It was nearly Thanksgiving Day 1968. At the Ponderosa they celebrated it with munching of a turkey. Normally this one got bought raw but this year there was so much to be done that Ben Cartwright had forgotten to order it on purpose. Fortunately there was walking around a living turkey at the yard.
Ben said, “Hoss and Joe, I give you the order to catch that turkey and to kill it. Hop Sing will do the rest.”
“Can't Adam and Mitchy do that even better? Mitchy is much faster than the two of us together”, Hoss said.
“You know that Mitch doesn't want anything to do with that beast as long as he is walking around. That is the reason why I want to have him as a Thanksgiving dinner. Adam must help him with his schoolwork”, his father replied.
“Are you coming Joe? Then we go on a nice turkey hunting trip”, Hoss said jollyful laughing.
Little Joe said light hearted, “Let's hope that the turkeys don't shoot back.”
The brothers grabbed their revolvers and rifles laughing and they went to try to catch the turkey.
Hoss and Little Joe spent the whole afternoon with catching the turkey who of course wouldn't let catch him. The diatribes were flying over and again at the yard. The infamous book of sobriquets became that afternoon about nearly three thousand pages longer.
Inside Ben, Adam and Mitch heard that.
Mitch asked, “Grandpa, I thought that we were not allowed of you to talk such language?”
“No, you may not indeed but your Uncles are trying to catch that turkey. I am sure that they won't succeed”, his grandfather replied.
“Mitch, shall we play a joke on Uncle Hoss and Uncle Joe?”, Adam asked smiling.
“Okay. What do you want to do actually?”, the boy asked curiously.
“We catch that beast with a lasso and kill him then. When that has happened we put down a letter for them in which is written that they can expect a visit of king Turkey himself. I have seen them busy from the shed and had trouble to keep from laughing all the time”, Adam explained the mean scheme.
“Daddy, I didn't know that you were so mean to your younger brothers. But I am in”, Mitch said with laughing eyes.
At the office of the ranch house Adam wrote as neat as possible the letter for Hoss and Little Joe. For getting not recognized as the writer Adam wrote the letter with his left hand although he never did this.
It took Hoss and Little Joe so much time to catch the turkey that they gave it up by evening time.
“I give up. Let Adam and Mitchy do it then”, Hoss said.
“I agree. They won't succeed either”, his younger brother reacted.
They weren't aware of the mean plan of Adam and Mitch. When they came inside their brother and nephew were already out of sight. Ben was reading a book with Cody near his feet.
The rancher saw Hoss and Little Joe coming and said, “This afternoon a letter got delivered for you. I don't know who it is from.”
Hoss grabbed curiously the letter and opened it. He read it with big amazing and gave it then to his younger brother. He was also amazed when he had read the written text.
The letter said:
Dear gentlemen H. and J. Cartwright,
Because you have been chasing one of my innocent kind I will pay you an unexpected visit to punish you for this.
Signed,
His Royal Highness King Turkey.
“When I find out who has this on his conscious he won't make it till Christmas 1869”, Hoss groaned.
Little Joe asked then amazed, “Where are Adam and Mitch anyway?”
“They are going for a ride”, Ben said light-hearted.
He knew very well what his eldest son and grandson were doing at that moment. But he didn't let it show.
Adam and Mitch caught the free walking turkey with a lasso and got so hold of the animal. With a simple finishing stroke the pitiful turkey moved to the land of the eternity hunting fields where many turkeys before him moved to live there.
Mitch stood there looking at it and said, “I still think he is a scary beast.”
“Mitch, he doesn't live anymore so he cannot hurt you anymore like he did before. That is why Grandpa wanted him to be slaughtered”, his father said.
During feeding the animals the turkey picked the youngest Cartwright regularly in his arm and hand. Mitch was not so very tall and that made him an easy target for the turkey. After having complained to Ben and Adam about this problem the rancher had made this decision.
During supper Hoss and Little Joe looked from time and time again suspiously to the front door.
Mitch said at a certain moment, “Why do you keep looking at the front door? Santa Claus doesn't come any sooner than next month.”
“We got a letter from king Turkey this afternoon and he wrote that he will pay us both an unexpected visit because we chased one of his own kind the whole day”, Hoss said.
“I didn't know that every animal had his own king? That is only with people, isn't it?”, Mitch asked amazed.
“That is true”, Ben said.
Then Hop Sing came in with seven desserts. At Ben, Hoss and Little Joe one got placed but Adam and Mitch each got two to eat. Hoss and Little Joe looked with jealous looks at their brother and nephew.
Little Joe even dared to ask, “Hop Sing, why are you giving Adam and Mitch two desserts and us not?”
“Mr Adam and little Mitch caught turkey for Hop Sing and Mr Hoss and Little Joe not. Catchers would get two desserts of Hop Sing”, the Chinese cook answered laughing.
He disappeared again to the kitchen. Now Adam and Mitch were forced to tell everything.
Hoss and Little Joe groaned, “Some people have all the luck.”
“You know what they say: the luck with the silly ones. But that doesn't count for me because I am extremely brilliant and very modest”, Mitch said dry.
“It is alright Mitch. We don't want that you suffer from a swelled head”, little Joe said.
“I leave that to you”, the boy said.
Now nobody had really nothing more to say.