For a few days now there was the smell of fresh baked cookies hanging in the air in the ranch house of the Ponderosa. And each morning the cookies box empty. The Chinese cook Hop Sing became desperate from it. He decided to confront the inhabitants of the ranch, the Cartwrights, with it.
One evening after the dishes Hop Sing came to the living room. He was moody all day and the Cartwrights had noticed that very well.
“Hop Sing, what is the matter?”, Ben Cartwright, owner of the ranch, asked.
“Hop Sing being very angry because baked cookies get stolen each time”, raved the cook.
“Hop Sing, can it be a bit more quiet?”, asked Adam, the eldest son of Ben.
The cook looked at Adam amazed.
“Mitch lies here in my arms and he tries to get to sleep”, Adam answered looking at his son of two months old.
“Hop Sing wants to know who stole cookies again”, said the cook.
“Mitch not in any case. And I not either”, reacted Adam.
Then everyone looked at the younger brother of Adam, Hoss. This one looked around amazed and knew that they suspected him for the familiar reason.
“I have only smelled them but not eaten them”, answered Hoss.
“That shall be so”, said Little Joe, the youngest Cartwright brother.
At that moment the brothers and Hop Sing looked at Ben.
“Mr Cartwright perhaps stole cookies?”, asked the cook.
“I wouldn’t dare. Maybe they are in the stomach of Joseph”, said Ben.
Now eight pair of eyes looked at Little Joe.
“Alright, I will confess it. I have taken them along the first evening to give them to Shirley Willis”, answered the young Cartwright.
“Little Joe naughty boy”, said the cook.
“I am sorry Hop Sing. I will never do it again”, Little Joe said aback.
“Did Shirley like them?”, asked Hoss.
“No, she thought I wanted to poison her with those cookies”, his brother answered.
The Cartwrights started to laugh but Hop Sing didn’t. He nearly jumped out of his skin.
“Hop Sing only makes delicious cookies. Not with poison in them”, said the cook.
“Hop Sing, calm down. When Shirley didn’t want them I gave them to Louise Collins for her teahouse. She had lost them right away and placed another order. So I took them away again”, said Little Joe.
He grabbed quite a pile of bills of money out of his pocket and gave them to Hop Sing. Now his face brighted up.
“Hop Sing bake now even more cookies”, the cook said laughing.
He disappeared again to the kitchen.
“I just hope that this is very temporary”, Ben said with a deep sigh.
His sons hoped that too. But they also knew now that they couldn’t just take the baked delicacies of Hop Sing away.