Man of the West

Chester Birkshire was a spoiled rotten child being raised by his wealthy father, who has little time for him, and a housekeeper who loved him as much as his mother would have if she had lived. She went along with his father’s method of raising him even though she didn’t understand or agree with it.He had no friends so a bored boy had lots of weird demands most of which in his father’s opinion added nothing in the way of experience for his later life. He went through a multitude of things that he did just until he mastered it and then he moved to another to another faze.For all his spoiled ways he was none the less quite a gifted child excelling at all his strange ventures which included such things as mastering the English long bow, fencing, horseback riding and shooting.As he grew older his ventures turned to more mature things like drinking, gambling and carousing which often involved fighting. There was a steady flow of girls in and out of his life, most were women he found that just wanted the same excitement of an affair that he did and were not disappointed when he tired of them and moved on. Others saw his father’s money behind him which made him the target for those who saw themselves married to him and living in relative luxury.He had followed his father’s wishes and was attending law school but having little interest in it he only attended half the classes. Godfrey Birkshire knew that he had made many mistakes in his upbringing by allowing him every silly wish or whim, but he saw him now as a man and it was a man he was beginning not to like. He had to do something and that something would have to be drastic.He called for a meeting with his son Chet, who at twenty three was rapidly becoming a disappointment, but it was a disappointment that he had to take the full responsibility for. He had spoiled him every step of the way and now he had to take the responsibility for spoiling him.It was a harsh answer and a difficult one as Godfrey slid the envelope across the table toward the waiting young man. One thousand dollars was a lot of money for most people, but for someone like him it was a drop in the bucket. With as much money as Godfrey had that was the easy part but he also instructed him to move out of the house and find his own way in life.He was secretly proud at how well his son took it but he felt it was because he knew nothing about existing in the outside world, but he had hopes he would learn quickly like he did in all his other endeavorsIt was a life that led him to the west and into the arms of a girl he though would be the last person to have any interest in him.