Jeremy woke in the morning with a sore throat and a slight fever. He blamed the sore throat on Jason – making him drink HOT WATER. His throat was probably scalded, which it wouldn't have been if he'd just been allowed to drink his coffee as usual. He wanted to blame the fever on Jason too, wrapping him all up and trying to cook him, but – he had to admit part of that was his fault.

He'd just been so excited to tell Jason about the teacher that he hadn't grabbed his coat when he tossed his books onto the table. Of course, he hadn't known, then, that it was snowing up higher, but he probably should have thought of it.

Or he could have just kept his fire burning warm.

Or gone into the tent and wrapped up in a blanket or something.

Not that he'd exactly realized he was cold.

"Good afternoon, sleepyhead," Jason said. "How are you feeling?" He was holding a cup and saucer.

Jeremy scowled.

Jason smiled. "Would you like some coffee?"

Jeremy sat up and threw off his covers, then looked at Jason.

"Yes, you can get up, if you feel like it."

Jeremy marched across the room to the table and sat down,

Jason, with a laugh, set him up with coffee.

HOT coffee, Jeremy discovered. He'd been half fearful it would have been his leftovers from last night, saved for him.

But it had never been Jason who did that sort of thing. "Th-thanks." Jeremy cleared his throat. "No m-more hot w-water."

"It served its purpose."

"Huh."

No one could use a single syllable to express more different feelings and thoughts like Jeremy. "We think we've found out about your teacher. And you're free from school. For now."

"Sh-she's n-not c-coming b-back?"

"If she did come back, we wouldn't let her teach. You don't seem heart-broken."

Jeremy grinned at that, and Jason laughed.

"Wh-what happened?"

"She ran off with Running Hawk. They're to be married – or already are – according to his customs."

"Oh. " Jeremy thought that over. "Are they -are they-are they g-gonna f-fight over her?"

"No. Says he wouldn't have her now."

"W-well, I'd rather have R-run-n-ning Hawk th-than him, too."

Jason laughed again, and put a plate of scrambled eggs in front of the boy. They'd been setting on the back of the stove waiting for him.

Jeremy poked at them with his fork. "They l-look l-like food."

Jason tousled the boy's hair. "They taste like it, too. Eat up. Do you want some bread?"

"Uh-huh."

Jeremy ate quickly but neatly. Jason refilled his cup as he finished eating.

"Jason?"

"Hmm?"

"How c-come you m-made m-me d-drink hot w-water?"

"Wanted to get you warmed up faster. And I didn't want you to have coffee on an empty stomach. You may not have noticed, but you get really cranky when that happens, especially at bedtime. I wanted to get you warm inside and then warm you up outside."

"Wh-where's Josh?"
"Out and about. You know him. Any particular reason?"

Jeremy shook his head.

Josh came in carrying a decorated treasure chest.

Jeremy's eyes widened. "Th-that's Ms Melia's."

"She says it's ours." Josh set it on the table. "She gave it to me a little while ago. She said to tell you everything's in there. What's she talking about?"

"She-sh-she's okay?"

"For now. Ms. Sarah passed.I met her when she was coming back from the church, and she told me to follow her. So of course I said 'yes ma'am'. She gave me this and said she'd promised you she'd see that we got it."

"What's in it?" Jason asked."Open it."

"It's M-mama stuff. H-how to c-cook th-things, an some l-letters sh-she wrote s-sometimes, and s-songs and lil p-pictures she drawed, and some r-rocks, and p-pine c-cones. A k-keep box,, Ms. Melia said. S-some b-books that she wrote in ever' d-day, that D-da asked her to hold after he started g-getting b-better."

"Her diaries? I wondered what had happened to them, but thought Da had left them behind." Jason opened the chest and lifted out a half dozen covered books.

"No, for a while, he'd read from them every day," Josh said. "I always wondered if he went by dates, or looked up certain events, or what. I thought he'd burnt them up when he quit reading them."

Jason picked up two sketchbooks and flipped the pages. He occasionally glanced at one or the other of his brothers, but didn't speak. When he was through, he sighed and put everything back."Do you two want to look, or shall we put it up for now?"

"Are you g-going to h-hide it?"

"Hide it? No, I thought I'd just put it over on the shelf for now." He did so as he spoke.

Joshua and Jeremy were looking at one another, and Jeremy looked like he was wilting.

"Are you feeling bad again, Jeremy?" Jason asked, more out of curiosity as to how the boy would answer. "Why don't you go back to bed for a bit?"

Jeremy was staring at the chest. "Okay. J-jason, th-there ain't n-nothing b-bad in it?"

"I didn't see anything. Why?"

"Da wouldn't n-never l-let us l-look. And when he l-looked, he'd c-cry and cry. And yell at us."

Josh nodded confirmation when Jason looked his way.

"Well." Jason said, and ran his hands through his hair. "Well, it's there, and you can look through it whenever you want, as long as you aren't supposed to be doing something else." Hey, he'd been a boy once, and one who escaped chores, especially inside the house, when he could get away with it.

"Okay," Jeremy said and went back to bed. "I feel a lil bit t-tired," he explained.

"A deep chill will do that," Jason agreed solemnly. "Rest all you can."

"I'm not sick."

"No, you're recovering."

"Yeah." Jeremy curled himself into a ball and buried himself under his covers.

When he woke up, it was dark. That wasn't really a surprise, with it getting dark earlier and earlier (like every year), but it was later than he expected. His brothers had eaten supper already!

"We saved some for you," Josh said, when Jeremy sat up and looked outraged.

"Does it have f-food in it? I'm not sick; don't need no soup."

"It's a nice thick meaty stew," Jason answered. "Will that do, Mr. Particular? We have fresh biscuits, too."

Jeremy scrambled out of bed. He was hungry. He wondered why Josh was laughing at him, but who cared anyway? Josh was always laughing at him about something.

Jason looked happy though. He wasn't smiling, exactly, but he looked happy. Now THAT was important.

Jeremy grinned at Jason and he returned the smile. Apparently, for once, the boy had taken no harm from his chill. Thank god.

"What are we g- going to d-do tonight?" Jeremy's glance flickered to the chest on the shelf.

"I'm going to Lotties. You're staying here, for tonight. I don't know what Josh has planned; you'll have to ask him."

"I can stay around," Josh said, stretching out. He , too, had seen the glance. "Unless you'd rather be alone."

"No."

"Then I'll stay in and watch you all night." Josh opened his eyes wide and looked at Jeremy.

That made Jeremy laugh.

"Sure you don't want to stay and help me?" Josh asked Jason, still teasing. "You never know what he'll get into when he's had too much sleep on top of hot water!"

Jason and Jeremy both laughed.

"I'll not be late," Jason said.

"G-good, you-can read some m-m-more story. Only just start where it gets interesting."

"It won't be interesting if you don't know the background. I'm not going to skip parts of the story. You know that."

Jerremy shrugged, then grinned at Jason. "Least I tried."

"That you did."

Jason and Josh continued a conversation while Josh gathered up the dishes and heated water. Jeremy wandered around doing this and that. When it became apparent that he wasn't going to approach the box in the presence of both his brothers, Jason finally got up and left, making a silent drama of stopping to put on his coat before opening the door.

Josh took his time doing the dishes and cleanup while Jeremy circled around his objective. He had often sorted things out in his own keep box that same was Jeremy's way; always had been. Cautious in/with new situations. Sometimes Mom had giggled and said she guessed he learned that when he insisted on being born too early and just wasn't ready for it.

Josh was sweeping when Jeremy finally pulled the chest off the shelf, and opened it there on the floor.

He sorted through the things solemnly, sorting them according to his own needs. He spent a long time looking through the sketchbooks. He studied the music sheets thoughtfully, occasionally humming or whistling a selection that he found familiar. He tenderly ran his fingers over the pine-cone, acorn, and other homemade 'jewelries' and other projects the boys had made for their mother as they grew.

Josh was making Jeremy's bed when he heard his brother make a choking sound. When he looked, he could see tears running down the younger boy's face, although with no other sound. In his hands was one of the brothers collaborated gifts. They had worked together, each brother creating a face on a pine cone, and they had then fitted the cones together in a stack, and told Mama it was her totem pole.

One had eyes of blueberries, one had eyes of some type of nut, and the other had eyes from acorn crowns. There were various forms of wings, noses, and even hair (Jeremy's word; Josh had always thought of them as quills. Symbolically of course. They had actually been several varieties of evergreen needles.) The boys had also used scraps of cloth or yarn or thread, and even had made a few paints to add color. It couldn't be a totem pole without colors!

The totem pole had been a birthday present for her last birthday, although they hadn't known that.

Come to think of it, that had been the last time they had celebrated any birthday.

Jeremy must have felt Josh looking at him, because he looked eyes reminded Josh of the glacial lakes here in the mountains; so blue and watery. Jeremy held the connection, and Josh went to sit on the floor beside his brother.

Josh put an arm around Jeremy, Jeremy leaned into Josh, and his hands rebusied themselves among their mother's keepsakes.

They sat and talked, murmuring 'do you remember?'s and 'look at this' and sometimes laughing quietly at the memories.

That was how Jason found them.

Jeremy smiled brightly at him as he entered, and waved a sheet of paper at him. "L-look, Jason. M-mama kept the p-paper I wrote your name on and you m-made a st-tory that made her laugh. She even wrote the story on the b-back!"

"She laughed so hard she cried," Jason said, taking the page. That was one of his favorite memories – that of making his mother laugh like that. She had giggled about it often, many times, afterward.

Jason sat on the floor with the boys, and they continued browsing and sharing stories and comfort.

It was going to be an interesting winter inside as well as out.