HOME (?) AGAIN
By the time they got to their cabin, Jeremy had been tossed on the back of one of the horses pulling the wagon. That way he could still participate in any conversation, and the older two could continue walking. Neither noticed that the closer they got the faster they stepped.
"Finally," Josh said. Place looks good, doesn't it?"
Jason said, "Grab a box or a bag. Better yet, one of each. You, too," he said to Jeremy as he lifted him clear of the traces.
"M-make sure one is f-food," Jeremy said to Josh who handed him two sacks.
"Just one? Or just one for you?" Josh teased.
Jason finished unloading what they would need and took the horses and wagon around the back and got them under shelter and taken care of. It took a bit of time.
When Jason entered the cabin, his brothers were standing and looking around.
"I thought you'd at least have coffee started."
"Neither the fireplace or the stove has been cleaned out," Josh answered.
"One of you could have done the stove and the other the fireplace, and you'd mostly be ready by now."
"My t-tree is gone," Jeremy said.
"It was becoming a home to rodents and insects. I took it out and tossed it against the treeline."
"B-but if you were here, h-how come you didn't fix the firep-place. Or the stove?"
"I didn't need either." Jason perched on the edge of the table.
"Uh-oh," said Josh. He began raking the fireplace out.
Jeremy looked from one brother to the other, puzzled.
"In fact," Jason continued, "I figured I wouldn't need a fire, or a stove, until I came back in the spring."
"I guess you didn't," Josh said. "Of course, it'd be a lot easier getting it started if everything was ready for it."
Jason grinned. "You think so?"
"Jeremy, get a box to put these ashes in. I told you before, you're getting sneaky."
Jason laughed. "Nothing sneaky about it. That's what you told me when we were leaving for the season."
Josh stood in the fireplace, looking up the chimney. "Looks okay. Can see all the way to the top, not a lot of build up."
"That's 'cause we almost had a fire, little b-bit afore we left, 'member? You made me climb in there and scrape and scrape."
"And then we had to use your clothes in the new fire," Jason agreed.
Jeremy giggled. "You p'etended to th-think I was a log and throw me in."
"Now would I do something like that?" Jason busied himself wiping dust from the table, mantle, chairs, and other furniture.
"There," Josh said, finishing his work and pulling the box across the room to the stove. He went back to the fireplace and began building a fire.
Jeremy got the coffeepot ready.
"I'll do that," Josh took it from him. "You get to clean out the stove. I'll get some food started in the fireplace."
"I n-never did that b-by myself," Jeremy said.
"There's a first time for everything," both his brothers said.
Jeremy looked from one to the other, then shrugged. "I g-guess so. Wh-why c-can't I have a j-job that don't get me dirty?"
"That's what baby brothers are for," Josh told him. "They get stuck with the dirty jobs because they got no one to pass it off to."
"If I was a baby, you wouldn't let me anywhere n-near the stove."
"He's got you there,"Jason said, laughing.
Josh, also laughing, agreed.
An hour and a half later, they were cleaned up and at the table enjoying their meal The lively discussion had been over what to call the meal, and after several rejected ideas, they settled on lun-dinne-per.
"What is the diff'rence between dinner and supper?" Jeremy asked.
"How much silverware you use," Josh answered.
Jason laughed and shook his head. "Mom would be ashamed of you, Josh. Not that you're entirely wrong, because you aren't. A dinner is a more formal meal than a supper, Jeremy.'
"What's formal?"
"More silverware."
"Joshua!" Jason couldn't help laughing, and that made Jeremy laugh, too.
As the boys were doing dishes, Jason began unfolding the thick blankets he had brought with them. "Do you boys want to clean your beds tonight, or sleep on the floor and do it tomorrow?" He'd taken care of his own bed while the boys watched in between their other cleaning chores.
"C-clean our b-beds? How c-come? We ain't never done that before."
"You go climb into your bed and then you can tell me," Josh advised. "We done enough cleaning the last couple a days, and it's getting too dark to do a really good job. I'll sleep on the floor."
"Good thing you got the floor cleaned up from that earlier mess, isn't it?"
Josh laughed.
Jeremy came back to the table, looking disgusted. "It stinks, an' it ain't nice."
"Mold and cold, 'cause everything's old," Josh said. "Because we didn't take everything apart before we left, everything's just been sitting here all winter, getting moldy and coldy."
"You mean we gotta do m-more stuff t-tomorrow? Why?"
"Jason's teaching us a lesson. We cleaned the town place real good so we won't have a mess like this when we go back, and then we came here and have to clean up from the mess that we left before we can just live here. Which way is better?"
"Sounds like you may have learned a thing or two."
"What made you think of that?"
"I didn't exactly think it out, but –"
"No surprise there. You never do."
"Never's a harsh word, Josh. But I admit, it's not my strong point. But – you needed to learn it, and we all learn best from doing instead of being told. The work stays in your muscles better than words in your heads."
"'Specially when its preventable." Josh started laying out blankets near, but not too close, to the fireplace.
"It's like this, boys," Jason said seriously, pulling Jeremy closer so he could keep an arm around him. "We don't have anyone but us, to take care of our things. Our things, our responsibility. Out here, we can't borrow firewood from a neighbor, or a cup of sugar. We have to do the work. Even in town, we shouldn't count on others' generosity. They'll get tired of it, eventually, and it will make us look bad. Right now, we're trying to look like we know what we're doing. We want to show the others that we can be responsible for ourselves, and when we start work again, we'll have the responsibility for our men, too."
"We won't have to make their beds for them, though," Josh told Jeremy, who moved a little closer to Jason.
"No, it doesn't go that far," Jason agreed. "Although it will be our jobs to take care of the equipment any time we break camp. Because we'll have to replace it if we don't. Make it ourselves, or buy it from somewhere, it's for us to do it. It's either gonna cost us energy and materials, or energy and money that we may not have on hand. It's going to take all three of us, working together, to get things done properly and appropriately."
"What if something happens?" Josh asked. (He had nightmares about Jason getting hurt, and then where would he and Jeremy be?) "Like someone gets sick or in an accident?"
"That's why we all need to learn how to do everything," Jason answered. "If – a big if, but possible – if one of us gets ill or injured, it will only be two of us doing the work, plus taking care of the other. Imagine what might happen if, say, Jeremy here gets sick. Suppose I take him into town and hire somebody to take care of him while Josh and I continue working way out here? How long do you think it would take for someone to decide I'm not capable of taking care of two boys and a business at the same time, and they decide to haul Jeremy off to an orphanage?"
"O-or a 'sylum?"
"Or an asylum."
"I'd run away, b-back to here."
"You may not be able to, if you're sick or injured."
"D-do it anyway," Jeremy insisted.
Jason and Josh exchanged amused glances. He'd probably die trying, they were sure.
"Don't you think it would be better to never let it happen? Now get your bed made up in the floor – no, you're not sleeping with me."
Josh snorted and Jeremy grinned, a little embarrassed that Jason knew what he'd been hoping for. Of course, there was always after Jason went to sleep, but that could take a long long time.
"I guess maybe you do think about things," Josh said.
"More than you know, brother. I just don't worry about problems I don't have."
"Uh-huh." But Josh was relieved. Jason's lack of planning was something he saw as a character flaw, and he was trying to fix it. It was a good thought that maybe Jason did listen to him, at least sometimes. "C'mon, kid, I'llhelp you. We'll probably sleep better if we use all your blankets as a mattress, and just mine for covers, if we sleep close enough together. Do you want to do that?"
"I'll bring in more firewood for morning," Jason said while the other two worked out their arrangement.
They were settled in place when he came back inside, and after stacking the wood, he turned out the light and went to sleep listening to his brothers breathing.
He only hoped that they had taken his words to heart.