At the Ponderosa the grownup Cartwrights were busy all month december 1871 with the needed christmas preparations. They had to do that in secretcy and so that Mitch didn’t discover anything. They knew that the boy was very bright and that was sometimes in their disadvantage.
When Adam and Hoss came home with the untrimmed christmastree Mitch asked directly, “May I help trimming him?”
“That is the chore of children?”, Hoss asked his brother in a teasing way.
“Yes, they certainly must do that. Because if they don’t they won’t get anything of Santa Claus”, Adam answered.
“Yeah, but it is then my birthday as well”, was the reaction of Mitch.
The brothers laughed.
“What do you want for your birthday?”, Hoss asked after the fit of laughter.
“A new baseball glove if it is not too much trouble. The one I am using now is almost completely worn out and a bit too small”, Mitch said.
He knew that it was a bit expensive present sand that’s why he went outside. Hoss and Adam looked at each other and the latter nodded. He went after his son.
He said at the porch, “Kid, if you want to have a new glove for your birthday to play good baseball, then you will get that.”
“But daddy, it is far too expensive?”, Mitch asked worried.
“It is only your birthday once a year. And seeing that you are my only child and probably will be too I can spend it better on you than in the saloon at booze and gambling”, his father said.
“Good”, Mitch said shy.
They went back inside and within two hours the christmastree was shining in the living room. Mitch was very fond of it. Especailly when the tree gave light. Mitch in particuliar liked it.
The next day Adam and Mitch went to Reno to buy a new baseball glove.
“Do you know which colour you want?”, Adam asked underway.
“I don’t know yet. I have always used a brown one and it felt great”, Mitch said.
“So a brown one probably”, Mitch asked for the security.
His son nodded.
When the duo arrived at Reno they rode straight to the shop where they had to be. When Mitch saw the shop from the inside he didn’t know where to look. Pretty soon Sue Williams came up to them. But Mitch already knew which one he wanted. The first glove he tried on fitted perfectly right away.
“Daddy, I want this one”, the boy said to his father.
“Good.Then you get this one. Will you look around any further?”, Adam asked.
Mitch nodded and gave the glove to his father.
Adam said to Sue, “This will be it and can you wrap it up?”
“Of course it can. Just come along”, she said friendly.
As an extra present Adam added a ball to it. While the grownups were doing that Mitch looked around another time. It was for him paradise on earth.
When Adam had paid it cost him a lot of time and trouble to get his son outside again. Finally Mitch went along. All the way home the boy spoke about all the baseball material which was for sale in that shop.