"Now, brothers, I think it's time we got back to work. I'd like to look over the sites we thought about setting up as workcamps. Any objections?" Jason was pulling his boots on as he spoke.

"Which ones?" Josh asked.

"All of them."

"No sense in looking over a half dozen sites when we only have a half dozen men, including ourselves." Josh was getting into his own boots, and he saw Jeremy doing the same.

"I want to choose where we'll start and where we can maybe work later in the season, if – I mean when – we need to."

Josh shrugged. "I guess there's no harm in looking."

"Besides, you know as well as I do, once we start operations, word will get around and we'll have more men than we need." Jason put on a light coat, and his brothers did the same.

"That'll be the day. And how many of them will stay?"

"That rather depends on how much work we have, doesn't it?" They went out the door.

"We're late getting started; some of our usual men will have found other jobs already."

Jason shrugged. "They'll come when they can, or we'll hire replacements."

"Drifters. Nobodies. Young 'uns with no experience."

"That last describes us."

Josh ignored that. It wasn't quite true anyway. They qualified as being of little experience. "We could advertise for help."

"Advertise? Where? How?" Jason was covering ground with his usual long strides. Josh was keeping up well with him, involved in their conversation.

"Anywhere? Any way? Posters, newspapers."

"We're fresh out of printers and newspapers."

'So we'd have to hire out the jobs."

"We'd have to hire people to find people to hire?"

"Uh. Yeah, I guess so. We could start with a full work force, though." Josh was irritated. Jason chose the darndest times to think like a businessman.

Jason stopped, and took a deep breath. "Will it make that much difference? We're late starting as it is, you said that yourself. We've always have men when we need them."

"Jason, if we want to BE something more, we have to act like other businesses do. I'll bet Stempel's already advertising."

"Then hadn't we better get started supplying him?" Jason started walking again, just as Jeremy had caught his breath after catching up with them.

"The sooner we get a stable crew, the more we can do. Have you even thought about advertising for help, Jason?"

"We tried that end of season, didn't we? What good did it do us?"

"Well, yeah, but it was end of season. Everyone who was going wanted out before winter set in."

"We got enough to keep working until almost Christmas."

"Bad investment."

"Bad timing."

Jason stopped again, and turned on his brother. "What do you want?"

"Advertising."

"I'd rather advertise product." Jason crossed his arms, looking down at Josh.

Jeremy caught up with them, again, but stayed behind Josh.

"We won't have any product if we don't have any crew."

Jason huffed out a breath and a half-laugh, and ran his fingers through his hair. "You have a point there. Maybe." He looked at Jeremy. "What do you think?"

Jeremy squeaked. You'd think he'd be getting used to his brothers asking his opinion, but it was still always a surprise. "Weeeellllll," he said slowly, "I g-got some q-questions."

"You would," Josh said, rolling his eyes. "Like what?"

"How m-much would ads cost? What w-would we say in them? W-will we p-post wages? G-guarantee j-jobs? Or how long they are f-for? W-would we want anybody, or men with 'sperience? Or b-both?"

Jason laughed. "Listen to the boy! Can you imagine if he'd had time to think up questions?"

"They are good questions."

"We'll all think about it while we do this, and we'll discuss it later. You keep thinking questions, Jeremy; and Josh, you better have the answers."

"I'll do my best." Josh was satisfied. He'd tried to bring up the subject before, but it hadn't happened.

"Me, t-too," Jeremy said.

Josh laughed, smacked Jeremy's head and pulled his hair. "I guess if it takes you asking questions for me to get answers, I can live with it. Hey, Jason!" The younger brothers hurried after their on-the-move 'elder'.

It was late when they finally got back to their cabin, and they were exhausted.

Exhausted, but satisfied.

"Wish we was working already," Jeremy said, throwing his jacket at a chair, (It slipped off) and heading for the stove. He started adding wood to the embers.

"Yes, it does feel good to have been busy," Jason agreed, frowning as he hung up his own coat as well as Jeremy's.

Josh went to the fireplace, and then started going through the cupboards.

"Not just that," Jeremy said, standing, closing the stove, and wiping the ash on his hands onto his pants.

"Oh?"

"If we was working, somebody woulda had supper cooked at one of the c-camps." Jeremy started the coffee, and set out a skillet and a pan for Josh.

Josh and Jason looked at one another and laughed. He was right, this little brother of theirs.

An hour later, they were sitting around the table, stomachs full and maybe a little too relaxed, talking business. About the four worksites that they had visited, not about the advertising. Jason had banned all numbers from discussion, at least numbers about expenses. If they wanted to talk board-feet, acreage, or manpower that would probably be okay.

"Who w-wants to t-talk," Jeremy commented. He crossed his arms on the table and rested his head on them.

"Talk?" Josh answered. "Who wants to move?"

"Not me," Jason agreed, stretching his legs out and using his feet to pull the empty chair close enough to prop them up on. "I may even sleep on a chair again tonight."

" 'S long as it's by the table, an' not my b-bed," was Jeremy's only objection.

"That was a special cir-cum-stance. Don't try to beat up Josh, or get sick, and I won't have to."

Jeremy chuckled. "I'll try not-to. Don' let him wake me up."

"You could probably scream the house down and I wouldn't hear you tonight. You all can sleep at the table. I'm going to bed. Stretch all my muscles out." Josh yawned and did a pretty good job of stretching while standing. "Good night."

Jason was relieved when he awoke the next morning in his bed. He didn't remember getting there, but there he was. His brothers were in their beds, too. That was good. Jeremy didn't need another night of sleeping in a chair then walking the mountain.

Not that he had complained. He'd kept up well, and participated in the discussions.

Jason had been pleased. From their day yesterday, he was seeing things coming together the way he had always dreamed they would, even before he knew their father was dying. He and his brothers, working together, as equals, (although with an established hierarchy of which he was the head – that was only natural, wasn't it?)

He thought maybe it had been Da's dream as well, and that he would be as pleased.

It was a good way to start the season.

Then he saw the supper dishes still on the table; the pots and pans on the stove, and had to groan and laugh. Not a one of them, not even he, had even noticed that they hadn't cleaned up.

Boy, had they been tired!

Well, it was probably past time for his turn at doing the dishes.

He got up and started water warming and gathering the dishes.

His brothers joined in as they got up, and, working together without words, they soon had everything spic-and-span, neat as a pin. The way they had got used to things being.

"We shoulda waited," Jeremy commented. "Now we'll have to do it all over ag-gain after breakfast."

"Or we could just have sandwiches or bread and butter and eat outside," Josh suggested.

""Ah, yes," Jason agreed. "Invite out any – intruders – that we invited in by not doing it last night."

Jeremy grinned, and mimed crumbling bread from the table to the door. "Should we leave a t-trail?"

"I dare you," Jason said, and his brothers laughed.

They sat out on their porch, eating the leftover miscellaneous food and planning their day, which was to be 'finishing up' what was started yesterday, and to end back in town.