Mischief Night

Joefan1

   

“Just one more game.” Little Joe Cartwright pleaded with his father.

Ben shook his head and pointed to the stairs.

“Bed, now, Joseph,” he ordered, his tone uncompromising.

“Yes sir,” Joe replied and slowly, made his way up to his room.

Adam, his expression quizzical, watched his brother climb the stairs. 

“Strange that he hasn’t tried to sneak out to do some Mischief Night pranks,” he remarked.

Ben smiled. “The only thing on his mind is his birthday, tomorrow, and the presents he hopes to get.”

But he was wrong. The only thing on Joe’s mind that evening was Mischief Night, and he had every intention of sneaking out. He had been planning his pranks for weeks, and everything was set and ready to go.

He lay on his bed, pretending to be asleep, impatience and excitement flowing through him as he waited for his father and brothers to retire for the night. ‘At last,’ he thought when he finally heard footsteps coming up the stairs. He listened intently as they continued down the hall and entered his bedroom. 

“Joe, you awake?” Adam whispered. 

“Hmmm,” Joe mumbled, burying his face in his pillow.

“Shh, go back to sleep.”

“I told you he’d be asleep,” Hoss whispered from just inside the doorway.

“Well, are you two satisfied that he’s not out throwing eggs at people?”  

Startled by the sound of their father’s voice, both brothers gave a sheepish grin and edged past him into the hall. 

“Good-night, Joseph,” Ben whispered, and closing the door, he too called it a night.

Joe waited another ten minutes to be sure everyone had actually gone to bed. Then making as little noise as possible he changed back into his clothes and climbed out the window, onto the roof and shinnied down the tree. He retrieved the bag he had hidden earlier that day and silently led his pony away from the barn. As soon as he was a safe distance from the house, he sprang into the saddle and rode into Virginia City.

“It’s about time, Cartwright. We thought you weren’t coming,” Mitch whispered. “Say, what’s that black thing you have on?”

“Adam’s shirt,” Little Joe snickered. “I thought it’d blend into the night.”

The boys stared wide-eyed in disbelief and then started to laugh.

“Shh!” Trevor hushed them. “Sheriff Coffee and Deputy Foster have been out patrolling all night. They’ve been checking out anything that moves and every dark corner in town.” 

“We’ll just have to be sure we’re not where they’re looking,” Joe quipped. The thought that he might get caught never occurred to him. His father or one of his brothers was always looking for him, and he was really good at not being found when he didn’t want to be.

The boys smiled and closed in around him.

“What are we going to do first?” Seth asked.

Joe smiled and signalled his friends to come even closer.  “We’re going to…”

A few minutes later, five boys, trying to control their laughter, headed down to Lindy Lou’s house of ill repute. Creeping up onto her stoop, they quietly, or as quietly as they could manage in their excited state, removed her sign of business. Then they edged their way down the street to Virginia City’s house of worship. With his four friends standing watch, Joe removed the church’s sign and replaced it with Lindy Lou’s placard. Laughing, they returned to the bordello and put up the ‘Come and Worship’ sign. 

“Shh,” the boys warned each other as they left Lindy Lou’s establishment. making as much noise with their shushing as they were with their laughing. 

“If someone hears that laugh, they’ll know it’s you, Cartwright.” Trevor remarked, as the boys arrived back at their meeting place. 

“That’s for sure” his friends agreed.

Joe grinned and motioned his friends closer.

“What’s next?” they asked.

Joe smiled and pulled five eggs out of his sack. “Whose house, do you want to egg?” he asked.

The boys looked at each other.  Grinning, they responded “Miss Jones”. 

Joe handed each of his friends an egg, and the Mischief Night crew headed towards the house of their next victim. As they skulked along, John suddenly whispered, in a panicky voice, “Hide.” The boys quickly took cover and waited, holding their breath, as a vigilant Deputy Foster passed by. 

As their heartbeats returned to normal, the crew smiled at each other and continued on their way.

“Ready on three.” Trevor looked at his friends and started counting, “one,   two,   three.”  Five eggs hit the windows, and five boys scattered. They watched in awe from their hiding spots as Abigail Jones swung open the door and stood on her porch, outraged. Hands on hips and a frown on her face, she scrutinized every inch of the area, or at least as much of it  as she could see in the dark. 

“If that’s you and your friends, Joseph Cartwright, you’re going to wish you were never born,” she called out. 

The five friends remained immobile until Miss Jones went back into her house and then they scooted back to their meeting place.

Joe was once again the last to arrive and this time he was breathing hard. 

“Whew, I almost got caught. Sheriff Coffee was coming down the street, doing his rounds. Well, I ducked behind that old water trough in front of the livery and lay flat on the ground, afraid even to breathe. I couldn’t believe it when the sheriff passed within five feet of the trough and didn’t even see me.”

“Fast thinking, hiding behind that water trough,” his friends told him, patting him on the back.

“Fast thinking and my brother’s shirt. I blended right into the shadows on the ground.” Joe laughed as he walked over to his bag of tricks. Reaching in, he pulled out a package and held it up, saying, “Speaking of my brother’s shirt.” 

Joe looked around at four incredulous faces.

“You wrapped a pile of manure in your brother’s shirt?” croaked Mitch.

“Got it out of the rag bag.” Joe laughed. 

“Who do you think?”

“You choose,” Seth uttered. 

“Who’s it going to be?” the mischief makers asked, eagerly awaiting the answer. 

Joe thought and then announced, “Sheriff’s office”, and saw a carbon copy of his own smug smile appear on each prankster. 

“Who wants to do it?” Joe asked.

Four sets of eyes looked at him. 

“You’re the fastest.” Mitch told him.

“And it’s hard to see you in that black shirt.” Seth added.

Shrugging, Joe crept to the front of the sheriff’s office and placed the packet about a meter from the building. After setting it afire, he knocked sharply on the door and fled. Deputy Clem Foster stepped outside, and seeing the small fire, he raised his boot to stomp it out. 

“No!” shouted Sheriff Coffee, seconds too late. The manure flew in all directions, hitting both the deputy and the sheriff. 

Seth quickly covered Joe’s mouth as he lay on the ground, giggling. 

“Let’s get out of here!” Mitch whispered, and the boys once again fled to their rendezvous spot. 

“Do you have anything else in there?”

“Just the bag itself,” Joe said, smiling.

“What can you do with that?” John asked, and  Mitch, Seth, and Trevor looked questioningly at him. 

“First, we have to soak it good. Then we have to find a house that still has a fire going. And then…”

The mischief-makers all started to laugh.

“Didn’t the Brewster Sisters have smoke coming out of their chimney?” John proffered.

The miscreants made their way to the Brewster house. Smoke was coming from the chimney. 

Looking around, Joe spotted a trellis going up the side of the building. With great care, he climbed up onto the roof and placed the sopping wet bag over the top of the chimney. Quickly, he made his way back across the roof, down the trellis, and joined his friends a short distance from the house. 

Laughing, the boys watched as the door flew open and smoke spewed out of the house, followed by the three sisters.

Luckily, their laughter was overshadowed by the shrieks coming from the women, as both Sheriff Coffee and Deputy Foster suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

“I’ll get it,” Clem volunteered, and climbed up onto the roof. A few minutes later, he was handing the wet bag to Roy. 

The boys waited, still and quiet, in the shadows, watching. When the ladies had gone back into the house and the law had departed, they fled.

“One more thing,” Joe told his friends, pulling several bunches of firecrackers out of his pocket.

“Where did you get those?” Seth asked, his face breaking into a huge smile.

“I saved them from the Fourth of July celebrations,” Joe bragged.

“They’ll make more noise if we put them in a tin can. Any of you guys seen one?”

“There was one in the street.” Mitch recalled, and ran to get it. 

Standing behind the bordello, laughing, the little band of pranksters watched in anticipation as Mitch placed the can of fireworks on the ground and lit the fuse. 

The results were spectacular. The bangs were deafening, and the can bounced about like it had a life of its own.

“Pssst, you better step inside if you don’t want to get caught.” Lindy Lou whispered from an upstairs window. The boys, irresolute, looked from one to the other.

“I think it came from behind Lindy Lou’s, Roy.” 

Clem’s voice, close enough to be heard, sent the five boys scampering into the house.  

Sheriff Coffee picked up the can of discharged fireworks and inspected it inside and out. 

“A prank!” he scoffed shaking his head.  

“Did anyone see who was responsible?” he asked the group of curious onlookers.

“I’m sorry, Sheriff Coffee,” Lindy Lou called down from her window. “It was one of my customers. He’s long gone by now.”

“Thanks,” Roy told Lindy Lou, and dispersing the crowd, returned to his office. 

“If my pa finds out I went inside that building, I won’t sit down for a week.” Joe told his friends as they made their way back to their ponies. 

“If anything we did tonight gets found out, none of us will be sitting down for a week.” Mitch corrected him. 

“Yeah, but it was worth it,” Joe said, grinning at his friends. 

“Yeah, it was,” they all agreed, mounted their ponies, and headed for home. 

Joe dismounted a good distance from the house, walked Star up to the barn, and quietly bedded him down. Then, mouselike, he crept up to the house, climbed up the tree, onto the roof and through his bedroom window. He had changed into his nightshirt and was about to climb back into bed when his door opened. Quickly, he bent down, reached under the bed, and pulled out the chamber pot.

“Huh?” he said, trying to sound as if he had just woken up. 

“Sorry Joe. I heard you up and wanted to make sure you were okay.” Adam apologized.

“I’m fine, just have to, you know.”

“Good night, little brother.” Adam smiled and returned to his bed. 

………………………………………

The following day, to no one’s surprise, Joe was completely caught up in his birthday. His family had no suspicions whatsoever that he had been anywhere other than his bed the night before. If asked, they’d all say he was asleep by the time they went to bed, and Older Brother would even testify that he was there in the middle of the night. He had, after all, seen him himself.

Sheriff Coffee had his suspicions, but he had no proof. And since the stories of last night’s mischief were met with hoots of laughter by most of the townsfolk, he let the matter drop. 

The End