Because Hoss Cartwright had suggested to babysit his nephew Mitch and niece Pam while their father Adam Cartwright was away the father and younger brother of Hoss, Ben and Little Joe, could leave too.
Hoss had intended to spend all his time with the twins but the kids had their own ideas about that. They had quite a lot of homework to do of their father and were doing that good in the living room. Hoss watched and helped them where was needed.
“Boys, shall we do something else then doing homework?”, Hoss asked at a certain moment.
“What then? We go play baseball and you do our homework?”, was the counter-question of Mitch.
“That sounds fun to me”, his twin sister Pam said.
“We go to bake a cake the three of us”, Hoss suggested.
“How do you want to do that when you may not even come into the kitchen of Hop Sing?”, his nephew asked.
“Hop Sing is temporary on vacation so now I may come there. Besides, I am bored. You are much too good. If your father would see you now he wouldn’t believe his eyes”, replied Hoss.
“We are always good and not only when we sleep”, reacted Pam.
The twins continued with their homework so Hoss got left behind. But the second son of Ben wouldn’t let him catch for one so he decided to bake the cake alone. He got up and walked to the kitchen of the Ponderosa. The children saw their uncle leaving and looked at each other with fright.
“Shall we put some buckets with water ready just in case?”, asked Mitch.
“For what?”, Pam wanted to know.
“For when the kitchen goes up in flames”, was the answer of her brother.
They couldn’t stop laughing anymore. Hoss heard them laughing and went to check it out.
“Do you call that doing your homework?”, he asked semi-strict.
“Uncle Hoss, is your cake already?”, Mitch asked at his turn.
Hoss looked at him indignant and went back to the kitchen.
In a cookbook Hoss found the recipe for a cake. He looked for all ingredients and did exactly what was written in the book. But it turned out to go different. In no time the clean kitchen of Hop Sing had changed into a battle field of flower, eggs, butter and sugar. But Hoss too was covered with flower.
“Dadburnit, why does it not succeed me to bake a delicious cake?”, groaned Hoss.
He really didn’t understand nothing of it. But he didn’t let the courage down and started again. But this time it also failed and how! Now the egg yolk was at the ceiling and the butter at the walls. Hoss read the recipe again and didn’t understand anything of it.
In the meantime the front door went open and who stood there? Hop Sing!
“Sis, there is now the devil to pay”, whispered Mitch.
She nodded.
“Hello Hop Sing. Have you missed us so?”, asked Mitch.
“Hop Sing misses little ones always. Where is Mr Hoss?”, asked the Chinese cook.
“He actually should be watching and help us with our homework but he wanted to bake a cake. But we still smell nothing yet”, replied Pam.
Hop Sing didn’t know how fast he had to ran to the kitchen. The twins followed him. Hop Sing saw the mess and began to storm in the Cantonese language to Hoss. Even the twins understood that the cook was a very angry with their beloved Uncle.
“Hop Sing, easy because I can explain everything. I only wanted to bake a cake for us. But it got a little bit out of hand”, Hoss apologized.
“Mr Hoss make kitchen super clean of Hop Sing. Start now or no supper for Mr Hoss”, the cook said strict.
“Hop Sing, may Mitchy and Pammy help me with it?”, Hoss asked at begging tone.
“No, Mr Hoss has made mess. Mr Hoss clean up mess alone. Kids innocent”, Hop Sing said determined.
“Besides Uncle Hoss, we must do our homework, mustn’t we?”, Mitch asked laughing.
“Happy working, dear Uncle Hoss”, Pam said where after she went with her brother laughing back to the living room.
Hoss made the kitchen totally clean to great satisfaction of Hop Sing and he decided never again to go into the kitchen to bake a cake alone.