For a few days now everyone at the Ponderosa Ranch was behaving mysteriously. Perhaps it was because it was nearly Easter was. The twins Mitch and Pam Cartwright noticed that their family members showed very strange behavior when they came in or were present. So also that certain afternoon. The whole afternoon the children had been outside. Inside ranch owner Ben Cartwright had called in for a family meeting due to Easter.
“Boys, I have called you together because we have something to discuss. And it is mainly about two kids who make our ranch unsafe”, said Ben.
“I didn’t know that Hoss and Joe were still kids because mine never do that”, reacted Adam.
He was the eldest Cartwright son and besides the father of the twins. Two angry looks came up his side coming from his brothers Hoss and Little Joe. Ben though could appreciate the reaction of Adam.
“To keep them busy on Easter morning you hide the eggs in the shape of a search”, said the rancher.
“We will hide them so good that the twins still will be looking for them in thirty year time”, Little Joe, the youngest Cartwright brother said.
“I seem to remember that there were once three brothers who were looking for Easter eggs a whole morning”, said Ben.
“That came because Candy helped Mitchy”, the middle Cartwright brother listening to the name Hoss said.
“You hide the eggs and the twins will look for them. And not a word about it to those two”, said Ben.
His sons nodded.
That evening during supper Mitch and Pam noticed that their father, grandpa and uncles were hiding something from then. They looked at each other understanding and came into action.
“Are we doing anything special for Easter yet?”, asked Pam.
“Just a breakfast and then to church for the church service. Then there is an extended lunch”, replied Ben.
“We do get something of chocolate, don’t we?”, Mitch asked for the security.
“You do get that. You know that, don’t you?”, Adam asked on his turn.
Mitch nodded.
“Why weren’t we allowed to come inside this afternoon?”, his sister asked.
“What do you mean?”, Hoss asked amazed.
“Grandpa said that we had to stay outside all afternoon due to important business. Don’t we belong to that as well?”, asked Pam.
“That is so but I don’t know if business are interesting for you”, said Adam.
“When you are so old that you can’t run the ranch anymore then we have to do it. You always say that you can’t start young enough so.......”, reacted Mitch.
“Eh Mitchy, may I point out to you that we ain’t that old yet”, said Hoss.
“No, but very much older than we are”, his nephew said.
This answer of Mitch didn’t please any of the grownups.
How or what the twins tried, they didn’t find out what their family members had discussed.
Easter.
Like usual everyone was up early in the Cartwright house. But this day the brothers had gotten up extra early. Even though they tried to do as silent as possible this didn’t work out because the twins woke up by the clattering of Hoss and Little Joe.
The brothers hid the eggs as good as possible while Ben received the children.
“Grandpa, Cody needs to go. May we walk with him?”, asked Mitch.
“Go. The eggs are hidden at the yard so stay there”, Ben said for the security.
The twins promised that. The rancher knew that he could trust his grandchildren. Pam grabbed a yellow basket for the eggs. He let them outside where Mitch noticed right away that there was a whole lot going on.
“Cody, find the track of daddy, uncle Hoss and uncle Joe”, he said to the dog.
Cody sniffed for a moment and walked then to all the spots where the brothers had been. By each hidden egg he barked. The twins put all eggs in the basket and in no less than ten minutes after the brothers had come inside the twins returned again but now with a full basket. For the security Mitch had asked foreman Candy Canaday to go and walk with Cody when they had finished with searching.
“Well, that wasn’t very difficult though. Who had hid the eggs? Santa?”, asked Mitch.
“No, us. Why?”, asked Hoss.
“We had found them right away”, his niece replied.
“They were good hidden anyway. How come that you have found them so fast?”, asked Little Joe.
“That has two reasons: 1) we are the children of Adam Cartwright and 2) we had help from a very good friend”, replied Mitch.
Now the twins didn’t tell who had helped them searching and Candy too was silent as the grave.
The grown up Cartwrights did understand that they had to get up earlier to fool the twins. Though it became an Easter for never to be forgotten.