Mrs Carlson said to the children at school, “I want that you write an essay about the grandparents of your mother’s side at the weekend.”
“What must you do when you don’t know them?”, Mitch Cartwright asked.
“Then you must ask your father”, the teacher said.
Then it was the end of the school day.
Mitch went home with a big objection. Not because of the essay but now he had to asked his father about the family of his mother’s side. And then especially her parents, his grandparents. He knew that his Uncle Burt and Aunt Lucy were criminals but the boy was convinced that their parents weren’t that. He also knew that Adam never talked about his parents-in-law but not why.
“Daddy, may I live with the parents of momma?”, he asked the same afternoon.
“No! Mitch, you stay here”, Adam said strict.
The boy looked at him being amazed.
“Am I under house arrest?”, he asked.
“Indeed you are”, Adam said.
“Why don’t you give me room arrest? Then you can be really sure that I don’t get into mischief”, Mitch reacted brutal.
As an answer the young Cartwright got a slap in the face and he got to hear, “To your room and no dessert tonight!”
Mitch fled to his room. Adam looked at him furiously.
Around suppertime Adam entered the bedroom of his son.
“Are you coming for supper?”, he asked at the door.
“Why should I? If I don’t get a dessert then I won’t have no supper either”, the young Cartwright said.
He didn’t even look at his father.
“If you think you get permission from me to live with your grandparents this way you are wrong. I will never ever give it”, Adam said calm.
“Then I just runaway with Cody. Then you will never see us again at this ranch”, his son reacted determined.
“We will see about that. I will say to Hop Sing that in from now on he will have to set the table for one less. As you are going away”, Adam said.
He went downstairs again. Mitch looked at him going but didn’t say anything. Now he felt even more let down.
Around one o’clock Mitch and Cody sneaked out of the ranch house to leave for good. Fortunately everything and everybody was fast asleep so that they wouldn’t be discovered. Mitch grabbed his horse and mounted on. Cody ran next to it like always. Fortunately Mitch knew where his grandparents lived and it wasn’t very far.
When Adam came into the bedroom of Mitch to wake the boy up he found a nice made bed but no Mitch and/or Cody. Adam blinked a few times with his eyes to see if he was dreaming. But it was no dream as Mitch was really gone.
Adam tried to behave as normal as could be after Mitch had ran away but Ben saw through his eldest son right away.
“Adam, why don’t you want that Mitch makes contact with your parents-in-law?”, the rancher asked when they were alone at home.
“Because they are just no good. Mary was one of a twin but they have placed her into an orphanage. Mary told me that when we were going steady. She had never seen them again”. Adam said calm.
Mitch had soon found the house of his grandparents. It was a big mansion surrounded by a big field of grass. The young Cartwright was standing in front of the gate looking amazed and thought: Wow, what a field. Here you can throw very far and hit very well. Suddenly the front door opened and a big slim man came up to the gate. Mitch wasn’t really scared normally but the man looked very freighted at him and Cody.
“Who are you and what are you doing here?”, the man asked.
“I am Mitch Cartwright, the grandson of Carl and Sharon Watts. This is my dog Cody and horse Caramel”, the boy said.
“From whom are you a child then?”, Carl, the man, asked.
“Mary Watts and Adam Cartwright”, the boy answered.
“We only had two grandchildren and that were Jason Harris and Lissy Watts. Get lost or I will blow you and that street dog of yours away”, Carl said gruff. It was like Mitch had gotten a smack in the face. Slowly he walked away from the mansion. Carl went back inside.
“Who was that at the fence?”, Sharon asked, his wife.
“Mitch Cartwright. He says to be the son of Mary. He looks like her but I said to him that he was at the wrong address”, her husband replied.
“Who is his father?”, Sharon asked.
“Adam Cartwright”, was the answer.
It was raining cats and dogs. Ben and Adam were sitting dry in the hotel but they weren’t very relieved. Mitch and Cody were somewhere in town but where? It was not difficult to find them because Mitch was small and walking with a brace around his left leg and Cody was a Belgian shepherd wearing a coat of a brown color.
Adam looked miserable out of the window. It has been a day now since his son left him and Adam missed the boy more than he wanted and could admit.
“Where can they be? I hope that they have found a place to hide”, Adam said suddenly.
“I hope that too but we can only hope, pray and wait”, Ben said.
“I am going to search for them”, his son said then determined.
Ben was too surprised to stop him. Adam left the hotel and walked through the streets of Reno to find his son and dog. Mitch saw suddenly his father walking but didn’t think about it to speak to him. But Cody did. The shepherd barked loudly and that was successful. Adam saw the soaking wet duo sitting in an alley and ran to them.
“Kid, they way you look. Come with me to the hotel. Grandpa waits there for you and Cody”, Adam said.
He saw how badly the boy looked and needed a bath very badly. That’s why they first went to the bathhouse. Mrs Watson answered the door when Adam had knocked on it.
“Can this boy get a bath?”, he asked polite.
“Of course he can and the dog too”, the woman said.
She went ahead of them to a room where two washing-tubs were standing. Not much later Mitch and Cody got washed. Adam noticed that his son was not very talkative since their reunion. Mitch hadn’t said a word to Adam and/or Cody.
After the bath Mitch and Cody walked with Adam to the hotel. Mitch kept on looking around him to see if he could not get away but Adam had taped him twig and grabbed the boy very tightly.
“You come home with us now!”, Adam said strict.
“Never! Let me go”, Mitch yelled but it was deadly quiet on the streets so that only Adam heard him.
Mitch tried to get loose which ended up in a fight between father and son. Adam hit his boy so hard that Mitch just became scared of his father. Cody came between them and made peace. Mitch walked along good and avoided the look in Adam’s eyes.
In their hotel room Ben was still waiting for his eldest son and only grandson. When the door opened and his offspring entered the rancher noticed right away the very cool relationship between Adam and Mitch. The boy crawled up into a corner and didn’t leave it anymore.
“They were sitting in an alley and were very dirty and wet. That’s why I had let them have a bath first at the bathhouse. But underway to the hotel Mitch tried to get away in which he didn’t succeed. We got into a fight and I hit him a bit too hard”, Adam told his father.
Ben looked from Adam to Mitch and the other way around.
“Mitch, are you coming to eat?”, Ben asked to change the subject.
“No, I don’t want any food from you. He just keeps on hitting me”, Mitch answered furiously.
“I am sorry that I hit you too hard”, Adam apologized to his son.
“I won’t accept your apology. You will continue to hit me anyway in the future”, was the reaction of Mitch.
“That will never happen again. It hurts me more than you”, Adam replied.
“I bet it won’t. I don’t trust you anymore”, Mitch said and he didn’t give anyone a look.
“We are going to have supper. If I discover that you are away there will be a whole heavy thing for you. Then you would wish that you were never born”, Adam said strict.
“That is already so”, Mitch groaned.
At the diner room of the hotel Carl and Sharon Watts came up to the Cartwrights.
“Adam Cartwright?”, Carl asked the youngest.
“Yes. What can I do for you?”, Adam asked at his turn.
“You must learn Mitch to leave old people alone. We are not his grandparents after all and will that never be that for him”, Sharon said.
“I only know that he wanted to get to know you but not why. He is with us so if you wait a moment”, Adam replied calm.
He left the dining room and went to the hotel room where Mitch was lying on bed crying for being lonesome.
“Kid, what’s the matter?”, Adam asked worried.
“For school I must write an essay about the parents of momma. That’s why I wanted to get to know them. I knew that you wouldn’t let me and so I ran away. Together with Cody and Caramel. I knew from Aunt Lucy where they live but they showed me the door”, Mitch told crying.
“It is alright. Wash your face and come then downstairs”, Adam said.
Mitch got up and washed his face. Together they went downstairs. Mitch saw Ben, Carl and Sharon sitting and looked at them questioning.
“Young man, you might be the son of our daughter Mary but that doesn’t mean that you are our grandson. Besides, our grandchildren would never be crippled. As you are so that means you are no good”, Carl said.
“Was Juliet Harris your daughter-in-law?”, Mitch asked without shyness.
“Yes, and she looked very well after her little son Jason”, Sharon said.
“She had made me cripple by pushing me under a stage”, Mitch said.
Sharon looked shocked at Adam and he nodded as confirmation.
“Grandpa, are we going back to the ranch?”, Mitch asked Ben then.
“Tomorrow we go back home”, the rancher promised.
Mitch went to sit with his father and didn’t look at his grandparents anymore. The couple got up and left. Adam took Mitch into his arms and gave him a cuddle. Slowly the boy started to cry again. Ben ordered three meals when Mitch was a bit calm again.
“Mitch, do you understand now a bit why I am so strict and concerned about you? I don’t want to lose you”, Adam said while they waited for their order.
Mitch nodded.
“May I not play outside anymore?”, the boy asked.
“Of course you may. But you must stay at the yard. Promised?”, Adam asked looking at his seriously.
“Promised”, Mitch said. Because he had been outside all day Mitch got sleep very quickly so that they ate on so that the boy could go to bed.
After a good night rest and a heavy breakfast the Cartwrights went home again. Mitch was not looking forward to it but Ben and Adam had assured him that Hoss, Little Joe and Candy would understand why he had ran away.
Underway Mitch asked, “Daddy, can you help me with that essay?”
“Of course I want, can and will do that”, his father answered.
Ben looked at them and noticed that the relationship between father and son was good again.
Not much later they rode upon the yard.
“Adam, you help your son with that essay”, Ben said to his eldest son.
Adam nodded. Hoss, Little Joe and Candy were at work already so that Adam and Mitch were having the house to themselves.
“Write down what you know about them and then I will check it at writing and spellings mistakes”, Adam said.
Mitch began to write while his father went to read the paper.
After an hour Mitch said, “Daddy, ready!”
“Give it here”, Adam said while he folded up the paper.
Mitch gave the paper and looked at his father questionable. Adam checked it thoroughly but could hardly find anything wrong.
“You have done it excellently. I hope that the teacher will be pleased with this as well but we will see that then”, Adam said amazed.
On Monday morning Mitch delivered his essay by Mrs Carlson. During the math’s lesson the teacher checked all essays.
“Mitch, can you come over here for a minute?”, she asked friendly.
Because Mitch didn’t understand something he took his book along as well.
“Have you written this by yourself?”, she asked almost silently.
“Yes. Daddy did check it but he couldn’t find a thing that was wrong according to him”, the young Cartwright replied.
“It is the best of all so far. Did you have anything else to ask?”, she asked.
“Yes, I don’t understand this sum. I can’t see what it reads”, Mitch said a bit shy.
“I want to talk to your father about your situation because I don’t like it one bit that you must get ten times the same explanation. Try it first yourself”,, the teacher said.
Mitch nodded and went back to his place. He thought: Forget it with that stupid essay. The rest of the day Mitch was the bad dog at school. The boy was very pleased then Mrs Carlson returned the essays where after they could go home.
“What do you have for a mark?”, Patty Jenkins asked Mitch.
“An a”, Mitch said.
“I only got a d and mine is much longer”, Patty snarled.
“I got a b”, Matthew said smiling.
Now Patty was getting even more angrier. Fortunately Adam came riding to talk to Mrs Carlson. Patty went home quickly while Mitch and Matthew went to play baseball for a while like they did every afternoon after school with the other children.
Mrs Carlson asked Adam, “According to me Mitch does not belong at this school. By coincidence he had gotten a good mark for his essay but that is it. Is he at home also so very lazy and stupid as at school?”
“Not at all . He just has very much difficulty with reading and writing. But that doesn’t mean that he is stupid and lazy. On the contrary. When I was teaching at this school last year I discovered that he just need some more personal guidance at school. But as you have drawn the wrong conclusion I am forced to take my child from school and teach him at home”, Adam reacted.
“Keep him at home then. In his place a more gifted child can come. He must take an example of Patty Jenkins. She is always nice and does her best”, the teacher said.
Adam kept silent, grabbed the school things of his son and left the school building.
“Mitch, you ain’t going to this school anymore because she thinks that you don’t belong there. I teach you everything you must know”, Adam said to his son.
Mitch didn’t mind at all although he had gotten a good mark for his essay.