Teaspoon Hunter's Intro

Teaspoon had watched the lads for two days. He had them chopping wood, cleaning the stables, breaking broncs, and running here and there doing any type of job that Teaspoon could think of. Most of them were doing very well, but he was having trouble making up his mind about some of them. And two of them weren't very good. One was so clumsy that Teaspoon just couldn't seem to get it in his head to hire him at all.

The other one was very lazy at doing chores, and it seemed to take him forever to get anything done. He was good at riding though. He was also strong, but he rarely liked doing any hard labor. He always seemed to trick one of the other lads into doing his chore while he watched and talked to them. But mostly Teaspoon disliked him because he was full of himself, always boasting about something he had done in the past. The other lads didn't seem to like him much either, and they did their best to ignore him.

Teaspoon had already decided to hire Buck, Ike, Kid, Jimmy, Noah, and Cody had already been hired, but Teaspoon would have hired himself even if he hadn't already been hired by Chrisman. Now that was six riders. He could do with four more, but he had five more to choose from. He dreaded doing away with some of the riders because he never liked the idea of having to tell someone that he just couldn't hire him right now. But he just couldn't convince himself to justify hiring two of the riders. They just wouldn't make any good contributions to the group. He needed a group that worked well together, and that got along well together, but these two lads just didn't seem to fit that portrait.

"Cody, gather the troops." Teaspoon said.

Cody had just finished sweeping out the bunkhouse, and he stopped by Teaspoon who was standing on the porch.

"Hey fellas, come on over. Teaspoon has something he wants to say." Cody hollered.

They all stopped doing their chores or standing around talking to walk over to the bunkhouse. All of them were hoping that Teaspoon would choose them to be Pony Express riders. Some were fidgety, afraid that they wouldn't get hired.

"Alright lads, I only need eight riders. So if I call your name then that means I'm hiring ya." Teaspoon paused to make sure everybody understood him. Some of the lads nodded to show that they understood. He pulled a piece of paper out of his front pocket to make them think that he had wrote his final decision down, but really it was just a piece of blank paper. "Alright Ike, Buck, Kid, Noah, and Jimmy. Now I had a hard time choosing the other three, but I finally decided on Alex, Andy and Lou." He paused to let it sink in.

Alex, Andy, and Lou wanted to jump for joy, but they knew better. They had to play it calm like the other guys. Otherwise, they might give it away that they were girls or the other guys might tease them if they showed too much emotion. All three couldn't believe that they had made it. They were now official Pony Express riders, well almost. They knew they would have to prove that they could do the job just as well as the others.

"Remember lads, you will be on a trial basis for a month. If any of you prove unworthy then I'll have to let you go. So you all do your work, get along, and everything should be just fine. I'm sorry for those of you who I didn't hire. If I have any positions in the future, I'll keep you in mind."

The clumsy goof, Ted, wasn't all that surprised when Teaspoon hadn't picked him. He knew he wasn't any good at riding or breaking broncs. But he had tried. Now he would have to look for another job. He said goodbye to everyone and headed East.

The other one, Lloyd, who was the lazy one, didn't take the news so well. He was very angry. "I can't believe you hired these scrawny three over me. You'll be sorry. You'll all be sorry."

Teaspoon watched as Lloyd rode off. He might be trouble for them in the future. He would have to keep an eye on him. "Cody set up a routine watch around the station at night for a while. Just until I'm sure we won't have any trouble from that one."

Cody nodded. "Will do, Teaspoon."

"Now fellas our practice runs start today, and I need three volunteers now, and two for this afternoon. Any volunteers?"

Everybody nodded and said, "I'll go." Teaspoon liked that everybody had volunteered.

Alex, Andy and Lou knew that the sooner they proved themselves to Teaspoon, the better chance they had of not being fired, so all three had immediately volunteered.

"Ok, Alex and Andy you two can take the runs this afternoon. Now everybody go back to what they were doing except Lou, Jimmy and Kid. You three can start the practice runs, so get your horses. I'll have your mochillas ready."

Lou, Jimmy and Kid saddled their horses, received their mochillas and directions from Teaspoon and took off for three different destinations. Teaspoon watched as they rode out. He had decided that he wanted to send the three scrawny ones out now. He wouldn't coddle them. That way if they weren't suited for the job, then they would all find out sooner than later.

Teaspoon sat down in the chair and watched as Noah hung on for dear life to one of the broncs. Hired as the stable hand just a few days ago Victoria, also known as Vic to her closest friends, brought Teaspoon a cold glass of lemonade, and he thanked her.

She watched Teaspoon watching the newly hired riders. “I think you chose some pretty good ones to ride for the Pony Express.”

“I hope so.” Teaspoon replied. Victoria smiled and then returned to the house to help Rachel. He was content that he had made some good choices, but he knew only in time would he tell if he had made a wise choice or not.

Andy and Alex were over by the corral watching Noah. Ike and Buck were chopping wood, and Cody had just come out of the bunkhouse. He had put the broom away. Now he was done cleaning and straightening the bunkhouse, so he walked over to the corral. He would give Noah a hand with breaking the broncs.