had taken the surrey to Stockton to meet the morning train, she’d found it hard to fix her attention on anything for long. How good it would be to have her family together again for the 4th! To see her two darling grandchildren, Jenny and Nicky. Plucking another rose, she heard joyful singing coming from the direction of the road. Jarrod and Nick singing lustily, the lilting soprano of her daughter in law’s voice and Jenny’s clear, sweet treble. The song Jenny always insisted Jarrod sing with her as they came through the Barkley gate.

“Wait for the wagon,
wait for the wagon,
wait for the wagon
and we’ll all take a ride!”

As shivery with excitement as a child on Christmas morning, Victoria dropped the basket of roses, lifted her green skirt and hurried toward the front of the house. Ciego arrived first with happy greetings as the surrey came to a halt by the front door. “Welcome home, Mr. Jarrod. Mrs. Louisa.”

“Jarrod! Louisa! Jenny! Nicky!” Victoria didn’t know which of them to hug or kiss first. A decision Jenny quickly took out of her hands before anyone else could get out of the surrey.

“Grammie!” Jenny squealed, holding out her arms, wiggling her fingers and dancing impatiently for someone to help her down. Giving Louisa quite a struggle to keep the five year old from falling out on her face. “I missed you and I missed you!”

“Jenny, I missed you too!”

Victoria reached into the surrey for her squirming granddaughter, oblivious to everyone else as she wrapped her arms around the sturdy little girl. Holding her so close Jenny squealed, Victoria felt a rare contentment. She watched over Jenny’s head as Jarrod jumped from the surrey turning to help Louisa down. Nick claimed Nicky before Jarrod could reach back for his son. Holding tight to his favorite nephew before he had to surrender him to Heath’s embrace. The two of them passed the little boy from arm to arm so much when he came to visit, Louisa often complained he’d never yet set foot on Barkley soil.

After a hug and too many kisses to count, Victoria stood Jenny down holding her out at arm’s length. Noting with a grandmother’s eye that Jenny had grown several inches since their last visit. Although happily nothing had changed in her granddaughter’s deceptively angelic little face framed by Jarrod’s dark curls or in her mischievous blue eyes and sweet smile. Victoria hid a grin of amusement. Jenny ‘s white lawn dress would have been clean and starched when she left the house, Louisa would have insisted upon it, but wasn’t any longer. A smudge of soot on Jenny’s nose and windblown hair told Victoria that her granddaughter had an adventuresome train ride. Poor Louisa. No wonder she looked exhausted as Victoria stood to greet her.

“Louisa!” Victoria wrapped her daughter in law in a warm hug. Dressed in a rumpled peach silk dress, a straw hat perched crooked over one ear, Louisa righted the hat and smiled as she returned the hug. A smile more of relief than any other emotion. “I’m so glad you’re here.”

“It’s good to be here,” Louisa answered pleasantly pushing stray wisps of her light brown hair back into a rather untidy bun on the nape of her neck. Nick put Nicky down and he ran to his mother, clinging to her skirts with his face hidden. Louisa had quite a time answering while the little boy wrapped himself in the fabric. “The ride never seemed so long before. I told Jarrod the next time we come, it had better be at night when the children can sleep through the trip. I feel as if I’ve walked the whole distance here.”

Victoria laughed. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time to rest now.” She turned to her son, smiling as he waited to embrace her. “ Jarrod! It’s so good to see you.”

“Hello, Mother,” Jarrod came forward to give her a kiss of welcome. Victoria hugged him tightly, noticing when she released him that Jarrod didn’t look quite as well pressed as usual either. His blue trousers were wrinkled as if one or both of the children had spent part of the train ride on his lap. Relief was evident in his voice as well. “That was the longest train ride I’ve ever been on. I kept wondering if we shouldn’t have stayed home.”

“I’m glad you didn’t.”

Jenny, standing by her grandmother, tapping her toe impatiently had taken all of this chatting she could stand. Arms folded over her chest, she sighed loud enough to draw the attention of the grownups. “Grammie! You forgots to say hello to Nicky.”

“So I did,” Victoria reached out for her grandson peeking from behind the peach skirt of Louisa’s dress. “Nicky! Come give Grammie a kiss.”

“No wanna.”

Victoria’s arm ached to hold her grandson. The older he got, the more he resembled Jarrod at that age. Like Jenny, he had his father’s blue eyes, serious expression and masses of dark hair that curled in little ringlets around his face. Louisa often joked that he was too “pretty” to be a boy.

Bending down to coax him from his safe haven, Victoria smiled in delight at the picture he made in his little blue suit with the short pants. He had a freshly skinned place on one of his knobby knees and held, as always, a stuffed blue spotted pig Louisa made him. A pig he called, much to his aunt’s distress and for reasons entirely his own, “Daudra.”

“Come give Grammie a kiss, Nicky.”

Nicky shook his head violently, refusing to give up his tight fisted hold on Louisa’s skirt. At three he had bouts of shyness or gregariousness according to his moods. Having not seen Victoria since Christmas....six months past..Nicky couldn’t remember if he knew her or not. Everyone tried cajoling him to say hello, but Nicky held on. He could be as tenacious as the uncle he’d been named after. It wasn’t until Nick picked him up, tossed him in the air a few times that Nicky decided Victoria might be a friend after all. After Heath and Audra came rushing out of the house to add their own greetings, Nicky planted a few slobbery kisses on everyone. By the time they got the baggage unloaded, Heath doing most of the work and muttering half hearted imprecations under his breath about, “boy howdy, how some folks got all the work while other folks got all the fun,” Nicky was planted firmly on his Grandmother’s lap in the parlor. He hugged her neck until she couldn’t breath then held up five fingers to tell her he was “free.”

“He can’t count yet,” Jenny told Nick as she snuggled on his lap.

“Tan so.”

“You can’t!” Jenny contradicted. “But I can, Uncle Nick. Wanna hear me count to one hundred?”

Alarmed, Jarrod and Louisa both shouted at once, “Not again, Jenny!”

Victoria hid a quick smile behind Nicky’s head at her son and daughter in law. A second before, they’d both been sitting on the sofa in limp relief looking as if they’d like nothing better than a nap. Now they sat on the edge of the seat, tensed by Jenny’s question. Jarrod rubbing his forehead as if he already had a pounding headache, Louisa’s blue eyes pained and her brow wrinkled in distress.

“It’s the hardest thing I know how to do,” Jenny’s voice quavered, hurt by her parents refusal to let her show off. “An Uncle Nick never heard me do it.”

“Why don’t you count for us later, Jenny?” Victoria suggested, deftly handling the situation. “I’m sure you’re all starving and Silas has made a wonderful lunch.”

Thankfully, that met with everyone’s approval. Especially, Victoria noted, Jarrod’s. As Jenny and Nicky raced away to be the first in the dining room, followed by their equally loud and laughing Uncle Nick, Jarrod whispered. “If she counts to 100 again, I think I’ll go out of my mind.” Hearing a minor skirmish over who was to sit where, he hurried into the dining room to command order.

Victoria laughed knowing exactly how he felt. Tom had once taught Jarrod the preamble to the Constitution. She threaded her arm though Louisa’s, squeezing another welcome. “You look as if you could use some rest. After lunch why don’t you lie down. I’ll keep an eye on the children.”

“That would be heavenly,” Louisa murmured agreement. “I don’t think I sat down the entire trip. When I did, Jenny began to count. She always has to stop at 47 because she goes from 46 to 48. Then she has to begin over again. And, of course, Nicky lost “Daudra” three times. Poor Jarrod,” she chuckled at the memory, “he had to get down on his hands and knees in the dining car while Nicky howled. It wouldn’t have so bad except Senator Anniston, who has never had children, watched the whole comedy with a confused look on hi s face. When he asked what Jarrod was looking for, what could he say? I’m looking for my son’s pig.”

“Oh, no!” Victoria put a hand to her mouth to stifle the laughter at the picture of her elegant son looking for a rather dilapidated stuffed pig with a twisted tail.

“Oh, yes. Jarrod was very philosophical about it all though. He said he supposed men’s reputations had been lost over worse things than a stuffed pig.”

Laughing, they reached the dining room door. Victoria looked in satisfaction at the noisy crowd. Her sons, Audra, the grandchildren and her daughter in law. How full and happy the table seemed. “I’m so glad you’ve come,” she squeezed Louisa’s arm again, “I’ve been hoping you could. This holiday has given us the perfect excuse.”

“I for one shall be glad when this holiday is over,” Louisa answered. “Nicky and Jenny have talked of nothing for weeks except coming here for the 4th of July celebration. Whatever fireworks Nick has planned will be anticlimactic compared to their grandiose ideas. They’re both about to explode from excitement.”

“Nicky!” Jarrod’s shout ended the conversation abruptly, “Get your hand out of the butter!”



“Nicky, wake up!”

The next morning, Jenny hung over her brother’s crib in the nursery, prodding at his closed eyelids. “Wake up!”

Opening one sleepy blue eye, Nicky squinted at her from the bars of what Sissy called his jail. Nicky knew when his Mama said, “Do you want to sit in your crib awhile, Nicky?” he had been very naughty. If Mama or Pappy put him in the crib, he had to wait till they let him out.

At three he was too big to be sleeping in a crib but the adults in the house were loath to give it up. Trying to climb out the summer before, Nicky had taken a tumble and cut his head. This traumatic event, plus the arrival of Dr. Merar to take a few stitches, sealed Nicky’s fate. He was too scared to climb out again. A fact the grown ups used shamelessly to their own advantage. It was the one place in the house where they knew he’d have to stay put.

“Come on, get up! I heard Uncle Heath already up. If we get up afore Mama and Daddy, we can go with him an’ Uncle Nick.”

“Uncle Heaf,” Nicky murmured sleepily, “Otay.”

It took a few minutes of badgering before Nicky sat up and began to rub his eyes. Jenny left him yawning while she went in search of her next victim. Using both hands, she opened the nursery door and peeked out into the hall. In the pearl gray light of early morning, she waited until a door at the end of the hall opened before rushing out to grab her next prey.

“Uncle Nick! Uncle Nick!” Jenny whispered, bare feet pattering toward her uncle. She grabbed tight hold of one leg, wrapping herself around him to prevent his stride toward breakfast. Looking up at him with adoration, she begged, “Take us with you, please.”

Nick leaned down, smiling broadly at his niece in her white nightgown a rosy blush of sleep still on her cheeks. “How am I gonna get any work done if I take you two scallywags along?”

“Me an’ Nicky wanna go with you. We wanna be working ranchers too.” Jenny used her most pleading expression., one that caused Nick’s heart to melt on the spot. As if he intended to refuse her. He’d been counting the days until this visit. “Please, Uncle Nick. Take us for Mama wakes up an’ says we can’t go.”

Nick put a finger to his lips. Picking her up, he did an exaggerated tiptoe back into the nursery. Jenny pressed her face against his chest in silent giggles, letting a few escape when he dumped her back on her bed.

“Untul Nick, Untul Nick,” Nicky stood up arms upheld to be released from his prison. When Nick picked him up, Nicky grinned.

“Hey, cowboy, you wanna be a working rancher too?”

“Es.” Nicky agreed snuggling against Nick’s neck. Even though he felt a little damp, those small arms hugging Nick felt mighty good. He blinked sleepily up at Nick. “Beakfust?”

“You betcha.”

With Jenny’s help, Nick gathered up enough little duds to get them dressed. Between, him, Heath and Silas they ought to be able to figure out how to get them clothed.

“You two be quiet now,” he admonished opening the nursery door stealthily. Jenny nodded, putting a finger to her lips. Nicky, held tight in his uncle’s arms, began to chuckle. Loudly.
Nick and Jenny shushed him frantically with head shaking and finger wagging. “Quiet!” Nick hissed.

Nicky sobered at Nick’s stern look, bottom lip quivering, eyes filling with tears.

“You better not cry,” Jenny warned in a dire whisper, “or you can’t ride the horses with us ranchers.”

Nick, didn’t need to see lightening to know a storm was brewing. He stopped the thunderstorm on Nicky’s face by grabbing Jenny’s hand and hurrying along the hall toward the stairs.

“Hang on, cowboy,” Nick told the tearful little boy, “if those aren’t Silas’ hot cakes I smell, I’ll eat my hat.”

Nicky cheered at once at the mention of food. As Jenny began jumping from step to step . Nick put his nephew down to follow her. Reflecting as he held the small hand, kids were a lot like cows. Once you started them moving in the right direction, they’d follow you anywhere. Especially if they smelled grub.



“Where are the children?” Louisa asked Jarrod and Victoria as she entered the sunny dining room expecting to find them eating breakfast.

“Silas told me they went off for the day with Nick and Heath,” Victoria answered from her place at the head of the table. “He said they left after breakfast. Nick left instructions that we were not to worry.”

“Oh, dear,” Louisa worried anyway as she took a plate from the sideboard. “Do you think we should go try to find them, Jarrod. There’s no telling how much mischief those two can get into. Nick and Heath might not be up to the challenge.”

Jarrod, sitting behind the Stockton Eagle, a cup of coffee in his hand, murmured, “Don’t question it. Just be glad of the respite from hearing Jenny count to one hundred. Or having to find a misplaced Daudra seven or eight times.”

Louisa frowned at her husband but wisely kept her mouth shut. Reminding him that he had taught Jenny to count to one hundred would be too cruel. Especially before he’d finished his coffee. Filling her plate with Silas’ famous hot cakes and link sausages, she sat down feeling guilty. Jenny and Nicky always made such a mess eating hot cakes and maple syrup. They usually managed to get it all over everything from the floor to their hair. She wondered just who had fed and cleaned up her children. The idea of Nick or Heath doing a proper job of it concerned her. A few bites of the hot cakes wiped away any qualms, cheering her up immensely. Whoever it was, it hadn’t been her. What a wonderful beginning to this holiday!
Still...Jenny and Nicky were her responsibility...

“Jarrod, do you think the children will be alright with Nick and Heath?” Louise failed to keep the anxiety out of her voice. “They can get into so much mischief.”

“I’m sure they won’t get into too much trouble,” Jarrod replied from behind the paper, “if they do, I’m sure Jenny and Nicky will straighten them out.”

Part 2

The “working ranchers” had spent most of that morning not working. On the pretense of riding fence, Nicky and Jenny were given a most satisfying early morning ride. A ride that would have turned Louisa’s face as white as the clouds that billowed in the blue sky above. The sight of her children would have given her more cause for alarm. Both of them still had sticky stains of maple syrup down their arms from breakfast. Nicky an ample amount in his hair. Jenny’s curls were a tangled mess, her dress liberally decorated with grass stains. Twice Nicky bumped his nose on Charger’s saddle horn, causing a torrent of blood to drip down his once clean blue shirt. Heath hoped they could get him into something else before Louisa caught a glimpse of him. Jarrod’s wife might look sweet and shy, but boy howdy, she could sure burn your ears off when she got riled. For some reason, whenever he and Nick took care of the children, Louisa found ample cause to be riled. If she saw Nicky’s blood stained shirt, they’d be in for a tongue lashing.

About mid-morning, Nick and Heath decided to check on a cow that had been caught on barbed wire earlier in the week. While they were studying how well the wound healed, Nicky wandered too close to an appealing little calf frisking around in the grass. His tortured screams sent both harried uncles rushing to his side, shouting questions at a disgusted Jenny standing beside him arms crossed over her chest.

“What happened?” Nick shouted. “Is he hurt?”

Jenny sneered at her brother, having no sympathy for his tears. “The calf licked him is all. Nicky don’t like cow slobber. He’s a baby.” She leaned toward Nicky, distaste plain on her wind chapped face, “If you’re gonna be a rancher, you can’t be afraid of cow spit.”

Before Heath could intervene, Nicky hauled off and shoved Jenny to the ground. Acting quickly, Nick grabbed his nephew around the waist and kept the angry, wriggling little boy from hitting her. Then they had to comfort Jenny. She discovered on standing up that she’d not only been shoved down but sat in a fresh cow pat on the way. With Jenny bawling and Nicky’s outraged screams, it was Heath who suggested now might be a good time to ride into Stockton to pick up the fireworks they’d ordered for the 4th. An idea that silenced both children. Instantly.

“Fireworks?” Jenny sniffed a few stray tears away, wiping her nose on the skirt of her green dress. “The big boom boom ones? Like Roman candles and Catherine Wheels and firecrackers?”

“You bet,” Heath assured her, “we got the biggest, loudest fireworks we could order. All the way from San Francisco. We can go back to the ranch for a wagon an’ ride on to Stockton.”

“Now how are we gonna take her into Stockton in that dress?” Nick asked in a surly tone, still only too aware that she’d just wiped her nose right where his pant leg would touch her skirt. Since Jenny shared his saddle, he wasn’t too keen on having it smell like manure either. A man could only stand so much. “If we take her back to the ranch, smelling like manure, Louisa’s not gonna let her go.”

Heath puzzled that awhile before coming up with a solution. Jenny was only too happy to take off the offensive dress and cavort around in her petticoat and chemise. Having been given the job of washing out the dress in a creek, Nick wasn’t as glad. Still, he admitted gruffly to himself, it was better than having Heath’s job. Keeping a shrieking Nicky away from the determined little calf who cavorted nearer and nearer taunting him.

Once Nick had the dress as clean as he could get it, he tied the sleeves to a stick. Jenny held the stick like a flag so the dress could dry as they rode back to the ranch. If their luck held, they could sneak past Louisa without her knowing about the cow pat fiasco. Seeing her daughter riding Coco in her under clothes would not fit Louisa’s idea of “proper” behavior for little girls.

“It still smells kind of barny, Uncle Nick,” Jenny complained as he lifted her on Coco’s back. Mounting up behind her, Nick grunted, thoroughly tired of the dress problem. Cows sure were a lot less trouble than kids. “If Mama smells it, she’s not gonna let me go nowhere with you an’ Uncle Heath. She’s gonna say what she always tells Daddy.”

“What’s that?” Nick asked.

“That you and Heath are bad sinfluences.”

“If it’s not better by the time we get to the ranch to pick up a wagon, Heath can go in the house and get you another one.” Nick tried to keep the grin out of his voice. He didn’t dare look over at Heath, the other bad influence, just then. Jenny hated to be laughed at.

Jenny nodded at this arrangement. “We better not let Mama know though. I don’t think she’d like me riding horses in my nunmentionbles and sitting in cow pats.”

Across the children’s head, Nick and Heath did exchange glances, both of them rolling their eyes. No way did they want to explain ANY of their morning outing to Mrs. Jarrod Barkley. She could out Pappy, Pappy any day of the week. You never knew what simple thing might cause her to explode. Telling Louisa might bring on the fireworks early.

“Boom boom,” Nick said.

Heath agreed, “Boy howdy, you know it.”

Thankfully, the sneaky foursome managed to slip in and out of the ranch with no one the wiser. Nick kept the children with him in the barn, “helping” to hitch up a wagon. Heath snuck in the house to get Jenny a clean dress. He made sure he hid the green dress, still smelling faintly of manure, in the wood box as he passed through the kitchen. If he found the dress, Silas could be counted on not to tell secrets. Grabbing up the first little dress he saw, a pale blue, Heath prowled down the stairs and made a run for the barn. On the way, he saw he needn’t have worried about being caught.

“I just saw Mother, Audra and Louisa sitting out in the rose garden,” he told Nick and the children later as he slipped the dress over Jenny’s head. “Don’t drive past that way, Nick.”

Nick nodded. When they were all settled in the wagon, he pulled off the brake, slapped the reins to start the team and edged the wagon out of the barn. Careful to avoid going near the women they could hear chattering and laughing among the colorful roses. As he drove along, Nick wiped the sweat from his forehead with a kerchief. Minding kids sure was more work than he’d expected.

The trip into Stockton included only a few mishaps. As they were loading the crates of fireworks into the wagon, Nick stepped back on Jenny’s foot. She screamed in pain and fury, turning the heads of several citizens. Quieting only after Nick promised to buy her a handful of peppermint sticks. Then Nicky had to have a “tepper tick” too. He’d taken two licks when he tripped and broke it all over the boardwalk walking to the wagon. Nick wished desperately for a quick beer but couldn’t get Heath to agree to being left alone with the baby Barkleys. In fact, Heath obstinately refused to be left with two sticky, weepy children and told Nick so in no uncertain terms.

Once they got the fireworks loaded into the wagon, seven large wooden crates, life got a little happier. Jenny sat on the wagon seat between her two uncles, happy as a cow at a salt lick, singing and eating peppermint sticks. Nicky stood between Nick’s knees “driving” the team with Nick’s hands over his. After promising not to tell their Mother, Heath gave in to Jenny’s repeated demands to sing the song with “gin” in it. He did. Four times. Nick, having come under Louisa’s wrath more often than Heath, finally suggested they sing something else. They were riding along, singing merrily, “Oh, Susanna,” when Jenny decided she couldn’t wait a second longer to see some fireworks.

“Uncle Nick, please light some firecrackers.” She begged, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. “I just can’t wait for the 4th of July.”

“Maybe later.”

“Please, Uncle Nick, please can’t you light some now? “ Jenny looked up at him imploring with those big blue eyes. “Just a few?”

Nick couldn’t deny her anything when she looked at him like that. “Well, maybe just a few. Whoa.” He stopped the team, pulled on the brake and handed the reins over to Heath. Climbing into the back of the wagon, he pried one of the crates open and pulled out a string of firecrackers. “You hold the team, Heath. Nicky you stay here.”

Nick jumped out of the wagon, held out his hands for Jenny to jump into and sat her on the ground.” C’mon, Jenny, we’ll take them off away and light them so we don’t spook the horses.”“ They walked a short distance away, Nick cautioning Jenny not to come too close. He struck a match, lit the string of firecrackers and tossed them toward a bare spot of ground.

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

The sharp scent of gunpowder filled the air as tiny puffs of dark smoke sailed to the sky.
Jenny squealed in delight, jumping up and down. On the wagon, Nicky held his hands over his ears after the first pop and squeezed his eyes tight. “More, Uncle Nick! Light more!”

“No!”
Jarrod’s voice roared as he rode up, dismounting from Windsong. Angrier than Nick or Heath had ever seen him. “Just what do you think you’re doing, Nick?” He grabbed Jenny by the wrist pulling her away from Nick. Twisting her backwards and forwards, Jarrod checked her over for any injuries. Jenny’s face fell from joy to fright, unsure why Daddy was so mad. Standing in the wagon, Nicky also reacted to his Daddy’s shouting by sticking a thumb in his mouth and pulling on “Daudra’s” bedraggled ear. Heath wisely kept his mouth shut holding his trembling nephew. Boy howdy, sure could tell Jarrod had been around Louisa too much. All riled up over a few firecrackers.

“Lighting a few firecrackers for the kids.” Nick scowled at his brother, irritated at Jarrod’s accusing tone and pompous attitude, “I was careful.”

“I don’t care how careful you were! Don’t you read the papers? Fireworks are dangerous. People get maimed or killed if they aren’t...”

Nick, bristled at the lecture, cut him off, “Aw..don’t get so excited! Jenny wasn’t standing anywhere near enough to get hurt.”

“She was standing too close! If you were stupid enough to light them, you should have made her stay in the wagon.” He turned his ire on Jenny, “Don’t you ever stand that close to a lit firecracker again, you hear me?”

“Yes, Daddy,” Jenny answered meekly, lip trembling at Jarrod’s stern face. Unsure about exactly what she’d done to make Daddy so angry.

“Aw, Pappy, ease up. It wasn’t her fault.” Nick tried to take up for his woebegone little niece. “It wasn’t like I let her touch them or anything dangerous.”

Jarrod’s jaw clenched, “Nick, so help me..you better not ever let her touch them. And you,” he focused his attention on Jenny again holding her wrist tighter and shaking her a little to get his point across, “you are never, ever to touch any of those fireworks! Do you understand me, Jennifer.”

When Daddy used her big name, he meant she better mind or else. Jenny’d had enough of the “or else’s” to know she didn’t want more. In a timid little voice, she said, “Yes, Daddy.”

Jarrod wasn’t quite finished scolding, much to Nick’s disgust. “I mean it now, Jenny. If I ever find out you’ve been touching them, you’ll be severely punished. Fireworks are dangerous, they aren’t playthings. You can watch them when Nick or Heath set them off but you aren’t to go near them again.”

Biting her lower lip, Jenny thought she might cry. She had the meanest Daddy in the whole world. Always wanting to spoil all her fun. She was glad when he let her go. Jenny rubbed her wrist blinking back tears. Daddy stopped yelling at her and Uncle Nick turning his attention to Nicky standing in the wagon with Uncle Heath. He stomped over to the wagon, staring up at Nicky.

“Nicky, is that blood on your shirt? What happened to him, Heath?”

“Now, Jarrod,” Heath drawled, hoping to calm his irate brother, “he just got a little nose bleed.”

Jarrod grunted annoyed at both his brother’s and their inept care of his children. “Don’t let Louisa see that shirt. What’s that all over his mouth?”

“Tandy.”

“Candy.” Jarrod’s eyebrow rose up quizzically as he looked at Heath. Heath reddened a little, looking off in the distance to avoid meeting the accusations in Jarrod’s eyes. Feeling like he use to when he’d got caught with his hand in his Mama’s cookie jar. “How much candy did you eat?”

Nick entered the fray taking up for his nephew, “He ate one piece! It won’t kill him.”

Ignoring Nick’s petulant remarks, Jarrod reached up for Nicky. “I think you two have taken up enough of your uncle’s day. You’d better come back to the house. Mama is probably worried about you.”

Nicky shrank back toward Heath, shaking his head, “No wanna.” It earned him a stern glare of disapproval from his father and a warning, “Nicholas Heath, mind me now.”

“Aw, come on, Pappy,” Nick argued, “we’re takin’ good care of the kids. We’re just taking the fireworks to the shed on the hill. We’ll be back to the house for lunch.”

Jenny came up to stand beside Jarrod, asking timidly, “Please, Daddy, can’t we go with Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath. I promise not to touch any of the fireworks or be naughty. Please.”

“I think it’s time you came back to the house,” Jarrod was not moved by her pleading or the tears in his daughter’s eyes. He held out his hand for her to take, his unyielding gaze compelling her to obey.

Jenny’s lips crimped, a few tears spilled out of her eyes but she took Jarrod’s hand.

“Dontcha think, Jarrod,” Heath spoke quietly, “ Louisa might want a bit more of a rest from these two? Why don’t ya let ‘em go with us to store the fireworks? We’ll bring ‘em back to the house in one piece. They were lookin’ forward to it.”

Squeezing Jenny’s hand, Jarrod considered the wistful look in her eyes. When he’d left the house, Louisa had indeed been settling down for a nap before lunch. He’d just as soon not let her see the state of her children before someone got them cleaned up anyway. His anger at the fireworks suddenly spent, Jarrod smiled inwardly at the sight of Jenny with a sticky candy ring around her mouth, her hair in wild disarray and one of her Sunday dresses with a wide rip along the hem. Nicky looked as bad, or worse, with the blood stained shirt, what looked like candy stuck into some of his curls and Daudra smelling distinctly of manure. No, he did not want to inflict this on his wife. He’d never hear the end of it. It would confirm his wife's firmly held belief that both his brothers were bad influences.

“I don’t want her touching the fireworks, Heath,” Jarrod caved in after thinking it over. Heath could usually be depended upon to keep the children safe. “And please, one of you get Mother or Audra to clean them up before Louisa sees them.”

“Thank you, Daddy!” Jenny began to jump up and down, trying to reach his face for a kiss. Jarrod leaned over to make it easier for her. careful to avoid her sticky mouth by planting a kiss on top of her head. Nick and Heath wore wide grins as Jarrod lifted Jenny back up into the wagon. Nick gave him a forgiving clap on the back before jumping up to take the reins from Heath.

Filled with happiness, having quickly forgiven him the scolding over the fireworks, Jenny shouted out the news she most wanted to share with him about her day, “Daddy, guess what? I got to ride Coco without my dress on?”

“You did what?” Jarrod’s eyebrow shot up. He looked to Nick, pulling off the wagon brake, “do I want to hear this, Nick?”

“Long story, long story,” Nick tugged at his ear. He slapped the reins to get the team away before Jarrod could demand more of an explanation. Or change his mind about letting the children go along. Louisa wasn’t the only one who considered him and Heath bad influences. Pappy could be a regular old harridan about Jenny and Nicky.

“Whatever it was,” Jarrod shouted as they rode off, “Don’t tell her Mother. I’ll never hear the end of it.”

“Never.” Nick said to Heath.

“Boom boom,” Heath agreed.

Jenny sat in the wagon with Nicky while Heath and Nick unloaded the fireworks and stored them in a small shed. When all the crates were unloaded, Nick took a padlock and snapped the door shut to keep his inquisitive little niece and nephew from being tempted to peek inside, or any of the hands from setting off a few firecrackers under someone’s bunk. When it came to firecrackers, the men were just like kids wanting to start the fourth with a bang.

“Uncle Nick, how come you locked the door?”

Nick climbed into the wagon to sit beside Jenny. He lifted her on his knee. Knowing how much she loved stories, Nick thought of one Jarrod use to tell when they were both boys. “Well, now...I’ll tell you, Jenny. You ever hear of the firework fiends?”

“No, Uncle Nick,” Jenny whispered, staring up at him with rapt attention. Nicky, sitting next to Heath on the wagon seat, pulled his thumb from his mouth and echoed, wide eyed, “No, Untul Nick.”

Nick motioned the sturdy little boy to climb on his other knee. Heath lifted, Nicky and Daudra on Nick’s knee. Arms around the two, Nick continued with his story in a slow, spooky voice.

“You know what an earthquake is, right?” They both nodded. “Bet you don’t know what causes them, do you?”

“Course, “ Jenny answered promptly, “Mama says it’s you Uncle Nick stomping in Grammie’s house yelling and we can feel the rumbles all the way to our house.”

Heath laughed hard at the startled expression on Nick’s face. “Boy howdy, Nick, Louisa sure does have you pegged.”

“Very funny, very funny.” He curled his lip in Heath’s direction. Looking back down at Jenny and Nicky, he went on with the story, “Your Mama might be right about that but I know a different story. It’s about the firework fiends. “

Eyes wide, Jenny whispered, “Are they scary?”

“ Oh, they’re loathsome creatures, “ caught up in his tale, Nicky gazed off toward the mansion and failed to see the horror his description caused on the two eager faces staring into his, “all slimy and green with scales and ten eyes each.. They slither up out of the ground...”

Nicky’s chin wobbled. Fearfully, he stared over the side of the wagon while holding Daudra in a fierce grip. A comforting thumb popped into his mouth.

Heath seeing Jenny’s eyes grow wider and wider interrupted, “But nice..real nice folks! Right, Nick? Can’t none of ‘em help how ugly they are..but friendlier than anybody.”

“Right, right,” Nick backtracked. That’s all he needed after that run in with Jarrod over the fireworks, having Louisa accuse him of causing nightmares. “they look awful ugly but you’d never wanna meet nicer creatures. Hearts of gold, give you the shirt off their backs. They only got one problem. They steal fireworks.”

“Really?” Jenny asked eying Nick with a dubious look. “Would they steal ours?”

“They just might. You see, they live in little caves under the ground. Every so often they just get the urge to make off with someone’s fireworks. They come up, grab all they can carry and take’em down underground. Course, then they got another problem. You know what it is?”

Jenny and Nicky shook their heads in unison, they eyes never leaving Nick’s face.

“What are they gonna do with all those fireworks they steal?” Nick’s dark eyes twinkled at the round o’s of Jenny and Nicky’s mouths, waiting for him to finish. “Once they got all those fireworks, they just gotta have a big celebration. So sooner or later they set them off and you know what happens?”

Nicky took his thumb from his mouth long enough to answer succinctly, “Boom.”

Nick laughed, reaching out to ruffle Nicky’s dark curls. “Right, cowboy. Boom ! We get a big earthquake.”

“You better hope you don’t give anybody any reason to wake up in the night,” Heath warned Nick cryptically, nodding over the children’s heads. “Or there’ll be a bigger boom inside.”

Nick hugged his niece and nephew tight, “Aw, these guys are tough ranchers, they won’t have any nightmares, will ya?”

“No, Uncle Nick,” Jenny crossed her hand over her heart, “I promise. Promise, Nicky,” she instructed her wide eyed brother.

Nicky shook his head. He knew better than to make promises he couldn’t keep. Uncle Nick frowned and handed him back over to Uncle Heath. Nicky looked over that side of the wagon too, expecting to see some of those firework fiends slithering up the wheels. “Want Mama,:” he complained, “Want Pappy.”

“We best get his mind on somethin’ else, Nick,” Heath’s soft voice calmed Nicky’s fears, “If we don’t..”

“Yeah, Yeah, we get racked over the coals by Mrs. Pappy.” Nick picked up the reins, let Jenny put her hands over his and giddyuped to the horses. “We better get back to the house and get you two cleaned up before Mama sees you. Now, who wants to sing? Nicky, you got a song?”

“No.”

Seeing the perfect opportunity, Jenny turned to look into Nick’s face, “Uncle Nick, If Nicky don’t wanna sing, dontcha wanna hear me count to one hundred again?”

Nick, Heath and Nicky, having been treated to this accomplishment ten times since they left the house that morning, all shouted a firm, “NO!”

Jenny leaned back against Uncle Nick pouting. Dirty darn. .



The next afternoon, Jenny sat quietly on the veranda. Hands folded in her lap, she stared at the shed where the fireworks were stored. True to her word, Jenny slept without a nightmare but not without worrying. She worried when she went to bed, worried when Mama came to wake her next morning. The whole time she ate breakfast, went to visit some neighbors with Grammie and played tea party in the playhouse with Aunt Audra, she couldn’t stop thinking about the firework fiends. Maybe right now, right this second, they were stealing all the fireworks for the party tomorrow. Maybe, when it came time for Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath to light all the big boom boom’s, they’d all be gone. Down underground into the secret caves of the firework fiends. Jenny could hardly bear thinking about how awful that would be. The 4th of July with no fireworks.

Jenny’s face puckered with concern. Somehow she just had to make sure those firework fiends didn’t steal the Barkley fireworks. But how?

Part 3

“Mama?” Jenny turned to her mother, sitting on the veranda with Grammie enjoying a gentle breeze after a morning spent in the stifling kitchen preparing food for tomorrow’s festivities, “Can Nicky and me walk up to the firework shed?”

Louisa sat a glass of iced tea down on the wrought iron table beside her before answering. “Why would you want to walk up that hill in this heat?”

“To see if the door is still locked.. “ Jenny stood up, sidled to her Mother’s side, and draped a hot arm around Louisa’s neck. “ Maybe,” Jenny hinted darkly, without admitting the truth about the firework fiends, “someone got the door unlocked and stole our fireworks?”

Louisa and Victoria shared an amused glance. “I’m not sure Daddy would want you near those fireworks, Jenny. He was quite upset with Uncle Nick for lighting those firecrackers yesterday. Daddy told me you were standing close enough to be hurt.”

“We can’t touch them or anything, Mama. Uncle Nick locked the door. Please?”

Louisa considered the idea frowning. Jarrod made it clean in no uncertain terms he didn’t want Jenny or Nicky near the fireworks again. Rarely did Louisa question his authority where the children were concerned. Still, what possible harm could it do for the children to just walk up to the shed? How much trouble could they get into with a locked door? Even with Jenny’s inventive little mind.

Victoria took up her granddaughter’s plea, “Nick assured me there’s good ventilation in the shed. Enough so that even Jarrod needn’t worry about it exploding. And Nick did put a padlock on the door.”

“Well,” Louisa bit the corner of her lip. It would keep them occupied. Lamely, she came up with another argument, “It’s so hot. Wouldn’t you rather play somewhere in the shade?”

“Please, Mama?”

“We can see them all the way from here,” Victoria added. Jenny gave her a look of appeal behind Louisa’s head, eyes begging Grammie to convince her mother. “Children never seem to feel the heat the way we do.”

“I suppose,” Louisa gave reluctant consent.. If the two of them wanted to trudge up that hill and back it might wear them out enough for a nap.. Hopefully. “You aren’t to try to unlock that door, Jenny. Make sure you keep your hat on. Make Nicky keep his on too.”

“No, Mama,” Jenny agreed. “ Yes, Mama. C’mon, Nicky.”

Nicky, who’d been quite content to sit on the shady veranda playing with Daudra, got up reluctantly. Mama had been hinting to Grammie that he needed a nap. She’d even spelled the word, N-A-P, like Nicky didn’t know what that meant. He didn’t much want to go back up that hill, not if those slimy creatures slithered up his leg but he didn’t want to go in jail either. Sighing, Nicky got up to follow Jenny.



Jenny’s legs ached by the time they’d climbed to the shed. Even with her little straw hat perched on her head, the sun beat down mercilessly making her feel damp and sticky. Her face felt like it was on fire and her curls were plastered disagreeably against the back of her neck. When they reached the shed, she was hot, tired and thoroughly disgusted with Nicky.

“If you don’t stop whining,” she shrieked, “I’m going to tell Mama you were very, very naughty and make her put you in your jail.”

“Icky not naughty, Sissy is,” Nicky sassed back, brave with Daudra in his sweaty little arms, his face flushed with the heat. “Me tell Pappy you a bad guwl.”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Jenny screamed at him, red faced. Stamping her foot she glared at Nicky until he quivered, “His name is NOT Pappy! Stop calling him that.” Oh...he just did that cause he knew how much she hated it. “You just better not tell Daddy I’m a bad girl. If you do I’ll...I’ll....” Jenny thinking about the worst thing way to threaten him, snatched Daudra from his hands. “I’ll throw Daudra off the train when we go home!”

Nicky took one look at his captive pig, opened his mouth and bawled. Big hiccupping sobs that made Jenny feel guilty for being mean to him. What if someone came along and asked Nicky why he was crying? It sure wouldn’t look good for her ,especially if Mama could see him squalling from the veranda. Quickly, Jenny shoved the pig back into Nicky’s arm. “Oh, hush up, you cry baby. I don’t know how you’re ever gonna be a rancher, Nicky.”

After looking Daudra over for injuries, Nicky sniffed a few times and looked mournfully at Jenny. Jenny stuck out her tongue, turned with a flick of her pink skirt and walked the last few feet to the shed. Jumping up, she grabbed the padlock, and pulled.

“It’s still locked, Nicky. Let’s make sure all the windows are opened just that tiny bit. We don’t want them firework fiends Uncle Nick told us about to climb inside and steal our fireworks.”

Sighing, his chubby legs quivering from the climb up the hill, Nicky trudged valiantly after Jenny as she rounded the shed. He watched the ground with a wary eye, heart thumping in fear. What if them firework fiends ate pigs like Daudra too? Maybe they were tired of fireworks.

“Nicky!” Jenny stopped so suddenly Nicky rammed into her back, “It’s a hole! A great big hole! Maybe those firework fiends already stole some of our fireworks.”

“Big hole,” he echoed.

Jenny squatted beside the hole. She stuck herself in as far as she could go. It was just big enough for her head and shoulders to fit. “Dirty darn, I’m too big to go inside. You try, Nicky.”

Obediently, Nicky fit his hands into the hole and attempted to crawl inside. He couldn’t make it on his own, but Jenny lifted his feet up and shoved. Nicky tumbled head first into the hole. Once inside, Nicky turned around and poked his head back out. “Icky in,” he announced.

Jenny worried over this predicament. How big were the firework fiends anyway? If they were big as her, they’d never fit inside the hole to steal the fireworks. But what if they were as little as Nicky? Or littler? Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath might come back here tomorrow and find every single firework gone!

It never entered Jenny’s mind to tell any of the grown ups about the hole or her worries. Instead, she sat on the ground, put her chin in her hand and tried to figure out a plan. Daddy always said if you had a problem you had to think of a plan to work it out. Jenny decided she would think of a plan so Daddy would be proud of her. Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath too. Jenny thought how happy they would be when she saved all the fireworks from the firework fiends.

“Nicky, we gotta save the fireworks from the firework fiends.”

Nicky climbed out of the shed, sat on the grass Indian style and waited for Jenny to tell him what to do. Popping a thumb in his mouth, he curled and uncurled Daudra’s tail around his finger.

“I know...we gotta move the fireworks some place else! If we hide them, the firework fiends won’t know where they are.” Jenny glared with narrowed eyes at the ground, “Betcha they already stole some of our fireworks. Betcha they’re coming back for more too..but we’ll trick them. We gotta hide the fireworks some place else. Where? Where? Where?”

Nicky took his thumb out of his mouth to suggest, “Payhouse?”

“The playhouse!” Jenny looked at her brother, admiration shining in her blue eyes. Maybe he wasn’t so dumb after all. “That’s the first good idea you ever had, Nicky. We can hide them in the playhouse.”

Jumping up, Jenny started to reach into the hole and pull out some of the fireworks. She could just reach one of the open crates. Right before her fingers curled over a Roman candle, she heard Daddy’s warning in her mind. “Dirty darn! Daddy said I couldn’t touch the fireworks. How are we gonna hide ‘em if I can’t touch them?”

“I tan?”

Jenny looked at Nicky again. “That’s right! Daddy didn’t say you couldn’t touch the fireworks did he? You can carry them to the playhouse...no...” Jenny could see the mansion from the grassy hill. If she could see the veranda, Mama and Grammie could see Nicky, carrying forbidden fireworks down to the playhouse. Even though Daddy hadn’t said Nicky shouldn’t touch them, Jenny thought Mama might not like the idea. Mama didn’t like many of Jenny’s good ideas. “We can’t just carry them down there.”

Jenny closed her eyes, thinking until her head hurt. In imitation of Jenny, Nicky squeezed his eyes tight too, peeking every few seconds to see if she had opened her eyes. Smiling from one dirty cheek to another when Jenny opened her eyes and told him she had an idea. “We gotta go get the wagon Uncle Heath made us. We’ll give Daudra and my dolly a ride and we’ll come up here and hide the fireworks under them! Then we’ll give them a ride down to the playhouse and hide the fireworks in there. Don’t you think that’s a good idea?”

“Dood idea.” Nicky agreed. “Sissy mart.”

“Let’s go get the wagon. Only, Nicky,” Jenny grabbed his chubby arm as he started to stand, upsetting Nicky’s balance so he plopped back onto the grass, “it’s gotta be a secret. We can’t tell nobody. Not till tomorrow when Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath will shoot off the boom booms. Okay?”

“Otay.”

As they started to run back down the hill, Jenny realized that even though her plan sounded good something might go wrong. If it did, she didn’t want to be punished like Daddy promised. “Nicky, this was really a good idea you had, “ she told her bewildered brother taking his hand to help him down the hill. “Remember, if Pappy asks us whose idea this was, you tell him it was yours, okay?”

“Otay,” Nicky agreed, not completely understanding, but happy to comply. If Sissy was happy with him, she wouldn’t hurt Daudra. Keeping Daudra safe from Sissy was hard work.

“Back so soon?” Louisa asked in disappointment when Jenny and Nicky returned.

“Mama, is it okay if we take Daudra and dolly for a ride? They wanna see the firework shed.”

Glad she wouldn’t have to find some other way to amuse them, Louisa gave her permission. After spending the morning baking and cooking in the hot kitchen, she wanted nothing so much as to sit limply in her chair. Once it cooled off later, she, Victoria and Audra would be hard at work again baking pies and cakes for the 4th of July picnic. “Make certain you keep your hats on.”

Following Jenny’s orders, Nicky trotted off to the barn for the wooden wagon. Jenny ran up to the nursery, grabbing a doll blanket and dolly. Victoria and Louisa, having no idea what mischief was being enacted right under their noses, smiled at the adorable picture the two made later. Jenny in her pink dress and white straw hat pulling the wagon with Nicky clad in brown overalls and cream colored shirt pushing from behind.

“Aren’t they sweet together?” Louisa murmured to her mother in law, lifting the knot of hair from her sweaty neck. Fanning her face with a hand, she cooled her crimson cheeks. “I’m glad they’re amusing themselves. Cooking for the picnic tomorrow has worn me out. Where do they get the stamina? I’m so hot I don’t want to move from this chair.”

Victoria leaned back in her chair, more tired from the 4th of July preparations that she cared to admit. “At least they play well together,” she commented in a drowsy voice, “Jarrod and Nick always seemed to be fighting at that age. Nick was usually the instigator.”

Louisa could believe that but was too polite to say. “Maybe it will rain later,” she answered instead, so drowsy in the heat it was hard to put two words together. The effort seemed too much, “I’ll have to watch that they keep their hats on. I don’t want them getting overheated.”

Up on the hill, behind the shed for their first load of fireworks, Jenny and Nicky worked as a team. Nicky, following Jenny’s orders, crawled into the hole and began to lift the firecrackers out of the open crates. Nick had opened them all as he stored them to provide more ventilation. Never dreaming how easy he made it for the two firework thieves hard at work.

Jenny obeyed Daddy to the letter, not touching a single firework. Instead, she made Nicky crawl back and forth into the hole, get what he could carry, crawl out and place them carefully into the wooden wagon. After his fourth trip through the hole, Nicky promptly sat down on the ground and refused to move.

“No wanna,” he complained. “I’m thirty.”

“Thirsty! You’re thirsty and so am I! But we gotta fill our wagon up and save the fireworks. You get up and get some more! We got lots of room in the wagon.”

Nicky thrust out his stubborn chin, glowering at his sister.

“C’mon, Nicky,” Jenny cajoled, “just a few more an’ we can go back to the house and get a drink.”

“No!”

Nicky wouldn’t budge. If she punched him, he’d cry and wouldn’t work either. Then he’d tell Mama or Daddy and Jenny would be sitting in a corner all by herself while she thought about how naughty it was to hit your brother. Glumly, Jenny sat down beside him thinking about how to solve this problem. Sitting beside Nicky on the grass, her skirt spread out across her knees gave Jenny an idea. “Nicky, how about if you hand the fireworks out to me in my skirt. I’ll hold it out, “she stood up to demonstrate holding it into a wide apron, “an’ you can drop them in. Then I’ll drop them into the wagon. And I won’t touch a one.”

Happily, Nicky agreed to that plan, crawling back into the hole for two more armfuls of fireworks before Jenny was satisfied they had gotten all they could carry. The trip downhill went faster than the climb up. Smiling and waving innocently at Louisa and Victoria on the veranda, they pulled the wagon around to the back door of the playhouse knowing they couldn’t be seen from the big house. Keeping the firework rescue a secret.

Jarrod, Nick and Heath had built the playhouse for Jenny’s third birthday. Nick had the grandiose idea of making it into a miniature Barkley mansion but Jarrod and Heath shouted him down. It became instead a simple little one story house. Not quite tall enough for a grown up to stand inside unless they bent over. Every spring, it was whitewashed along with the big house, cleaned inside and out and given new curtains by Aunt Audra.

“This was a good idea, Nicky,” Jenny praised him again, “those old firework fiends won’t think of looking in here. Let’s get them unloaded.”

When Nicky found that he had to carry all the fireworks into the playhouse too, he protested loudly. What if someone heard? Glancing around uneasily, Jenny allowed him to dump them into her skirt before scurrying into and out of the playhouse with her load. She made five trips into the playhouse before the wagon was empty.

“C’mon, Nicky, let’s go get some more.”

“No wanna.” Nicky sat down obstinately, right in the dirt and refused to budge.

Near tears, Jenny begged and coaxed promising she’d buy him lots of candy. They just had to save more fireworks from those mean, old firework fiends! Nicky kept shaking his head no. “Oh, please, please, please, Nicky. Don’t you want Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath to be proud of us?”

“No.”

“I can’t get all those fireworks without you, Nicky,” Jenny began to cry, wiping away the tears as fast as they fell, “you just gotta help me. Please.”

Reluctantly, Nicky finally agreed. “Ater I get a dwink.”

“You will? Oh, Nicky, you are the bestest brother. Let’s go get Mr. Silas to give us some nice cold milk and cookies. Then we can go get the rest of the fireworks.”

A little smug at getting his way for once, Nicky followed Jenny to the house and into the kitchen. Mr. Silas was only too happy to supply them with milk and cookies to fortify the over heated children. Before they left the kitchen, he took a cool cloth and wiped their flushed, sweaty faces and the cookie crumbs from their hands. “You two younguns best find some shade and rest this afternoon. It’s powerful hot.”

“Oh, we can’t do that, Mr. Silas,” Jenny told him as she held the door open for Nicky, “we got important work to do.”

Silas chuckled at her serious expression. That Miss Jenny, she surely was a sweet child, never given Mr. Jarrod and Mrs. Louisa a minute’s worry. Important work. Silas grinned as he went back to wiping up the milk rings from the kitchen table and sweeping cookie crumbs off into his hands. Important work.

“How many times does that make Mother?”

Victoria squinted into the sun, as she watched the two drooping little children make another trip down the hill with their wagon. “Ten, isn’t it?”

“Whatever can they find amusing about walking from the shed to the playhouse? Poor little Nicky looks ready to drop where he stands. I’m going to make them stop. They’ll get heat exhaustion in this weather.” Louisa watched the two limp toward the playhouse. “I never should have allowed them to play so long.”

Louisa stood up, blue checked dress sticking damply to her back. Walking to the end of the veranda, she called to Jenny and Nicky as they neared the playhouse. “Jenny! Nicky! I want you to stop that game now and come in the house.”

Sensing disaster, Jenny dropped the handle of the wagon by the playhouse. Leaving Nicky to plunk down beside it, too tired to take another step, she rushed up to plead for more time. There were still boxes and boxes of fireworks to save! “Please, Mama, please, can’t we play a little longer? We can’t stop now.”

Although they’d managed to empty two crates of the fireworks, Jenny panicked at the idea of not saving the others. What if the firework fiends got all of them? If all those fireworks went boom and caused an earthquake, maybe it would shake down the whole world. She had to save them!

“No, Jenny. You’re to stop playing at once. Put the wagon away and come in the house.”

“Please, Mama.”

Louisa put on her sternest face. Shocked at Jenny’s refusal to obey her first command. This had to be that Nick Barkley’s influence. Jenny spent too much time with Jarrod’s disrespectful brother. “Jennifer Barkley, I want you to come inside at once. Your face is as red as a rose. You’re drenched with sweat and you look as if you can’t walk another step. It’s too hot for you to keep tromping up that hill. If the two of you are sick on the 4th of July, Daddy will be very unhappy.”

“Oh, please, Mama,” Jenny begged treading dangerously close to her mother’s wrath. Knowing they still had one wagon full of fireworks to unload. “Could we just play in the playhouse awhile? If we stay out of the sun?”

“No!” Hands on her hips, Louisa gave Jenny a harsh frown. “Put the wagon away at once. I want you to tell Nicky to come right in. He’s going straight into a bath then down for a nap before dinner.”

“But, Mama...” Jenny started to protest. She could never move those fireworks out of the wagon without disobeying Daddy by touching them. She needed Nicky.

“Jenny, that’s enough! Do as I say!” Louisa, hot and feeling disagreeable, decided Nicky wouldn’t be the only one going down for a nap. Miss Jennifer would be joining him Grimly, Louisa decided she’d nip Nick Barkley’s influence in the bud. “You are being very naughty, Jenny. Daddy’s going to hear about this. Now go!”

Jenny’s throat ached with unshed tears. Kicking up dirt with the toes of her shoes, she scuffed back to that pesky Nicky sitting by the wagon, yawning. “Mama says come inside right now!” She told him gruffly, so desperately unhappy over this turn of events she wanted him to suffer too. “She says you’re going in jail for a nap right now.”

“No!” Nicky wailed. “No wanna!”

“You are,” Jenny told him as spiteful as she could. She felt mean inside with that dirty darn wagon full of fireworks she wasn’t allowed to touch. “And you better go right now or Daddy will make you stay there forever and ever.”

At that dire prediction, Nicky jumped up and ran sobbing his heart out toward the house. Leaving Jenny behind with one big problem.

Dirty darn. Dirty darn. Dirty darn.

She thought, for just a second, of disobeying Daddy and just shoving the fireworks into the playhouse. Wouldn’t take but a few handfuls. Wouldn’t Daddy be so proud to know she saved the fireworks from the firework fiends? Jenny didn’t know. It was hard to tell about Daddy. Once, just to be nice, she’d stacked a bunch of messy papers on his desk into one neat pile. Daddy’s face got awful red that time. Right before he roared “it took me TWO HOURS to sort those papers out!” No, Daddy was not happy then. If she touched the fireworks, would he be happy?

Jenny bit her lip, trying to decide.

“Jennifer Victoria Barkley! Come in this house at once!”

Dirty darn. Mama sure sounded angry. You-better-come-this-instant-or-else angry. “I’m putting away the wagon!” Jenny shouted back.

Frantically, she did the only thing she could think of at that second. Pulling the wagon load of fireworks away from the playhouse, she pushed it under a pine tree. The boughs of the tree spread like a skirt along the ground making a neat little hidey hole. Hurrying, worried about Mama coming to find her, Jenny grabbed up a few branches lying on the ground and threw them on top of the fireworks. If the firework fiends came searching under the pine tree, they might not see the fireworks hidden in the wagon. Jenny hoped.

“Jennifer!”

Part 4

Boom!

The 4th of July began with a bang that startled everyone in the Barkley house awake before dawn had risen. The house shook. The windows rattled and two panes in Audra’s room cracked. Jarrod and Louisa jumped out of bed with the intention of saving their children from whatever unknown disaster had occurred.

As Louisa jerked up a blue robe running for the door, Jarrod let out a groan and fell back on the bed.

“Nick!” He said his brother’s name almost like a curse. “Nick and his stupid gunpowder!”

With one arm twisted in the sleeve of her robe, Louisa let a few silent curses slip into her mind too. Drat that Nick Barkley! She’d forgotten since last 4th of July. Nick thought the only proper way to start the 4th was to toss a small handful of gunpowder on the anvil and hit it with a hammer for a rousing wake up. A belief not shared by anyone else in the mansion. Louisa heard Victoria, muttering dire threats against her second son, as she walked down the hall. Secretly pleased with the idea of Nick getting a tongue lashing from his disgruntled mother, Louisa smiled to herself. Served him right.

After that patriotic awakening, there was no hope of keeping Jenny or Nicky in bed. Hearing their excited shouting from the nursery, Louisa, yawned, stretching into her robe. Drat that Nick Barkley! She gave up the idea of crawling back into her soft, comfortable bed. Louisa left the bedroom thinking very uncharitable thoughts about her husband too. After his first startled shouts about Nick’s stupidity, Jarrod retreated back to his pillow and pulled hers over his face. For a few seconds, she thought of getting even with him by bringing Jenny and Nicky in to pounce on him. Once she opened the nursery door to her jolly, bouncing children, she gave it up as a bad idea. After all, he had taken the children swimming yesterday evening so she could finish helping Victoria with the baking.

“Mama! Mama!” Jenny jumped on her bed, nightgown and curls flying. “Happy four of July! Did you hear the big Boom booms that woke us up?”

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” Nicky squealed from the crib bounding up and down like his sister.

“Happy 4th of July to you too, Jenny,” Louisa smiled as Jenny began to sing sweetly, “The Star Spangled Banner” mangling the words. “Isn’t it exciting to think we’re all here to celebrate America’s 100th birthday?”

“Mama,” Jenny plopped down on the bed, a questioning look in her eyes, “Is Grammie as old as America?”

“Oh, no, Jenny. Grammie isn’t that old yet.”

“Is Daddy?”

Louisa could tell it was going to be a long day. “No, although I’m sure some days he feels as if he’s that old.”

“Is Uncle Nick..”

“Jenny, no one in this house is 100 years old.” Louisa stopped her daughter before she could list every person and animal on the ranch.

“Oh.” Hopping off the bed, Jenny grabbed her mother’s robe. “Can we get dressed in our dress up clothes now, Mama?” Jenny cast a longing look at her new white dimity dress hanging from the wardrobe. Squeezing herself in delight, she couldn’t wait for Mama to dress her and tie the red, white and blue braided sash into a big bow. Jenny loved big bows.

“Not just yet,” Louisa lifted Nicky out of his crib. “Later, when it’s time for the barbecue. Right now we’ll just put on old clothes. We have to help Grandmother get this house all ready for our guests this afternoon.”

Louisa began to dress Nicky, hindered by his excitement over the “cracker fires” “Boom, boom, Mama! Cracker fires go boom, boom!”

“Firecrackers!” Jenny corrected with a haughty air.

“Cracker fires!” Nicky contradicted with a sullen pout, making sure he had tight hold of Daudra.

“That’s enough,” Louisa stopped the bickering with a firm command. “Jenny, get dressed. Nicky, hold still! As soon as you’re dressed, you can run downstairs and Mr. Silas will give you breakfast.”

Nicky grinned happily. “Mr. Silwus, my fwiend. He Daudra’s fwiend too.”

“I know. You are the best of friends because Mr. Silas always has time to fix Daudra’s boo boos.” She smiled at her son, planting a kiss on his dark curls. Silas spoiled both children outrageously, Louisa thought, but he had a special place in his heart for Nicky. An admiration Nicky shared.

Jenny backed up to her mother to have the buttons on her dress done up. “Mama,” she made the discovery while Louisa deftly buttoned her green print dress. “I can count how old America is! I can count to 100! Want to hear me, Mama?”

Louisa felt a tightness behind her forehead. It was going to be a long day. On second thought, why should Jarrod lie abed while she dressed and fed his children?

“Jenny,” she suggested, overriding a twinge of guilt, “why don’t you go wake Daddy? Tell him you can count how old America is today. He hasn’t heard you count to 100 in days.”



Stockton had gone all out for the celebration of America’s 100th birthday. According to Nick’s description, there would be plenty of “speechifying, horse racing and free lemonade.” Some of the men on the ranch, including a beleaguered Jarrod, mounted up and headed for town as soon as breakfast was over. Louisa having her suspicions about how much celebrating Jarrod would do. If she knew her husband, he’d lock himself in his Stockton office and stretch out on the settee for a nap.

The Barkley women stayed behind to finish preparations for another of Nick’s grandiose ideas. Earlier in the year, he’d talked the rest of the family into planning a barbecue picnic, dance and firework display for all their neighbors. It would be held in the afternoon and evening so no one had to miss Stockton’s celebration. Nick, Heath and several hands stayed behind to finish hanging the red, white and blue bunting that festooned the house and fences. Pits had been dug to roast the hogs. Fires were built, ready to light. A “floor” of wood planks had been laid in a meadow, lanterns hung and a small bandstand erected for the musicians for tonight’s dance. Nick darted from one chore to another to make sure everything went as planned for the festivities.

As Louisa suspected, she had a hard time controlling her exuberant children. Everywhere she turned they were either underfoot or snitching bites of food from the groaning kitchen and dining room tables. They jumped and hopped and darted from place to place as if they had firecrackers stuffed in their shoes. As neighboring women began to arrive with their contributions to the feast, Jenny and Nicky became a welcoming and tasting committee of two. Louisa’s face wore a haggard expression as she shooed them away from another layer cake. The only thing she could find to be glad about that morning was Silas’s deft handling of Nicky. He’d persuaded the little boy to settle Daudra in his crib with an oatmeal cookie.

“If I had to search for that pig today,” Louisa confided to Victoria as they chopped eggs for potato salad, “I’d throw her in the roasting pit myself. After I found her.”

Once the men began to drift back from town, the children settled down happily, Louisa hoped, watching a horseshoe game between Heath and Duke. Up to her elbows in mixing potato salad, Louisa left the two in the capable hands of Brice Adams, one of the hands who stood cheering on the horseshoe players. He had five children of his own and could be depended upon to keep an eye on her two. Jarrod hadn’t returned from town yet, a fact that miffed her no end.

Jenny hadn’t given much thought to the wagon load of fireworks since the day before. It wasn’t until later that day, seeing a furtive Nicky crawling from under the pine tree, that she remembered. Her eyes narrowed as she noticed a suspicious bulge in the back pocket of Nicky’s little gray pants. Rounding on him, Jenny grabbed his arm.

“Nicholas Heath Barkley! What are you hiding in your pocket?”

“Nuffin.” Nicky clamped both hands over his pocket, edging away from her.

“You got firecrackers, don’t you? I’m gonna tell Mama on you. You’ll have to go in your jail.”

Nicky threatened back, “Me tell Pappy you a bad guwl.”

“You better not!” Jenny hissed, unsure about what to do. Biting the edge of her lip, she folded her arms over her chest. He just might tell Daddy everything. “What are you doing with those anyway? You can’t light them.”

“Me give cracker fires to Mr. Silas.”

“You can’t! You’ll get us in trouble! He’ll ask where you got them.”

Nicky shook his stubborn head, stepping faster and faster away from Jenny. “Me hide the cracker fires. It be a prise.”

“Nicky...” Jenny started after him in hot pursuit. If he ran in that kitchen full of women to hide those fire crackers, they’d be in big, big trouble. “Nicky, stop!”

Lips pursed in determination, Nicky dodged the men in the yard and ran as fast as his plump legs would carry him. Jenny saw right away she wouldn’t be able to catch him. Daddy would be angry. Daddy would be very, very, very angry when he saw Nicky with those firecrackers. Mama would be angry too. Feeling lower than the bottom of a well, Jenny dropped down on the veranda waiting for the sky to fall. She buried her face in her lap waiting for one or both of her parents to come looking for her.

“Sissy? Wanna tookie?”

In the middle of her doldrums, Jenny lifted her head to see that pesky Nicky sitting beside her holding out an oatmeal cookie. “Nicky! Didn’t Mama or Daddy see you with those firecrackers?”

Nicky shook his head. “Mama tooking. Pappy not home. Me hide."

“Where? Tell me where?” If she could find them, she could make him take them back to the playhouse. “If we put them back right now, we won’t get in trouble.”

“No!” Nicky could be downright stubborn when he wanted to be. “Those Mr. Silas cracker fires.”

Jenny glared at him with the meanest face she could make, squinching her eyes into hard slits. “If you don’t tell me, I’m gonna go get Daudra and..”

“No!” Not waiting to hear Daudra’s fate, Nicky jumped up and darted off toward the playhouse. Halfway there, Jenny hot on his heels, he tripped over a tree root. Nicky sprawled on the ground, oatmeal cookies flying from his hand. Tears of pain filled his eyes as he sat up, rubbing a freshly skinned place on his knee. It hurted. Jenny came running up behind him. Panting hard from the chase, she reached down to help him up. Nicky shrugged off her help. “Do away.”

“Nicky, you gotta tell me where you hid those fire crackers.”

“No wanna.” Rubbing the tears from his eyes, Nicky noticed a lit cigar lying on the ground. Tossed carelessly away by one of the hands. Hoping to get Jenny’s attention away from Mr. Silas’ cracker fires, Nicky stood up and picked up the cigar. “Look, Sissy, me moke.”

In disgust, Jenny watched Nicky pick the cigar off the ground. “Toss that nasty thing away! Daddy don’t let you touch his cigars, specially not the lighted ones.”

“Otay.” Nicky obeyed. Maybe if he did what Sissy said, she’d forget about hurting Daudra. Standing up, he lifted his arm high and threw the cigar away. Jenny watched to see where it would land, eyes growing wider and wider in horror as the cigar fell in a graceful arch through the branches of that convenient pine tree right onto the wagon load of fireworks she’d hidden Oh, no. Dirty darn. Dirty darn. Covering her mouth with both hands, Jenny waited as Nicky looked at her his eyes puckered quizzically. Maybe it wouldn’t light the fireworks. Maybe they wouldn’t start to explode. Maybe... Oh, dirty, dirty darn.

A tendril of smoke curled up from the pine branches she’d used to cover the fireworks. Fearfully, shoulders hunched up to her ears, hands clenched into fists, Jenny waited for the first explosion.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

The men around the horseshoe game responded with jokes, loud guffaws. None of them noticed the rising flames as the pine branches, tinder dry from a drought, began to catch fire igniting another string of firecrackers. Pop! Pop! Everyone expected bursts of fireworks on the 4th of July.

It wasn’t until Uncle Heath smelled the smoke, turned and saw flames shooting from under the pine tree that the first shout went out. “Fire!”

As one, the men snapped into motion. Duke ran for the water trough, snatching up a bucket and filling it with water. Uncle Heath ran toward the fire. Seeing the wagon under the tree he grabbed the handle, thinking to pull it clear. He yanked it away from the tree as it’s lower branches began to smolder. Duke tossed the first water on the tree as several man ran up with wet feed sacks and began beating out small darts of flame that leapt to the tinder dry branches on the ground. All of them imagining that the innocent little wagon could wait.

The first Roman candle ignited, whizzing past Heath’s head as he shouted orders to the men filling the buckets. He ducked and hit the ground as it sailed in a perfect arch of sparks toward the bunkhouse. Brice and Chuck grabbed more feed sacks, doused them in the water trough and ran to slap them against the side of the building. Getting up on his hands and knees, Heath went down as if he’d been shot when another Roman candle sailed out of the wagon. Sparks flying and sizzling, it smashed through the playhouse window.

Jenny, mouth agape, couldn’t move. Beside her, Nicky began jumping up and down clapping his hands. “Boom! Boom! Look Sissy, boom, booms!”

“Nicky,” she shook her head in startled disbelief, “Look what you did.” There was a scared sick feeling in Jenny’s stomach. This was not good. The fireworks were not suppose to shoot off now. Not until Uncle Heath and Uncle Nick went to the shed and saw the firework fiends had stolen all the other ones.

“Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!” Dancing up and down, enjoying the show, Nicky paid not the slightest bit of attention.

“What the devil is going on?” Uncle Nick roared running up from where he’d been overseeing the action at the barbecue pit. "Who lit those fireworks?"

No one answered, all the men being too busy rushing to fill buckets to toss through the playhouse windows where smoke wafted out. Nick yanked a bucket from Duke’s hands, filled it and ran for the playhouse door. Kicking in the door, he started to go inside just as a Catherine Wheel, whizzing, sparking and spinning out of control came rushing out. Startled, Nick tripped backward. He danced from side to side trying to regain his balance. Just when Jenny thought he wouldn’t fall, he did. Dropping back into the horse trough with a mighty splash that send water flying out far and wide.

“Boom! Boom!” Nicky shouted adding to the crazed frenzy of the men rushing to and fro. “Untul Nick went boom, boom!”

Heath grabbed for Nick’s hand, pulling him dripping out of the water. Through the open door of the playhouse the firecrackers filled the air with rapid popping. Sounding like the staccato retorts of gunfire. A Roman candle crashed through the roof sending a new shower of sparks toward the corral. The inside of the playhouse erupted in a thunderous boom, louder than the gunpowder hitting the anvil that morning.

The sound brought the Barkley women and Silas running from the kitchen. Before their eyes, they saw the playhouse in flames; Roman candles and Catherine wheels coming through every opening. The frantic popping of fireworks, their sulfur scent and haze of smoke filled the air. Louisa stood on the veranda, hand over her mouth at Jenny and Nicky standing in the midst of the rushing, roaring frantic crowd of men. Too frozen by the unbelievable sight to rescue them.

“What the devil is going on?” Jarrod, riding up in front of the house, added his voice to the men screaming orders as they ran from spark to spark. “Jenny! Nicky! Get out of there!”

Dismounting, Jarrod raced to his children through the eye stinging smoke and haze. He picked a child up under each arm and ran with them to the veranda. “Take them inside!” He ordered, shoving the children toward Louisa.

“What’s happening?” Louisa finally found her voice, hands clutching a child by each shoulder. Protecting them from she knew not what.

“I don’t know!” Jarrod shouted sprinting toward the horse trough. One of the men handed him a feed sack. He began beating out a smoldering Catherine Wheel by the playhouse wall.

“Mama! Mama!” Nicky pulled on her hand. Eyes wild with excitement, he explained, “Payhouse go boom boom!”

“The playhouse?” Chocking smoke saturated the air. It was difficult to see where the fire was still coming from. Louisa strained her burning eyes until she could see the flames shooting from the playhouse. “How on earth did the playhouse catch fire?”

Victoria, standing beside her daughter in law, gasped as another Roman candle sailed out the playhouse window shattering the last glass pane left. “Fireworks? Were there fireworks in the playhouse? I can’t believe Nick would be so careless.”

“Es,” Nicky answered. “Wots and wots of cracker fires.”

“Be quiet, Nicky,” Jenny hissed. Nudging her brother in the side, she noticed the sudden attention of Mama and Grammie. Jenny gave them both a weak, unconvincing smile of innocence.

Louisa looked down at her daughter. “Jenny, what do you know about this?”

“Louisa, you don’t suppose...” Victoria’s question trailed off as she stared at the angelic face of her granddaughter. “Going up and down the hill? They couldn’t have? Could they?”

“About what, Mama?” Jenny smiled, crossing her fingers behind her back. Lying to your Mama was wrong. But if she didn’t tell the whole truth, that wouldn’t be a lie.

“Oh, Jenny, you couldn’t. You wouldn’t. Tell me you didn’t.” Louisa sagged against a pillar of the porch. Seeing in her daughter’s guilty face the answer but hoping she was wrong. “Yesterday, all those trips you and Nicky made up that hill. Tell Mama you didn’t bring fireworks out of that shed.”

“We didn’t,” Jenny lied obediently. That was easy. Mama didn’t even want to know the half of a truth that wasn’t a lie.

“Es, we did,” Nicky contradicted. “We put big boom booms in the payhouse!”

Louisa groaned. If Victoria hadn’t reached out a steadying hand, she would have fallen to the ground. How could they? While she watched them? Worse, what would Jarrod say? Or do? “Jennifer Victoria Barkley. How could you be such a naughty, naughty child? What is your daddy going to say?”

They didn’t have to wait long to find out. The fireworks, except for a few half hearted pops, fizzled out under the drenching water. Most of the hands, grinning in good nature, began slapping one another on the backs reliving the excitement. Heath walked around the tree and playhouse slapping a wet feed sack on scorched spots just to be safe. The only sparks left came from Jarrod and Nick who were having a heated argument over how the fireworks had gotten in the playhouse in the first place. Nick, still dripping from his trip in the horse trough, protested his innocence. When Heath backed him up, Jarrod turned his attention elsewhere. Overhearing the shouts and protests, Brice mentioned the fact that he’d seen Jenny and Nicky fooling around the firework shed the day before. He hadn’t thought of telling anyone because the shed door was locked. What trouble could kids get into if the door was locked?

With that knowledge, Jarrod strode back to the house his face a mask of raging emotions. Barely controlled fury, a healthy dose of fear and a grim determination to find the culprits responsible. Watching him coming, Jenny’s stomach twisted and her heart began to pound in fear. Daddy sure looked awful mad. Dirty darn. Hiding might be a good idea.

Part 5

“Jennifer Victoria, Nicholas Heath, come with me to the study. Now!”

Jarrod kept the anger in his voice carefully controlled for the benefit of the women assembled on the veranda. Only Louisa and Victoria, darting uh-oh looks at one another, knew the depths of Jarrod’s wrath. He grabbed a child by each hand leading them into the house. Imploring Victoria with her eyes, Louisa begged her to smooth over the situation.

A low murmur of voices surrounded Louisa as Victoria’s neighbors began to comment on the startling display they’d just witnessed. Mrs. Merar, an onion in one hand and a case knife in the other, gave a wide smile and remarked, “My! Wasn’t that a rousing show, Ladies?” Diffusing the gossip that was sure to begin, much to Louisa’s relief.

Louisa’s lips managed a tremulous smile at the doctor’s wife. Several of Audra’s friends began to giggle and snicker over the Roman candles shooting out of the playhouse. Covering cheerfully, as if exploding playhouses were an everyday event at the Barkley ranch, Mrs. Merar and Victoria led the women back to their duties in the kitchen. Louisa lifted the skirt of her blue dress and quickly followed Jarrod to the study. Determined to protect her babies if she could.

She ran into the study in time to see Jarrod lift first Jenny and then Nicky onto the desk. They sat side by side so Jarrod could meet them eye to eye. Jenny hung her head, only too aware that this was another one of those times when Daddy was not happy. Blissfully unaware that his father’s ire was about to fall, Nicky smiled a wide, toothy grin. He swung his feet over the desk edge, waiting for this new game to begin.

“Jarrod! Count to ten before you do anything!” Louisa cautioned, knowing only too well that his clenched jaw and fierce stare meant he needed to cool off before approaching the children.

He glared at his wife-- so angry she expected to see smoke coming from his ears. “If I were to count until my anger cools, I’d have to count to ten thousand!”

“Can you count that high, Daddy?” Jenny asked unwisely, glad to turn the conversation to a happier subject than the one she expected. “I can only count to one hundred.”

Jarrod silenced her with a withering look. Jenny shrank away from his hostility waiting for the shouting to begin.

“ Your Uncle Nick told me that he did not put those fireworks in the playhouse. Your Uncle Heath backs him up. Heath also told me that the fire started in a certain wooden wagon filled with fireworks. A wagon that belongs to the two of you. What I would like to know is how those fireworks got in the playhouse and the wagon?”

“Somebody put them there?” Jenny hazarded a guess, a tiny smile quivering at the corners of her lips. Wouldn’t it be nice if Daddy really didn’t know who that somebody was? If he just wanted her and Nicky to guess?

“Somebody,” Nicky echoed.

“And just who,” Jarrod asked the two in a tight voice, “would that somebody be?”

“Grammie?” Jenny guessed hopefully. “Maybe Grammie wanted to play with some firecrackers and didn’t want to walk all the way up to the shed.”

“Mr. Silas?” Nicky asked looking to Jenny for approval. “Grammie?”

Jarrod’s voice thundered so loudly, Nicky covered his ears. “It was you! You two little imps put those fireworks in the playhouse! You deliberately disobeyed me after I told you not to touch them? Didn’t you, Jenny?”

Head down, tears beginning to trickle down her cheeks, Jenny tried to think of a good answer. Sadly, she couldn’t even think of a lie. Jenny shook her head no. pouting. “I didn’t touch them.”

“Don’t lie to me, little lady!” Jarrod exploded.

“I’m not. I didn’t touch them. I swear I didn’t.”

Louisa didn’t disguise the disappointment on her face or in her voice as she remonstrated her stubborn little girl, “Jenny, don’t lie to Daddy. Nicky told me you moved those fireworks into the playhouse. I watched you walking up and down the hill to the shed myself. I even gave you permission to take the wagon to the shed, never dreaming of the mischief you were getting into.” Louisa dared to look for a split second at Jarrod’s face, his jaw agape at this disclosure. She knew him well enough to know that his questions later would be, “Why did you let them do that? You LET them load that playhouse with explosives?” Turning back to Jenny, she lifted her sniffling daughter’s chin in her hand forcing Jenny to look into her eyes. “Now, you be honest and tell Daddy the truth.”

Jenny ‘s voice quavered, “I am telling the truth. I never touched those fireworks.”

“Jennifer Victoria Barkley!” Jarrod thrust his hands into the pocket of his vest to keep from throttling her on the spot. When had she gotten so adamantly stubborn and devious? Louisa’s warning hand on his arm stopped his surge of anger. Taking a deep breath, he decided to ignore Jenny and use his best lawyer’s instinct to try a different tactic. If Jenny wouldn’t give him the answer, he knew who would.

“Nicky, tell Daddy how you got the fireworks out of the shed?” Jarrod smiled at his son, rumpling his hair with a teasing hand. “You must be very clever to find a way to get into a padlocked shed.”

“Big hole,” Nicky spoke up without a care in the world. “I climb side.”

Jarrod tweaked Nicky’s nose, “ A hole, huh? What did you do then? When you got inside?”

“Taked the cracker fires to the wagon. Sissy telled me to.”

“Sissy told you to?” Jarrod asked, directing his attention back to his tearful little girl. “Did you tell him to do that, Jenny?”

Jenny gave a reluctant nod.

“After I told you not to touch them?”

“I never touched them!” Jenny insisted. “Not a single one!”

“Jarrod, count to ten!” Louisa stood between father and daughter holding Jarrod back with a hand on his chest. “Jenny, tell your Daddy the truth!”

Jenny, wiping her nose furiously on the back on her hand turned a teary face to her mother. “I didn’t touch them! I made Nicky touch them all!”

“Jenny, that’s awful!” Shocked, Louisa dropped her hand from Jarrod’s chest, “He might have been seriously hurt if one of those fireworks exploded. How could you be so naughty?”

“I told him to be careful.” Jenny wailed in her own defense. “Daddy never said he couldn’t touch them.”

“Nebber did,” Nicky agreed reaching over to take Jenny’s hand. “No cry, Sissy. Pappy no mad.”

“Pappy,” Jarrod told his son, “is furious! Jennifer Victoria Barkley, do you mean to tell me that you let your brother handle all those fireworks after I told you not to go near them? You know better than that! You know that Mama and I count on you to tell us if Nicky does anything that isn’t safe or if he’s getting into mischief. We’ve had this talk before.” Jarrod pursed his lips, struggling to hold his temper. “I cannot believe you would even imagine I would allow Nicky to do something I told you not to do!”

“You never said he couldn’t touch them!” Jenny wailed. “You never said!”

“Jennifer, you are basing your defense by twisting the law to your own purposes! I won’t have it! I...”

Louisa laid a hand lightly on his arm, murmuring, “Jarrod, she’s only five, not a prosecuting attorney.”

“Even so,” he argued with his wife, “she knew better than to take Nicky around those fireworks! You deliberately disobeyed me, Jenny, and you’re going to be punished.”

“I didn’t get a fair trial!” Jenny wept at the forbidding look on her father’s face. “I want another lawyer!”

“That’s too bad. I am the only lawyer, jury and judge you are going to get in this matter! Daddy told you if you went near the fireworks you’d be severely punished. I meant what I said, Jenny.”

“It’s not fair!” Snuffling and crying, Jenny hoped for mercy. “We never would’ve taken those old firecrackers if Uncle Nick didn’t tell us somebody might steal them. We just wanted everybody to be proud of us for saving them. Didn’t we, Nicky?”

“Pwoud,” Nicky agreed. His serious little face wore a puzzled expression. Why was Pappy yelling so much? Why was Sissy crying? They should be happy all the big boom booms went off in the playhouse.

Quick to see where this might not be entirely Jenny’s fault, Louisa took Jenny’s hand in hers. “Why did Uncle Nick tell you someone might steal them?” She smiled encouragement at her daughter. “Surely he just meant to tease you.”

“Uncle Nick said....” Jenny gulped, shot a quick look at her father’s stern face and wished with all her heart she had never listened to Uncle Nick’s story about the firework fiends. “He said someone might steal our fireworks an’ me an’ Nicky didn’t want them to.”

“I see. Why don’t you tell me just who it was who might steal the fireworks.” Jarrod crossed his arms over his chest, back rigid as he waited for her explanation.

“The firework fiends. Uncle Nick said they lived under the ground an’ sometimes they come up an’ steal people’s fireworks.” Jenny didn’t try to stem the tears that poured down her cheeks. “We just wanted to save some fireworks so Uncle Nick an’ Uncle Heath would be proud of us.” In a voice so small, Louisa and Jarrod had to lean forward to hear her, she added, “An’ you too, Daddy.”

“The firework fiends.” Staring at his woebegone daughter and still unremorseful son, Jarrod understand the saying about chickens coming home to roost. The firework fiends had been his invention to calm a frightened little brother during an earthquake. Ironic that his story had been twisted by his children into this impossible impasse. Dirty darn, as Jenny would say, what was he suppose to do now? How could he blame them for something that began in his ten year old imagination?

“Oh, Jenny,” Louisa interrupted Jarrod’s interrogation, “why would you believe anything so silly? Uncle Nick was just teasing you. You should have come to Daddy or me and asked if it were true.”

“There ain’t no firework fiends?” Jenny asked. Her little face fell at this betrayal by Uncle Nick. If there weren’t any firework fiends, there wasn’t any reason for anyone to be proud of her or Nicky for saving them. Dirty darn.

Realizing that he was partly to blame for the mayhem in the playhouse, Jarrod put his hands in the pockets of his vest and paced away from his children. Most, but not all, of his anger cooled at this revelation. Still, the two little scamps had done something so dangerous he couldn’t allow them to get off without some punishment. Jarrod shuddered just thinking of them handling those fireworks. What if they’d gotten near a spark? If one of the fireworks had exploded? Jarrod walked back to the two sitting on the desk. They needed to understand the seriousness of their “crime.”

“Do you know how many people are hurt or killed by fireworks every 4th of July?” He asked.

Hoping, from the softer tone in Daddy’s voice, that he might not be so angry, Jenny guessed, “Forty-leven?”

“Free?” Nicky, willing to play this new game, held up five fingers. Jarrod took his son’s hand gently, pressed down two fingers and showing it to Nicky said, “This is three.”

He looked at his two precious children, glad they wouldn’t be counted in the number and told them, “I don’t know myself how many people are hurt or killed by fireworks. But, I do know that it’s quite a lot.”

“If you don’t know, Daddy,” Jenny’s forehead wrinkled as she puzzled this out, “then how are we spose to know?”

“Don’t be impertinent!” He snapped. Angry again. Five years old and she already thought like an attorney.

More tears moistened Jenny’s blue eyes. “I can’t. I don’t even know what it means!”

“It means not to sass your Daddy or use that imprudent tone with him,” Louisa corrected. “Daddy is trying to tell you that many, many people get hurt because fireworks are dangerous. We don’t want the two of you to be some of them.”

Jarrod nodded at his wife’s explanation. “Which is why you are being punished. I want you to remember that I never want you to touch or go near fireworks again. What you did was dangerous. You saw how fast they exploded when the fire started.” Jarrod did not want to know the origins of the fire. It would probably be an explanation he’d rather not hear. “I’ve decided that the only way to keep the two of you out of trouble is to put you someplace where you won’t be able to get in trouble for awhile. You’re both going to bed, right now.”

“But, Daddy,” Jenny’s voice quavered as the full meaning of this punishment dawned on her, “if we go to bed now, we’ll miss the rest of the 4th of July.”

“That’s an excellent deduction, Jennifer,” Jarrod told her as he lifted her off the desk. Nicky wiggled his fingers holding out his arms to be lifted down. Still not understanding the full importance of Jarrod’s “talking to.”

“We’ll miss the picnic and the barbecue and the dance and all the big boom boom’s Uncle Nick is going to shoot off when it gets dark!” Jenny wailed. “It’s not fair!”

Louisa intervened for the children’s sake, something she rarely did in front of the them. Some of Jarrod’s punishments she objected to strenuously but always in private. “Oh, Jarrod, surely they’ve learned their lesson now that you’ve spoken to them. You can’t make them miss the festivities. They’ve talked of nothing else for weeks.”

“My mind is made up,” Jarrod spoke firmly with an authority Louisa knew better than to cross. Especially not in front of Jenny and Nicky. They’d seen enough fireworks exploding today.

Just you wait, Jarrod Thomas Barkley, she thought grimly as she took Nicky’s hand, wait until we’re alone and see if I don’t give you a piece of my mind over this! “Come, Nicky, Daddy says you must go to bed.”

Suddenly aware that he was being held quite tightly by his mother and led upstairs to where his jail awaited, Nicky began to cry. His tears joined Jenny’s loud, chest heaving sobs as Jarrod led her up the stairs. Halfway to the nursery, Jenny’s anger got the better of her and she lashed out at her brother between her sobs, “You know who’s got a mouth bigger than you?”

“Untul Nick?” Nicky hazarded a guess through his tears.

“No! Nobody!”

“That is enough of that!” Jarrod stopped the bickering. As they got nearer the nursery, Jenny’s steps began to lag. He had quite a time getting her to walk without pulling her arm. Finally, to stop her dragging feet, he picked her up and carried her.

Nicky cried harder. For reasons he didn’t understand, he’d been very naughty. Mama was going to put him in jail. Tugging at her hand, Nicky tried to pull away as Mama opened the nursery door and led him inside. It didn’t work. Mama was stronger. She picked him up, lifted him into the jail and began to pull off his shoes. Nicky howled the whole time she took off his clothes and slipped a nightshirt over his head.

“That’s quite enough, young man!” Jarrod warned from the bed where he was struggling to pull a reluctant Jenny’s boots off. “Stop that crying at once!”

“Stop, Nicky, you’ll make yourself sick,” Mama said calmly, handing him Daudra and a yellow blanket he liked to hold while he slept. “Lie down and take a little nap. Daudra is very sleepy.”

Still weeping, Nicky allowed himself to be settled on his pillow with Daudra clutched in his hand. He’d gotten up so early that his eyes began to droop almost at once. Louisa went to help Jarrod undress Jenny. Taking a soft handkerchief from her pocket, she wiped some of Jenny’s tears off her face. Her heart went out to the little girl. Jenny had been so excited over the 4th of July. This was a bitter disappointment.

“Jenny, Jenny, stop crying so hard,” she cautioned her daughter, looking fearfully at the tightness around Jarrod’s lips. “If you hadn’t been naughty, we wouldn’t have to punish you.” Louisa took over, pushing Jarrod away in time to slip Jenny into a nightgown. He was too angry to do the job with any detachment. His jerky movements and tight face were more upsetting to Jenny than the actual punishment, Louisa thought. She motioned him to leave the room glad when he did. Just wait, Counselor Barkley. Just wait. Wouldn’t she give him what for when she got the children settled down. This punishment was too harsh.

“I don’t want to miss the 4th of July,” Jenny cried. “It won’t happen again for a hundred more years and I know how long a hundred is cause I can count to a hundred! I want a new trial without that dirty darn ole Daddy lawyer!”

“Sh, Jenny, it isn’t nice to say mean things about Daddy.” Louisa laid Jenny down on her pillow, handed her a doll and pulled a sheet up to her chin. Leaning in close to kiss a wet little cheek, she whispered, “I’ll go talk to the judge and plead for leniency. You try to take a little nap.”

Jenny’s quiet sobs followed Louisa around the room as she pulled the shades, checked that Nicky was almost asleep with Daudra in his arms and quietly closed the nursery door behind her. It was better if the children didn’t hear the explosion that was about to occur.

Part 6

Louisa closed the study door with a firm slap that was not quite a slam. She didn’t dare slam it as hard as her fury demanded. Not with half the gossips in town swarming all over the house. It would be an effort to keep her voice quiet and controlled but Louisa was determined to try. Even though an angry refrain coursed through her mind all the way downstairs, “How dare he?”

Jarrod’s relaxed slouch in the leather chair behind the desk, feet propped on top and a cigar to his lips infuriated her all over again. How dare he? Standing in front of him, eyes blazing, she asked through clenched teeth, “How could you? They are just little children. You knew how excited they were about today and now you’ve spoiled it. How could you be such a brute?”

“A brute? Just how did you arrive at that conclusion?” He asked in that maddeningly calm tone that provoked her every time. “What is it that I’m suppose to have done?”

“You know very well what you did, Jarrod Barkley!” Louisa realized her voice had risen two octaves. Fighting to argue quieter, she hissed, “You put the children to bed so they’d have to miss the rest of the 4th of July! It’s too harsh and you know it. Even a spanking would have been less brutal. How could you? How could you?”

He took a puff of cigar letting the smoke rings drift over his head as if he hadn’t a care in the world. It was all Louisa could do to clench her hands together in her apron instead of snatching it from his hand and stomping it into the floor. The beast! The uncaring cad!

“I didn’t.”

“How..how can you say that?” She sputtered the words, almost too incensed at his attitude to spit them out. “You put them to bed so they would miss the rest of the festivities.”

“I didn’t say that.”

Louisa’s mouth dropped open. How could he lie like that? “You did! You told Jenny she’d miss the picnic, the dance and the fireworks! How dare you sit there with that smug smile on your face and lie to me?”

“If you will recall the conversation,” Jarrod paused for another savoring puff of his cigar, “Jenny said if they went to bed they would miss the rest of the 4th. I merely told her that it was an excellent deduction. Which it was. I never agreed with her.”

“Jarrod Thomas Barkley! That is the cruelest thing I’ve ever heard! Jenny’s upstairs crying herself to sleep, thinking she’s been put to bed for the rest of the day. It’s too mean to let her keep thinking that. I’m going upstairs right now and get her up.”

Jarrod, who’d been relaxed as a cat in front of fire the second before, laid his cigar down and jumped up quickly. He caught Louisa by the arm as she walked to the door. Leading her back to the desk, he pulled her onto his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist holding tight. “Not yet. Let her stew for awhile.”

“Let me go, Jarrod,” She protested, blushing. What if someone came in? “There are people swarming all over this house. What if someone sees me in this undignified position? You act as if I’m Jenny’s age.”

“What if they do?’ He teased, tightening his hold. Louisa accepted the inevitable and leaned her head back against his shoulder. Sighing, Jarrod sought to explain his actions. “About the children. Look at it from my point of view. Jenny has to realize what she did was wrong. Despite her twisting the letter of my law to the spirit of the law as seen by a five year old, she has to learn there are consequences for her actions. I could have spanked her. Believe me, I was tempted, but I don’t think it would hurt as much as imagining that her behavior caused her to lose out on the 4th.”

“It just seems so heartless.” Louisa murmured. ‘She’s so upset.”

“Look at it another way then. The two of them have been up before dawn..”

Louisa couldn’t help interrupting. Still a little bitter over those missing hours of sleep. “Thanks to Nick.”

“Thanks to Nick. They’d need a nap anyway if they’re going to be up late. The two of them won’t be underfoot for awhile, hampering the efforts of you and the other ladies while you carry all the food out to the meadow.” Jarrod clasped his hands over Louisa’s, folding her fingers into his. “As much as it hurts me to think of Jenny crying out her disappointment upstairs, I still feel it’s the only punishment that might give our irrepressible daughter any remorse for her disobedience.”

“I suppose you’re right,” Louisa agreed reluctantly. “Jenny does have to learn to mind us.”

Jarrod cleared his throat gruffly. “Yes, she does. Although it seems as if we can’t entirely blame our daughter for this mess. Can we now, lovely lady?”

Unwilling to admit her shortcomings as a mother, Louisa deliberately misunderstood. Knowing only too well that her husband’s wrath could fall on her head too. “No! We can blame Nick for filling her head with ridiculous stories about firework fiends! Only a depraved mind like your brother’s could come up with something like that. It’s a wonder Nicky didn’t have nightmares.”

Jarrod shifted uncomfortably. He’d been about to offer some husbandly rebukes about Louisa allowing the children to traipse up and down to that shed in the first place. The mention of the firework fiends stopped him cold. If he censured her, he’d have to share the blame. He’d have to confess. Sooner or later she’d find out the truth. “It wasn’t Nick’s depraved mind that thought up the firework fiends. He was just repeating a story he’d heard before.”

“Then who?” Louisa sat up on his lap turning to face him. By the sheepish grin on his face, she knew. “Jarrod Barkley! It was you! That ridiculous story came from you.”

“I admit it but I was only ten.”
“Then this whole disaster was your fault! Firework fiends, indeed! I’ve a good mind to go out in the kitchen and find your mother’s spoon.” Louisa thumped back against his shoulder. “You are just an incorrigible as your brother. I almost feel as if I owe your brother an apology.”

Jarrod smiled to himself glad her anger seemed to be cooling. He knew he was treading in treacherous waters but he couldn’t resist teasing her about Nick. “Now, honey, you shouldn’t think so badly of Nick. If it wasn’t for him pulling you out of that river, we never would have met.”

This got the rise out of her Jarrod expected. Sputtering, she said what she always did, “If your clumsy brother hadn’t knocked me into the river in the first place, he wouldn’t have had to rescue me!”

“I’m very glad he did,” Jarrod whispered into her hair soothing her with stolen kisses.

“So am I, “ Louisa admitted, getting up reluctantly to go back to her duties in the kitchen, “even if you are a dirty darn ole lawyer.”

When they went to wake the children later, they found Nicky awake, singing to Daudra in his crib. Having not quite understood why he had to go to jail, Nicky was only too glad to be lifted out and dressed in his Sunday best by Pappy. The only thing that dimmed Nicky’s happiness was Jenny’s unhappiness.

Jenny was awake too when her parents opened the nursery door. Sitting on her bed with a glum look on her face, her eyes puffy and red from crying, Jenny looked as if she felt remorseful down to her bare toes. Even after Jarrod explained to her that her sentence was reduced so she wouldn’t miss the 4th, Jenny’s sad little face stared at him as if she could never trust him again. If he hoped for repentance, it looked as if Jenny wouldn’t disappoint him on that count.

Jarrod exchanged a questioning look with his wife. Why isn’t she happy? Shrugging, Louisa returned an I-don’t-know look. They thought Jenny would be glad. Louisa hoped the 4th hadn’t been spoiled for her by her punishment nap. Not when Jenny had been so looking forward to today.

“Why don’t you take Nicky on down?” Louisa suggested to her husband, taking Jenny’s new white dress from the wardrobe. “Jenny and I will be down after she gets dressed.”

“You tum, Sissy?” Nicky climbed up to sit beside Jenny on her bed. “Daudra tum. Sissy tum. Untul Nick shoot off cracker fires.”

Lower lip puckered, Jenny stared at him with a gloomy face. Unshed tears glistening in her eyes.

“Why Sissy tad?” He asked Jarrod, tugging his father’s sleeve. “Why Pappy? Why?”

Jarrod took Nicky’s hand helping him off the bed. “She’ll feel better soon.” He told the little boy calmly. “Let’s let her wake up and get dressed. We’ll go downstairs and wait.”

After Jarrod and Nicky left, Louisa helped Jenny dress. It was like dressing a doll with Jenny offering no assistance. “Let’s tie your sash now,” Louisa spoke calmly, striving to overcome Jenny’s subdued mood. “You look very patriotic with that red, white and blue ribbon. This dress is very pretty on you too. You look good in white, Jenny.” Even her mother’s unusual comments about prettiness were lost on her dour daughter. It perplexed her that Jenny wasn’t happy. Had the thought of Jarrod’s punishment been so harsh it crushed her spirit completely? Jenny usually hated having Jarrod disappointed in her worse than any punishment he doled out. She might fuss or cry awhile but Jenny wasn’t a child who stayed resentful at being corrected. Usually she rushed to Jarrod before her tears dried on her cheeks, to be hugged, kissed and comforted.

As she brushed Jenny’s dark hair to a soft sheen, Louisa thought guiltily that she should have watched Jenny and Nicky a little closer on those trips to the shed. If she had stopped them from taking those fireworks, none of this would have happened. “Would you like a red hair ribbon?” When Jenny didn’t answer except to sniff back a sob, Louisa tied the red bow on top of Jenny’s head in the enormous, vain bows she loved.

“All ready!” Louisa said brightly after she’d put on Jenny’s Sunday slippers. “Let’s go or those men won’t leave us a thing to eat at the picnic.” Holding out her hand, she waited until Jenny obediently took hers. “Don’t be sad, darling. This is a festive day. Daddy and I want you to enjoy it.”

Her only answer was a sad sniff. Jenny kept her eyes downcast as they went to meet Jarrod and Nicky in the foyer. Jarrod, standing with Nicky’s hand in his, watched his daughter come down the stairs. Having her look so miserable hurt. His eyes met Louisa’s. Sadly, she shook her head as upset as Jarrod over Jenny’s distress.

“Well,” Jarrod forced a tone of gaiety into his voice, “why don’t we walk on out to the meadow before your Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath eat all that luscious pork we’ve been smelling all day.”

Jenny’s face crumpled. Crying in heart wrenching sobs, she ran to Jarrod. He picked her up, held her close patting her back while she cried out her heartache on his shoulder. “Daddy. Daddy.” She tried three times to speak before she managed to get the words past the tears. “Daddy, I don’t want to go to the picnic or the dance or the fireworks or anything!”

“Jenny,” Louisa moved closer to put a comforting hand on her daughter’s back. “Don’t be upset, darling.”

“Why don’t you want to go?” Jarrod asked. “You were so excited this morning. You couldn’t wait for this afternoon.”

“I don’t want to go,” Jenny sobbed against Jarrod’s shoulder.

“Why, darling? Tell Mama and Daddy.”

Jenny lifted her tearful face to look at Louisa. “Uncle Nick and Uncle Heath will be angry. They won’t like me anymore because me an’ Nicky sploded some of their fireworks. I don’t want to see them. I want to go home and never come back here again!”

Frightened by Jenny’s wails, Nicky began to cry. “No wanna go home! Wanna see the cracker fires! Daudra wanna see the cracker fires too!”

Nicky’s tears were quickly quelled by the arrival of his friend, Mr. Silas and the offer to help sort silverware to take to the picnic. Jenny’s tears and anguish went on longer. It took quite a bit of persuasion by Jarrod and Louisa to convince Jenny that her uncles would not be angry. Even more comforting and hugging on Jarrod’s lap, with Louisa hovering nearby offering calming pats, before Jenny consented to go to the picnic at all. By the time they arrived at the crowded meadow filled with friends and neighbors, both parents wore haggard expressions on their faces. Louisa thinking if that Nick Barkley dared to be angry at her daughter, she’d personally punch him in the nose.

They’d been in the meadow a few minutes, greeting friends with strained smiles when Nick burst into the threesome. “Bout time you got here, Pappy,” he shouted, clapping Jarrod on the back. “Mother’s looking all over for you, Mrs. Pappy.” Full of jovial good humor, Nick dared to rile Louisa by calling her that hated nickname. Mrs. Pappy indeed! Jenny trembled a little as she stood by Jarrod’s leg. “Hey, there’s my girl!” Nick reached down, picked her up and tossed her into the air, catching her just in time. “You save a dance for me, you hear!” Jenny giggled as he planted a big kiss on the tip of her nose.

“See, Mama,” Jenny had the gall to say after Nick stormed away to wreck havoc somewhere else, “I told you Uncle Nick wouldn’t be angry at me. Betcha Uncle Heath won’t be either. He don’t never punish little kids.”

Louisa looked at Jarrod and rolled her eyes. Throwing up his hands, Jarrod said, “I don’t understand it. All through the years, my mother kept giving me advice. Why didn’t she ever tell me how hard it would be to raise children?”

“Pappy!” Nicky’s screams split the air as he ran up to grab Jarrod by the pant leg. “Daudra’s losted! She’s losted! I want my pig!”

“Happy 4th of July,” Louisa taunted having a hard time not laughing at the long suffering look in Jarrod’s eyes.

Taking Nicky’s hand, Jarrod shot back, “You too, Mrs. Pappy.”



Jenny woke up the next morning long before the sun had risen. Lying in bed, with a self satisfied smile on her face, she remembered the 4th of July. Lots and lots of scrumptious food, dancing with Uncle Nick and watching the fireworks shoot off after dark. Fireworks were better after dark, Jenny decided. The pretty colors showed up lots better than they did when the playhouse got burnt up.

Thinking about the playhouse reminded Jenny of something. She puckered her forehead. What? What? What? Something important she was suppose to remember.

“Quiet, Nicky,” she whispered to her brother, singing to Daudra in his jail. “I got to remember something important.”

“Portant,” Nicky echoed.

Nicky! Nicky and those cracker fires he hid for Mr. Silas! Jenny climbed out of bed and went to poke her face through the bars of Nicky’s crib. “Nicky? Where did you hide those cracker fires you gave to Mr. Silas?”

Backing away with Daudra, Nicky eyed her warily. When she didn’t try to reach in the jail to grab Daudra, he let down his guard and answered. “In the tove.”

“The stove! You couldn’t hide them in the stove,” Jenny sneered. “They woulda blowed up when you threw them in. Mr. Silas woulda had a fire in there.”

“Tove told,” Nicky argued back.

He sounded so sincere, Jenny thought about believing him. Usually Nicky didn’t lie. He was too stupid to know how, not smart like her. What if the stove was cold? Jenny tried to remember if anyone had cooked inside yesterday. There was lots of cooking going on outside but not on the stove. Jenny frowned hard. Did the women cook in the kitchen? She couldn’t remember. Mama kept making her quit tasting and leave?

“Are you sure, Nicky?”

“Es.”

Jenny went back to bed. Sitting on the edge she thought about what she should do. Last night, Daddy talked to her for a long, long time about how she had to mind better. Jenny didn’t listen to lots of his words. Daddy always said most of the same words until her ears got tired. She did remember that he said she had to sponsible for Nicky because she was his big sister. If she saw him doing something dangerous or naughty, she should tell someone bigger right away.

Jenny thought long and hard about those firecrackers in Mr. Silas’ stove. Pretty soon, it would be time for Mr. Silas to build a fire to cook breakfast. When he lit that fire...boom, boom.
Making up her mind, Jenny left the nursery and padded down the hall to her parent’s room. They were still asleep. Jenny knew it was better to wake Mama up first.

“Mama,” she whispered, shaking her mother’s shoulder, “Mama, I got to tell you something.”

Louisa murmured in her sleep, “Go tell Daddy.”

Jenny stepped away from her mother, biting her lip. Dirty darn. She sure didn’t want to wake up Daddy .He always growled like an ole bear when she had to wake him up before he was ready. The thought of Mr. Silas lighting that fire made up her mind. Walking around to Jarrod’s side of the bed, she started shaking his shoulder. He mumbled and rolled over on his side. Jenny grabbed the edge of the blanket and pulled herself up on the bed. Straddling Jarrod’s leg, she reached over and pinched his face between both her hands. “Daddy! Daddy! You gotta wake up!”

“Jennifer!” He growled. “How many times have I told you not to wake me up like that?”

Tears filled Jenny’s eyes. “I don’t know, Daddy. I can’t count past one hundred an’ you told me more than one hundred times.”

Jarrod sat up rubbing his eyes. “Never mind. What is it? Are you sick?”

“No, Daddy, it’s about Nicky. He did something very, very naughty.” Jarrod yawned, eyes half closed. Jenny stared at him to make sure he was still listening. “Yesterday he put firecrackers in Mr. Silas’ stove.”

Jarrod dropped back down on his pillow. “Thanks for telling me, honey. Go back to bed. I’ll take care of it later.”

“Daddy! Daddy!” Jenny pinched his face with both her hands again. “It’s almost time for Mr. Silas to cook breakfast an’ when he lights that fire...”

Louisa, who’d been listening half asleep, caught the full impact of Jenny’s concern before Jarrod did. She sat bolt upright in bed, grabbing Jarrod’s shoulder and shaking roughly. “Jarrod! If Silas lights that stove!”

Suddenly Jarrod sat up, shoved Jenny off his legs and jumped out of bed. He hit the hallway yelling, “Nick! Heath! Nicky put firecrackers in the stove!” Running down the stairs with Louisa hot on his heels, his voice floated back to Jenny, “Silas! Don’t light the stove!”

Jenny jumped off the bed and ran out into the hall. Uncle Nick, tugging on his pants, went rushing by in his long johns as the first faint POP! POP! began. As Jenny walked back to her room, all the grownups in the house went shouting and hurrying down to the kitchen. A resounding popping filled the air. Guess Mr. Silas lit the stove, Jenny thought trailing back into the nursery. Nicky stood up in the jail, Daudra in his arms, a thumb popped into his mouth.

“You sure are in trouble now, Nicky,” She told him with a smug smile on her face. “You will be in jail for a long, long time for putting those firecrackers in Mr. Silas’ stove. I told you not to do it.”

Nicky’s face wobbled. Holding Daudra for comfort, he plopped down in his bed, silent tears dripping down his cheeks.

Listening to the shouts and clanging sounds from the kitchen, Jenny thought it might be a long time before the grown ups came to get her for breakfast. There must be something she could do while she waited. Jenny thought and thought and then the perfect idea came to her. Dragging a little red chair over to Nicky’s jail, she pulled it up so she could look at him though the bars and sat down. Nicky sniffed at her.

Poor Nicky. She would make him feel better. “One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six...”

THE END