"Hello Lottie!" Two voices rang out, over the last of the lunch crowd.

She looked up. "Joshua! Jeremy! You two get over here right now! I want a good look at you!" She looked them over, smacked Josh on the shoulder, and said," Well, you don't look as if you're starved. And Jeremy, I believe you've grown a foot!"

Jeremy grinned."Nope. St-till only have t-two."

Josh smacked his head.

Lottie was surprised. Jeremy, unprompted, joking in public? Even if it was an old one. My my. "Are you hungry?" she asked the boys.

"When aren't we?" Josh answered for the two of them. "We've been eating our own cooking for two months."

"Well, that was your choice wasn't it? You know you didn't have to."

"There's having to and having to, all different reasons. This time we had to stay. For us."

"I can see that. Where is Jason?"

"P-putting things aw-way," Jeremy answered. ""H-he t-told us t-to to to g-get over here b-before he did, b-bec-cause, bec-cause b-bec-cause –" Jeremy stopped.

"Because he didn't want you throwing him out before he got in. He said you threatened to run him out of town."

"I just told him what he needed to hear. Sit down and I'll bring you a meal. And have one for Jason, too."

"Thank you, ma'am. C'mon, Jeremy."

Jerermy stood his ground. "I w-would l-like to p-play the p-piano, p-please."

"Help yourself. Sing, if you'd like. It's been a while since I've heard your sweet voice."

"M-maybe."

He seated himself at the piano, but he didn't sing.

Josh found a table for them, and Jeremy joined him when the food, and Jason arrived.

"Well, boys, how do you like being home?"

"We w-were home. Th-this is t-town." Jeremy paused. "B-but it is k-kinda n-nice. And the f-food tastes better." Jeremy grinned and took a bite.

"You are one hard-headed young man," Jason said, with a laugh. "This is your home town. You can't argue with that, can you?"

"Probably," Josh answered. "I've seen him argue with a dead stump."

"W-wasn't d-dead. It p-put out shoots after I t-talked to it."

Jason followed Lottie to the bar. "Well, ma'am, are you satisfied?"

"I am. Are you?"

"I'm – not sure."

"Jeremy certainly doesn't seem to have that problem."

"No. No, he doesn't. Staying on your own for several weeks will do that."

"Several? Weeks?" Lottie arched her brows. "So you found out what you wanted to know?" She handed Jason a beer. "Go sit down, I'll bring your plate out."

"They confessed."

"Of course they did." Lottie went into the kitchen.

Jason shook his head and joined his brothers.

"Tell me," Lottie demanded, when lunch was over. Josh and Jeremy had gone out to look up their friends, and she was washing dishes. She handed Jason a towel.

Jason told, while drying and stacking the plates and bowls she handed him. "And I don't know what I should do next."

"Why do anything?"
"How can I not? I can't allow them to get away with that."

"Why not?"

"They'll be doing it all the time."
"Doing what?"
"Why, –" Jason stopped. What had they done that was so wrong? He couldn't find words for it.

"You're still thinking like a parent, Jason. It's time for you to snap out of it. Those young men need a big brother, not a parent."

"I'm not sure I can."

Tell me this, Jason. If your father had done to Joshua what you did, what would you have said or done if he'd shared his plan with you? Would you have told your father?"

"No. No, I wouldn't. And I'd have probably helped him along."

"And?"

"And," Jason said ruefully. "Alright. But what about leaving Jeremy alone? I would never do that. Never."

"What a hypocrite you are." Lottie began putting her dishes away.

"WHAT?"

"You've let that boy roam all over your mountain from the day you started operations. You sent him to school and he came home to an empty house while you were working. This year you let him go back and forth on his own. That boy knows as much as you about taking care of himself as you do, if you wanted to see it."

"He's not been left overnight for any extended period! I can't just forgive that!"

"If Jeremy can, why can't you?" Lottie went back into the main room of the saloon, with Jason following.

Once again, he found himself unable to put his concerns into words. Once again, that made him wonder what his concerns were, if they couldn't be put into words. He'd always believed that words solved problems.

Lottie nodded her satisfaction at Jason's silence, and went about her business, ignoring him.

When he finally left, still wordless, she smiled, and made sure the door had shut behind him.

/

Packages had been arriving for the Bolts, and been put in their town cabin. When Jason came in, Joshua and Jeremy had obviously been going through them. Well, why not? The annual trip was when they usually were outfitted for the year, from head to toe, from the skin on out. There were clothes, footwear, various scents and salves. There were books and notebooks and sheet music and boxes of pens and pencils and – well, a little bit of everything.

Jason watched as they opened things, looked them over, tried them out. A couple of the songs they tried sight-singing, and laughed together.

"We'll have to try it with music," Josh said.

"And without m-me."

"Don't be silly. You just have to use the voice you have at the time. It'll be okay." Josh repeated his reassurance one more time, flicking a glance in Jason's direction.

"What's wrong with your voice?" Jason asked Jeremy directly. "Do you have a sore throat or stuffed head?"

"Stuffed head, that's good," Josh joked.

Jeremy shrugged. "S-sometimes it don't w-work right. S-sometimes it d-does. I ain't sick."

"Good," Jason replied. "We'll have to keep an eye – or should I say ear? – on it." Jason tempered his response by asking himself the question Lottie had asked him earlier. If he responded as Da would have, how would he have responded as himself? He would never have let Jeremy fret himself into a full bloomed illness by fussing over him, that was certain.

Jeremy laughed at Jason's little joke and agreed. He tried on one of his new shirts, and had the cuffs hanging over his hands. He flapped them at Jason, before laughing and turning up the sleeves.

"Well, your arms will catch up with your legs someday," Jason said. "And it will probably be over the summer, since your legs have already started."

"I didn't think you'd noticed," Josh commented.

"Common sense," Jason replied. He wasn't about to admit to Josh he hadn't noticed until he'd returned home. The tailor who'd been making their clothes for years had suggested that it was time for 'the sprout' to start sprouting. Jason had agreed.

"Mm." Josh replied, and Jason thought he hadn't been fooled.

"I th-think my f-feet started f-first. 'Member my shoes?"

"Ha," Josh contradicted, " I think your shoulders started while we were working last summer. Jason, when are we going to start working again? It is starting to be light longer."

"I ordered chains and pulleys. Have they come in yet?"

"B-box of p-pulleys. No ch-chains."

"Here's a couple cases of bath soap."

"I d-don't th-think that will help m-move any logs. Unless they're st-tuck some p-place. Then soap is useful."

"Oh, shut up, you." Josh threw a bar of soap at Jeremy.

Jason sat back and enjoyed his brothers, laughing at their antics and jokes.

As usual, he should have taken Lottie's advice the first time around.