On a nice Spring afternoon Hoss Cartwright went to keep himself occupied with his nephew Mitch of six. Because Hoss knew how the boy was made up the second son of Ben Cartwright had prepared himself well.
After lunch Hoss said to his beloved nephew, “Mitchy, This afternoon we going to do a game together outside.”
“Are we going to play baseball?”, the boy asked gladly.
“Not that but it has to do with throwing. Are you coming outside?”, was the counter-question of his uncle.
Mitch nodded.
Outside Hoss put a pole in the ground. Of course Mitch didn’t understand a thing of it and let that show clearly.
“May you make holes in the ground of grandpa?”, the boy asked distrusting.
“Grandpa ain’t here and I am so it may”, replied Hoss.
“You do it and I don’t”, reacted Mitch.
Hoss looked for a second indignant at his nephew but said nothing. He knew that the boy always had the last word.
“What sort of game are we going to play?”, asked the youngest Cartwright.
“I am going to teach how you must throw horse shoes. It is very funny when you know how”, replied Hoss.
“Throwing horse shoes? Horses do wear horse shoes? You are not going to throw with their shoes. Imagine that the horses are going to throw with your boots?”, Mitch asked amazed.
“That is so but we use old horse shoes. The horses have worn them out all along”, Hoss explained.
He grabbed the horse shoes and took his nephew to the porch.
“Now you must pay attention how I throw. The horse shoes must end up around the pole. The one who has thrown most horse shoes around the pole is the winner”, said Hoss.
Mitch went to sit on the edge of the porch and watched. Hoss threw the first horse shoe but it came too far away from the pole. The second one too didn’t come near the pole. Hoss didn’t know if it was just him or that his nephew was present but all of his horse shoes didn’t reach the pole.
“I thought you were so good at it”, Mitch remarked when Hoss had finished with throwing.
“I wasn’t concentrated enough. Now you may try it”, said his uncle.
He grabbed all six horse shoes and gave them to the boy. Mitch threw the first one and it went around the pole.
“Look uncle Hoss, it is around it”, Mitch said laughing.
“Hm, just beginner’s luck. They all must get around it”, said Hoss.
“You didn’t get them around it”, his nephew reacted teasing.
“Just throw the rest”, replied Hoss.
Mitch did that and he threw the other five also around the pole. Of course Hoss didn’t like this but Mitch did.
The whole afternoon Hoss and Mitch played throwing horse shoe but Hoss didn’t know to win from his nephew. Though the boy liked the new game to great enjoyment of his uncle.