Josh leaned over the edge of his bed. "Jeremy, are you asleep?" (He knew he wasn't. He'd been moving around and his breathing wasn't right for sleep.)

Jeremy took in a deep breath. Should he answer Josh silly, like Jason did him? Should he maybe not answer him at all? Pretend he was asleep?

Josh waited, while Jeremy was trying to decide.

The silence was broken by Jason chuckling.

That made Jeremy chuckle, too. He knew why Jason was laughing. "No, Josh. Why?"

"That's what I want to know. Why aren't you asleep? Are you worried about something?"

"N-no," Jeremy answered slowly. "Not really."

"Was working at Ms. Amelia's too much for you?"

Good question, Jason approved mentally.

"D-don't think so. It was – it was g-good-byeing. I liked d-doing it. I'm going to make her a m-marker out of her tea table."

"That'll be a lot of work if you expect to make it last."

They could hear Jeremy shrug. "J-just seems right."

"Is that what's keeping you awake? Figuring out what you'll put on it?"

"No."

"Then what?"

"I don't know."

"Guess I can't help you, then."

"No." Jeremy paused. "Thanks for w-wanting to." He was quiet again for a few minutes. "When I came to g-go back to school, sometimes I'd go by her house coming home. I know she w-wasn't there, but I still did it." He sighed. "I wish I c-could've d-done something for her, when she – when she – when she was alone."

"I don't think she was alone. Ever."

Jason had been about to say the same thing.

"You don't? Why?"

"You said, the last few times you talked to her, that it seemed like she was talking to Mom more than you. Mom and Ms. Sarah."

"Uh-huh."

"Well, if she was talking to them, they must have been there, don't you think? She wasn't a person to ramble on when no one was around; you know that."

God bless Joshua, Jason thought.

"Huh." Jeremy thought that over. It was a soothing thought. "If only I c-could know."

"You probably do. You just got stuck on thinking about not knowing that you forgot. I'll bet she said something to you that she could only have known from Mom."

"Maybe. She was always t-telling me to t-tell Jason things that Mama said."

"There. See?" Josh finally settled back in his bed. "Now go to sleep, so I can."

"It wasn't – I don't know the w-word – it was just n-normal stuff. D-doing a g-good job, and to b-be patient with us, stuff like that."

"You think about it. You'll think of something that's close to that time, that we were doing at that time. You will." There was no doubt in Josh's voice. "Go to sleep."

" 'Kay," Jeremy mumbled, turning over (again) onto his side, his back to the room.

"What was that about last night?" Jason asked Josh once Jeremy had left for school.

"What? Oh. Jeremy."

"Yes, Jeremy."

"Oh, that."

Jason looked at him.

Josh laughed. "I was worried he was fretting himself into his nightmare, so I distracted him. Gave him something else to think about. I figure he dreamed about Mom singing to him all night, or something. He was cheerful enough this morning."

"That he was. More coffee?"

"May as well."

Jason refilled both cups, and set the pot aside, before seating himself. "Strange you should say that, though. I dreamed of Mom myself. She was laughing at me. In that I-know-something way of hers. Her blue skirts swishing and her eyes dancing, and like she was dancing in a spotlight of pure sunlight."

Josh laughed.

Jason smiled, and turned the conversation to the day's work. They had already tacitly agreed to staying in town this last week of Jeremy's schooling, especially after Josh had pointed out they had no income to pay the men any further at this time.

("One thing's for certain," Jason had said. "The town's going to be in need of lumber. The question is how much."

"You mean we aren't going to donate it?"

"Now, Josh, there's no reason to be sarcastic."

"You're the boss.")

Jeremy was still in a good mood when he got home. Josh had given him an idea about how to remember one war from the other, and the battle names thereof, and important figures. (Jason called them characters, which helped, too. Just peoples in stories. Or songs.) There were an awful lot of those, but he was mostly supposed to know the American ones. He hoped.

He put on coffee, spread out his books, and got out his guitar, and a couple of spoons to tap on the table with.

When his brothers came in, he was happily involved in his song and his history book. Sometimes he sang softly, almost soothingly; at other times he used his full voice with da-das and la-las and tumty-tums, before going back to his crooning.

Jason and Josh stood in the doorway looking and listening to Jeremy, and then looking at one another.

They laughed and Jeremy jumped out of his skin, then grinned at them and waved.

"A new way of studying?" Jason asked.

"N-nope. N-new way of l-learning."

"He can learn anything set to music, or even just with a rhythm," Josh said. "We were talking about how he could keep all the old ballads in order – historical order, that is."

Jeremy threw his history book at his brothers. "Ask me. Anything."

Jason had caught the book, with a frown at his ebullient brother. He thumbed through the pages, back and forth a few times, and made up a question.

Jeremy answered correctly, several times in a row, and crowed like a rooster.

Jason and Joshua laughed with him.

He did miss a few. It wasn't perfect, but enough of an improvement to pass a test. They hoped.

Friday, Jason and Josh were waiting in the street when school let out. Jeremy ran up to them. "All d-done. Can we go to Our Own C-cabin right now?"

Josh and Jason looked at one another, laughed, and slapped hands.

"You don't even have to pack," Jason told him. As they started walking to their town cabin.

"How'd you do?" Josh demanded.

"I th-think I d-did okay. The history was still the hardest, an' I prob'ly got my lowest score there. It'll be two weeks before w-we know." Jeremy ran ahead of his brothers and hopped into the back of the wagon. "Let's go!"

"Maybe let us get in before you start the horses off with your big mouth," Jason suggested, grabbing the bits as the startled horses took a step or two forward.

Once he and Josh were on board, he turned to Jeremy and rubbed his hair. "Shout away, little brother. It's good to hear you."

"OKAY! HOORAY! Goodbye town, you ol' mudhole."

"He sounds like he might be happy."

"Imagine that."

"You guys are funny." Jeremy lay back on top of the canvas cover and started singing. Every now and then, Josh would harmonize with him for a verse or two.

Eventually he fell silent, and listened to the sounds of the wheels and the horses and the birds and the trees and his brothers. The sun was shining this late April day, and everything was perfect.

"Jason?" he spoke up suddenly. "Jason, what's a bond fire?"

"A what?"

"A way to destroy old bonds. You heap them all together and set them on fire."

"Ha ha."

"Jason laughed."

"B-because you're a j-joke."

"Jeremy, why do you ask me things like that? Where did that even come from?"

"Inside my head."

"And out your mouth, right?"

"Josh, shut up!" Jason and Jeremy together, and Josh laughed. So did they.

"Don't you know?"

"Offhand, no. I don't."

"You're supposed to."

"Sez who?" Josh asked.

Jeremy shrugged.

"We're here," Jason announced (unnecessarily), stopping the horses. "Let's get unpacked and settled in. Jeremy, you get to light the fires. That's your reward for asking questions about them."

"B-better than having to c-carry stuff in and go out for more," Jeremy agreed cheerfully.

"That's the problem, Jason. He shouldn't be rewarded for stuff like that," Josh pretended to grumble.

Jason and Jeremy shared a look and spoke again in unison. "Shut up, Josh."

Josh laughed.

Jason folded his cards. "That's it for me, boys. Once again, you've broke me, Josh. Hope I don't need those buttons anytime soon." Jason took his coffee cup and saucer to the dish pan.

"Oh, I can let you have those back," Josh said grandly. "I'm keeping the coins, though. Hey, if you want, I'll even throw in Jeremy's bread crumbs and wood chips."

"Nah, you can keep those. Or give them back to him."

"No," Jeremy said.

"Pot's empty," Jason said. "Either of you want any more?"

"No, we're ready to turn in, too. At least I am. What about you, baby brother?"

"Not a b-baby." Jeremy scowled.

"If you play poker with crumbs and woodchips, you are."

"Ha." Jeremy dumped his dishes into the dishpan. "I started out with three pennies and a dime." He wiped his place at the table. "There. You're the last one up, you get to do the dishes."

"Lucky me. Mebbe you'll be asleep before I get to bed, and then I'll get some decent sleep." Josh washed up the last of the dishes, dried them, and set them aside.

"Better than I will," Jason commented. "I'll probably be awake for hours thinking about fires. Might even imagine a few. If I sleep, I may even dream of them." His tone was teasing, but he didn't sound happy.

"I wondered what you were so quiet for." The dishes were going into the cabinet and Josh rebuilt the fire to burn through the night.

Jason sat on his bed and pulled his shirt off. "The thing is, I get the feeling he was right. This is something I should know."

"T-told ya." Jeremy was already wrapped up in his bedcovers and hiding under his pillow. He didn't look out.

"Yeah, you did," Jason agreed, finally getting under his covers. "I think we deserve a day off. Let's do nothing tomorrow."

"Won't we get hungry?" Josh set the chairs back into place around the table and turned down the light until it went out. Now the room was a dull gold from the newly refreshed fire, and he looked around and nodded with satisfaction. All neat and proper and clean. A good end to a night; a great start for a morning. He made a running jump for his bed.

Silence fell.

"Hey, Jason," Josh said.

Jeremy giggled.

"Hmm?"

"Didn't we do something at the old place?"

"As I recall, we did a lot of things at the old place. Eat, sleep, play, work, chores, things of that sort."

"Shut up, you," Josh said to the lower bunk that seemed to be laughing at him. "No, I meant something like a fire picnic."

"Keep talking."

"It must've been a fall thing, because what I remember was being disappointed that we didn't have it, because he had to get born so early Mama never went outside, and then we never did it again."

"Hmm. Sort of our own harvest celebration, I suppose."

"I don't know. Kinda young to remember anything clearly, but I remember wanting and waiting for the big fire. Maybe I – or we?- helped Da build it?"

"Or start building it," Jason mused. "Yes, I think I remember doing that a few times. You may be on to something. I wonder…"

The silence resumed, and the breathing of the younger two settled into that of deep, regular sleep.

While they slept, Jason remembered…