Jason continued taking the boys with him, but made it a point to bring them back at the end of the day. It wasn't like he had any deadlines or anything. That was for the future.
The near future, but still the future. The bright and successful future.
Da seemed to be doing better. He wasn't sleeping so much, because the boys heard from others about him going around town and such. He seemed to be eating a little better as well. His temper was more even, and he had become the more thoughtful self he had once been.
Something still wasn't right, but Jason couldn't put his finger on it. It worried him.
"Jason, could you be taking charge of the boys for a week or two? I have some business that must be seen to."
"Not a problem, and they'll like that. So much grumbling when it's time to come home of an evening."
"Well, you can come home whether they like it or not."
"With the daylight ending so late and starting so early, it will be easier to stay. They'll be delighted."
"I'll leave in the morning after you do then. Best pack some extra gear for them."
"We can handle it, Da. May I ask where you'll be, in case we need to get in touch with you?"
"Olympia; maybe Oregon after that. It depends. I'll notify you. Don't let the boys fall off the mountain, now. I don't want to be getting any such message."
"I don't want to be sending any such." Jason laughed. He probably wouldn't dare, since Joshua was unlikely to be that careless. He might not even be in any state himself to send such a message, should that disaster occur.
"Tis settled, then," Da said, and ended the conversation.
Jason watched him, speculatively, and then shrugged. Whatever business it was, Da seemed content with it.
In the morning, the boys seemed glad at the news, but mornings can be hard to tell about things. They did get dressed and eat their breakfast a little faster.
Before they left, on their way out, Jeremy went to their father and put his hands around his face and just looked at the man for what seemed like a long time.
Josh started to speak, and Jason nudged him back to silence.
Jeremy hugged their father and ran happily enough to his brothers.
"You are such a baby," Josh said as they went out the door.
A promising start to the day, Jason thought amusedly, putting the youngest boy up on his shoulders.
"Pffft" was Jeremy's reply, from safety, to Josh, and Jason laughed.
It turned out, in fact, to be a very good day.
"Well, boys, we're certainly learning about the problems in this business," Jason said ruefully at the end of the week.
"Nothing new," Josh said, with a glare at Jeremy.
"What'd I do?"
"Got lost. Wandered into work area. Went to sleep out there. Got lost. Broke the grindstone. Threw ropes into the fire."
"That was a accident."
"What were you doing with the ropes? You got no business with ANY of the equipment."
"D-don't remember now. You yelled it out of me."
Jason managed to not laugh at that. To not even smile. Josh had probably scared a lot of memories out of them all over that incident.
The problem was, of course, that a logging operation was no place for a child, not even a self-reliant child.
Still a child.
A fledgling operation at that. In a sense, the business was also a child. So he had two children on his hands? Add Josh in as a half-child, that made almost three children. Then there was Billy, one of the three hires, who appeared to be barely old enough to shave but could put in a day's work with the others. He'd been cheap to hire, too.
"I'm running a nursery," he said out loud, interrupting his quarreling brothers, who both turned to look at him.
After a moment of thought, Jeremy answered "No. Not til you let me plant the baby trees."
Josh snorted. "He meant you, dummy. You're the baby."
"No. Not a baby. Jus' little."
Josh snorted again.
Hmm, Jason thought. Maybe a tree nursery would be something the boy could be assigned to, and a place for him to stay away from work zones. Could he stay there, though? He did have a tendency to wander around.
"Tell me about your baby trees."
Jeremy studied him briefly, then nodded. "I got – have 'leven. That's two for every one you cut. So we don't run out."
"Like we're going to run out of trees!" Josh objected.
"Where did you get the idea of running out of trees?" Jason asked.
"You said. I think."
"When did I say any such thing?"
"When I was sick."
"I did?"
Jeremy nodded, and turned to Josh. "The b-babies ain't for us."
"There ain't nobody but us."
Jason was as interested as Josh in the response to that!
"Right now there isn't. But someday it won't be right now. Da splained it to me after Jason said it. When I was getting weller."
"Well," Josh corrected crossly. "So why don't you explain it to me?"
"And me."
"Don't you remember, Jason? You said that big word, an' I askt you what it was and you said it was people that wasn't yet."
"That – sounds like something I'd say to one of your questions, but, no, I don't remember saying that at that time. Of course, I was pretty tired then."
"Maybe Da said that. I don't remember exzackly. My head was funny."
"When isn't it?"
"Josh."
"Just joking."
"Jeremy, do you remember the word?"
"Uh-huh. It feeled – felt like a church word when you was saying it."
The older brothers waited.
"Are you going to tell us?"
"Oh. Yeah. Ginny-ray-tions. Remember now?"
" Not really. But the generations after us is something I think about every now and then. I hope I said something good about them."
"It feeled – felt good." Jeremy nodded. "Like when w-we stand on the edge and see everything and everywhere and everywhen. An' the-the ginnyrations is th-there in the everywhen."
"I can understand that, but what does it have to do with trees? It'll take generations to use up what we've got here."
Jason, beginning to remember, waited with Josh for Jeremy's answer. He, too had had talks with Da about the future of the family property.
"Yeah, an' when that times gets here, then my b-baby trees will be growed up like the ones we're taking d-down, an' instead of being gone, there will be some more for the running-out-of-trees ginny-generations to have. It'll take 'em that long to grow that b-b-big, y'know."
They waited while Josh thought that over.
"Okay. How do you think of these things?"
"How do you NOT?" was Jeremy's rather tart response.
Josh grinned. "You know what? You're pretty smart for a dumb kid."
Jeremy scowled.
Jason laughed.
Jeremy and Joshua looked at one another and started laughing, too.
That ended the Bolt Brothers first week of industry on a good note.