It had happened before Little Joe Cartwright knew it. To do his eldest brother Adam a favor the youngest Cartwright brother had taken the time and effort to spend an afternoon with his nephew Mitch. Even though Adam had first no objections to it halfway the afternoon he began to get very worried.
But his father Ben Cartwright said, “Joseph shall not lead Mitch astray for sure.”
So Adam decided to forget it and got to work again.
At the yard of the Ponderosa paste Little Joe was babysitting six year old Mitch. Like each day the boy was busy with his glove, ball and bat.
Little Joe said at a certain moment, “Mitch, we do now something different for a change. You pitch and I hit the ball away.”
“I ain’t no pitcher at all”, said the boy.
“You must learn that too”, said his uncle.
Mitch gave the bat and got his glove and ball. Little Joe got the bat and hoped that his elder brothers Adam and Hoss wouldn’t see him. They would have had a comment and make that worldwide. Mitch pitched a ball but his uncle totally hit wrong. Mitch pitched again but Little Joe missed the ball again.
When it failed for the third time Little Joe said, “You can’t pitch at an expert like me. Let me show you how you must pitch.”
Mitch got his bat and went to stand a bit further away from his uncle.
“Er uncle Joe, I am standing here and not near the house”, the youngest of the couple said.
Little Joe got a ball and pitched it. Little Joe did hit something but it wasn’t the bat of Mitch. What got hit was the windowpane of the office of Ben.
“Well, I must say that you can pitch better than I can because I have never thrown in a windowpane before”, Mitch remarked.
The boy had trouble not to start laughing because he heard three horses coming. The horses got ridden by Ben and his two eldest sons Adam and Hoss. The three Cartwrights stopped their horses and saw what had happened. Ben directly dismounted and looked at his grandson.
“Mitchell Jonathan Cartwright, what has happened here?”, he asked.
“Uncle Joe and I were pitching and hitting a bit. Uncle Joe tried then to teach me how to pitch because according to him I didn’t so that too well. Then he demonstrated how you must pitch and then he threw in that windowpane”, Mitch told.
Then Ben turned to his youngest son.
“Is that the way it happened?”, asked the rancher.
“Yes pa. But Mitch stood wrong”, Little Joe tried to talk himself out of it.
“Not true. I just stood far enough from the house”, his nephew reacted.
Adam and Hoss listened amused.
“Well Joseph, because it is clear that you have thrown in the windowpane it seems best to me that you replace the windowpane and pays for it t!”, said Ben.
“But pa, it was the ball of Mitch”, Little Joe said indignant.
“That is even so but you had it tight so you are guilty and you have to do it”, replied Ben.
“Alright then. But this is the very last time that I will play ball with my nephew”, said Joe.
“Shame because there can never be enough bats playing baseball”, reacted Mitch.
Ben, Adam and Hoss were rolling on the floor laughing but Little Joe didn’t.
Little Joe got the wagon and went to Virginia City for a new windowpane. By this wrong action of his uncle Mitch knew for sure that he wasn’t allowed to play baseball close near the ranch house.