On a nice day Little Joe Cartwright was in Virginia City. Suddenly a poster caught his eye. He walked to it and read what was written on it,
The young Cartwright felt like going but for him there was 1 problem, he had no girl. But there could be taken care of. Joe went home quickly. In his flashing car he could get a girl somehow.
On the yard of the Ponderosa Ranch the older brothers of Joe, Adam and Hoss, were busy with their cars. The carriages needed to be washed and so that happened.
“Say Adam, it is a pity that Mitchy is still very little”, Hoss said suddenly.
Adam looked at him amazed and asked, “Why?”
“Then he could wash our cars. In return for payment of course”, was the answer.
“In return of payment! I am afraid that my son later when he is bigger won’t do our chores for free. And otherwise his mother will say something about it”, reacted Adam.
Hoss was afraid of that too. He looked at the porch and saw his sister-in-law Mary with their son Mitch appearing.
“There is the clean inspection”, he whispered to his brother.
Adam looked up and saw his wife and son coming.
“Look Mitch, your father and uncle are working hard”, Mary said to the five month old baby.
“Nice one. Showing our son what hard work is”, reacted Adam.
Hoss too didn’t find it a funny remark. But it became worse when Joe rode upon the yard a moment later. He parked his car next to the ones of his brothers and got out laughing.
“If you are busy anyway, wash my car then too. Then it is clean for the dance evening on June 14”, said Joe.
“What dance evening?”, Adam and Hoss asked at the same time.
“There will be a dance evening being held on June 14. There is only one condition and that is that you must take a girl along and then you have free entrance”, Joe told.
Adam looked at his wife and she nodded.
“I know for sure that pa will babysit this boy”, said Mary.
“Hoss, you do go with Betsy?”, asked Joe.
“Sure you bet. I call her at once”, his brother answered.
He abandoned everything and went to call his girlfriend Betsy Kent.
“And you Joe? With whom do you go?”, Adam asked smiling.
“Well, if Joe has nobody and that is the case, then he can babysit Mitch so that pa can go with widow Hawkins”, Mary suggested.
Adam thought it was a nice idea but his youngest brother of course didn’t.
“I go after a girl myself. If necessary on the Internet”, Joe said a bit indignant.
“Just look at http://www.helpilookforadate.com”, advised Adam.
Joe ran inside to start his search. Mitch enjoyed all the attention but the sun made him sleepy.
“You go ahead washing your little car, then I bring our son to bed”, said Mary.
On his computer Joe looked for a few dating sites and finally he had found a good one. Suddenly he saw thé advert standing where he was looking for:
“Mail directly and hopefully it is my dream date”, Joe said to himself.
He mailed his info to the lady in question and he got an instant reply.
In the mail said, “I am a young lady and the name is Clara. I will wait for you at my house and wear a snow white dress.”
Joe was already smitten at Clara and couldn’t wait till the dance evening had started. But his brothers couldn’t wait either. Ben was willing to babysit his grandson so he could avoid widow Hawkins anyway.
It finally became June 14. Adam and Mary made sure that their son was left behind very well and Hoss had picked up Betsy. Joe was the only one who had left early to pick up his Clara at her place.
“I am curious with what Joe goes to that party”, said Adam.
“We shall see that soon enough”, his brother said.
“Do keep an eye on him during the party. You never know what such an Internet date is”, Ben warned.
“We do that pa”, said Adam.
“And we keep an eye on them”, reacted Mary.
They went away with the four of them.
Joe was very curious about his date. At the address that Clara had given he was waiting for a little while when Clara showed up.
“Joe Cartwright? I am Clara Whitman”, she said charming.
“Shall we go then?”, Joe asked smiling.
He offered an arm and Clara accepted it at once. Together they went to the dance hall where the others already were.
Once inside everyone wondered who Joe had with him. Soon Clara had met the other Cartwrights. Clara had a very low opinion of the brothers of her conquering and let that show clearly too.
“Say Joe, why are those brothers of yours hanging around us so? Don’t they have enough with their own dates?”, Clara asked catty.
“Yes, but they are very protective”, answered Joe.
Mary and Betsy heard that question of Clara, they looked at each other and thought the same thing. The ladies took the right into their own hands and threw ‘by accident’ their glasses with red wine across the white dress of Clara.
“Sorry, it was an accident”, said Betsy.
Clara boiled of anger right away with as consequence that her true nature became notable. She began to scream hysterically and her wig fell off whereby it became straight clear that she wasn’t a she but a he. A moment later he ran out of the hall, followed by Joe.
Outside Joe asked, “Why have you cheated on me?”
“To get back at you Cartwrights”, Clara answered furious.
She/he ran away at once so that Joe went inside alone. One look from his brothers and they knew enough. The rest of the evening Joe did entertain himself though he had clearly learned his lesson.
Arrived at home it turned that Ben was still up and of course he was very curious about their evening out.
“Pa, you réálly haven’t missed nothing because the lady of Joe didn’t have much eye for him”, said Adam.
Joe nodded. Ben sighed and looked at his youngest son.
“That way you will never find a woman”, the rancher said.
“I surely will meet the right one one day”, reacted Joe.
Ben knew that too.
BIG PARTY ON JUNE 14 IN DANCE HALL THE LAUGHING COW. ONLY WITH PARTNER FREE ENTRANCE.
Wanted, a gallant gentleman to go out with to a dance evening.