As Jamie tortured himself Ben strode back and fro, his arms crossed, glaring ferociously at the fire as he passed. Joe and Hoss sipped at their after dinner coffee, glancing at each other.

"Pa, you'll wear that carpet out in a minute."

"That boy!"

"I thought we agreed we'd ignore him?"

"Maybe you agreed, Joseph, I didn't!"

"Pa, he's doing it to himself," said Hoss. "You must stay strong. His body won't allow him to starve himself. It just won't. However strong his mind is."

"Yeah, it'll take over and make him eat."

"Like you can't stop your heart by holding your breath."

"And it's only been two days."

"It's only been two days! Yesterday it was it's only been one day. Next week it'll only be seven days."

"He's having a little tantrum, Pa," said Joe. "He thinks we'll all stop and say, 'Oh, poor Jamie!' It'll be a cold day in hell before I'll do that."

Ben nodded. "Maybe you're right. But what if you're wrong?"

"I'm not wrong."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure! Sure I'm sure! You forget, I'm closer in age to him than either of you. I remember what being a kid's like. I remember the schemes, the plots, the efforts I'd go to to manipulate you into doing what I wanted. I wore myself out sometimes." He paused, laughing. "Not that it worked very well with you, Pa."

"You always were a sneaky one," said Hoss.

"Not sneaky. Smart."

"But as I said, you two were different. I'd always been around to jump on your butts when you were out of line. You accepted it."

"Occupational hazard," Joe murmured.

"Whereas he..." Ben shook his head. "Well, I don't know what's going on with him."

"Pa, will yer quit worrying about it? Will yer quit giving him what he wants? You weren't wrong. You gave the little brat a hiding, that's all. Now he can't accept it and is trying to pull himself to bits so you'll feel sorry for him. It's a power game. And if you yield to it, he'll have won."

Ben was exhausted. He sank down into his chair and watched Hoss as he came over and poured him some coffee.

"Thanks, son." He tasted it, screwed up his nose and added some milk. Still not happy, he put in some sugar, then a bit more.

"Don't like your coffee, Pa?"

"Don't like anything at the moment."

"There's one thing you could do, Pa," said Joe.

"What's that?"

"Give him another tanning." He started to laugh and Hoss joined in.

"Oh, very funny. He'd probably cut his own throat just to spite me."

Hoss stood up. "Well, I'm sick and tired of talking about Cousin Jamie. I'm going off to do my evening chores. Come when you're ready, Joe."

"Yeah, I'll go too. Quit worrying, Pa. We've got enough real problems to worry about."

But Ben could not help but worry.