Pleasant climbed down from the sleigh first and hurried to the school house to get out of the cold. Margaret took her time being helped down by Bertie then hurried to join Pleasant at the door where they curtsied to their teacher.

Alice met them at the coat closet as they stripped out of their coats. "May won't be in school again today?"

Pleasant shook her head. "She just isn't feeling well," she said.

"It happens a lot," Margaret said.

Pleasant hung her coat and pail on a hook and made her way to her desk with Alice. "May had battled tuberculosis all her life," she said. "My aunt wants to send her to my mother in Missouri where it is warmer but I don't want her to go."

Alice put her books on her desk. "Have you heard from your mother recently?"

Pleasant shook her head. "When she does write her letters are short and rehearsed. May and I nearly wrote her a book but all she replies with his be good, I love you... or something like that." She looked down. "She didn't even tell me how happy she was with my grades."

Alice placed her hand over Pleasant's and smiled. "It will get better," she said. "Maybe she is just very busy."

As the teacher entered the classroom the girls stood at their desk. Pleasant could only hope that Alice was right.

That night she sat awake in her room looking up at the glow of Ursa Major on the ceiling. She had given Landry to May to keep her company while she was sick but she felt she could use him right now. When she heard Susanna come up the stairs she blew out the candle and climbed into bed. She lied still until the maid returned downstairs then climbed out of bed and went over to the window.

It was a cloudy night and even the moon was hard to see. A few of its beams shone through the veil and onto the snow covered yard. Pleasant was entertaining herself thinking what it must be like to be a moonbeam when something moving across the yard caught her eyes. It seemed to be a shadow with a life of its own. As it passed through the moonlight she leaned forward to get a better view only to strike her head on the glass.

"Ow!" she rubbed her forhead and looked out the window again in time to catch a black tail vanish into the darkness.

"Miss Pleasant?"

Pleasant spun around as the bedroom door opened and Susanna stepped in.

The maid shook her head. "Get to bed, Miss Pleasant, tomorrow is Saturday and you have an engagement with Miss Alice."

Pleasant climbed into her bed and let Susanna tuck her in. "I thought I saw something outside my window," she said.

Susanna smiled. "It was just a trick of the moon and snow," she said tucking the blankets around the girl. "Now, goodnight. Don't let your aunt be the one to catch you up."

Pleasant smiled at the young woman as she turned and left the room. Rolling over she looked to the window again. "A trick of the moon," she said with a yawn.

/

The next day Margaret-Gay and Pleasant met Alice in her family courtyard. The bricks had been shoveled clean, leaving the perfect place for Alice to play and keep her boots dry.

"Look!" she said as the other girls joined her. "My sister Hattie sent me a skipping rope." She held up the toy. "We can take turns with it if you want."

"Skipping rope is for children," Margaret said. She went over to one of the benches around a fountain and sat down. "I'm so frustrated."

Pleasant sucked her teeth as she took the rope. "You're always frustrated."

"But this time I really am," Margaret said. She frowned at the other girls as they went on playing. "I'm frustrated because—" she growled as the two of them fell into giggles as Pleasant tried to skip rope.

"You've never done this before?" Alice asked her. "Here, I'll teach you. Start with one leg at a time and step through. When you get better you can go faster."

Margaret-Gay stood up. "Are you going to keep ignoring me?"

"We're not ignoring you, Margaret," Alice said. "It's just by now we all know why you're frustrated. You don't want to marry Daniel or have anything else to do with him."

Margaret joined them. "I wasn't going to say that," she said. "I was going to say I am frustrated because mother says I am not allowed to play with Espen anymore."

Alice decided to pay attention. "Why?"

"Stupid reason!" Margaret said. "She says it's because I'm a lady and can't run around with boys anymore. She says that white boy is trouble. What's next? She won't let me play with you?"

Alice frowned. "What's wrong with me?"

Margaret rolled her eyes. "You're white, Alice."

"Oh," Alice said looking down.

"But Alice is a girl and your mother said boys," Pleasant said. "Maybe she thinks it will improve your behavior."

Margaret gave her cousin a sour look. "But she allows me at the Purefoys."

"They have daughters," Alice reasoned. "And besides your mother is always with you when you go. Anyways Espen is twenty now and we're still just children."

Margaret billowed. "I am not a child! I've started corset training and entertaining women when my mother is out. I'm not a child!"

Alice stole a glance at Pleasant. "Say, Margaret," she said holding up the rope. "What do you say to a few skips for old time's sake?"

Margaret tried not to smile. "Oh, give me that thing!" she said snatching the rope. "Now step back, Pleasant and let me show you how it is done."

Alice and Pleasant lopped arms and laughed. There was never a dull moment with Margaret.

After getting their fill of playing outside the girls went into the parlor where a maid lit the fire and brought them sticks to roast marshmallows on the rug.

Margaret blew on her marshmallow to cool it then took a bite. "Mother would be cross with how many I have eaten," she said as she chewed. "She is terrified I'll get too fat."

Alice stuck another marshmallow on her stick. "I've eaten hundreds and hardly gained a pound," she said. "This is my favorite place to sit in the house on the coldest nights. My sister and I used to stay up for hours roasting marshmallows and nuts. I miss her."

"I am glad I do not have any siblings," Margaret said picking the last bits of marshmallow from the stick and popping them into her mouth. "I've never gotten lonely for one."

Pleasant starred into the fire, her marshmallow hovering just above its reach. "We used to roast marshmallows in Mississippi too," she said and the other two girls turned to her. "Only we had bonfires outside."

"We do that sometimes in the summer," Alice said. "Though I prefer to be inside."

Pleasant nodded and took her marshmallow from the flame before it caught fire. She found herself day dreaming back to the times in Mississippi along the banks of the ever hungry river with her sister and parents. She missed fishing, and watching the steamers pass but most of all she missed her father. When she thought of her mother and how she didn't write as often she felt alone and out of place among these wealthy girls in their taffeta and banana curls.

When they got back to Singer Springs Pleasant went straight in to see May who was up in her bed working on a quilt.

"You're back," May smiled. "Tell me all about the time you had."

Pleasant took a seat on the bed and crossed her ankles. "We roasted marshmallows indoors," Pleasant said and May's eyes grew wide. "Oh and Alice has a jump rope she wants you to come play with some day. She made me promise to tell you that. Mostly they talked about all the new inventions they can't wait to try and the World Fair in a few years."

May smiled. "Next time I shall go," she said. "Oh, a letter came from Mama."

Pleasant felt her spine straighten at the words. "What did it say?"

"Not much," May admitted. "She said she loves us and will send money for spring clothes. Do you want to read it?"

Pleasant shook her head. "That's all right," she said.

May tilted her head. "You seem sad, Pleasant."

Pleasant smiled. "I'm not," she said. "Really. I just miss them both is all." She sighed. "I could eat upstairs with you if you'd like."

"Best not," May said. "Aunt Amy gets cross when you do. She thinks you should come down to dinner."

"Very well," Pleasant said turning to the quilt. "It is very pretty."

"Thank you," May said. "I hope one day to sell my quilts around the world if I ever get good enough." She picked up a tissue and dabbed her nose. "Would you will me to travel, Pleasant?"

Pleasant turned so her knees were on the bed. "I will you to go as far as you please," she said. Crawling to the foot of the bed she grabbed hold of the footboard. "So where to first, my lady?"

May giggled. "The moon!"

Pleasant nodded her head and took up makeshift reins. "Gallop, flying horses!" she shouted. "Onward to the moon. Take a left at the Little Dipper and onward!" She flipped the reins as May laughed and the imaginary hoses carried them on a sleigh bed to the moon.

/

Baldwin looked up from his lesson plan as Espen entered the school house. His brother never came to the school unless he had a complaint to make. For himself, Baldwin couldn't remember exactly when he and Espen stopped getting along as well as they once did.

"May I help you?"

Espen removed his hat and took a seat in a student's desk. He gently set it on the desk then looked up at his brother. "Is it true that you told that girl she could be a teacher here one day?"

Baldwin scoffed and shook his head. Espen was always to the point. "What does it matter to you?"

"It matters to everyone," Espen said. "Say she does become a teacher. No one will let their daughter attend the school. No white woman anyways."

"You really shouldn't concern yourself with it," Baldwin said. "Their mother could send for them any day now and they'll be gone."

"Is that what you are counting on?" Espen pressed. "Say she doesn't send for them. What then? Are you going to renege on your promise? I know Baldwin Monhollen and he never goes back on his word." He smirked. "You'll ruin the town."

Baldwin sighed. "And what will you do? All the rest of us know what we will be but you still behave recklessly and immaturely. I don't blame the Singers for complaining against you with the reputation you are building for yourself. I wouldn't want you near my children either."

Espen leaned back in his chair. "You think I'm a bad influence."

Baldwin shrugged. "The Singers seem to have that impression."

"How amusing," Espen said. "I take it they know not what sort of person Daniel Purefoy has already become. I pity Margaret-Gay. She'd be better of married to someone else."

"It isn't your business," Baldwin said. "She has her cotillion ball soon...perhaps she will meet someone else but it is none of our business what goes on in other families. We can't dictate to them how to behave and treat their children."

Espen got up. "It is really a shame you feel that way," he said. "You've seen what sweeping things under the rug can do to a person."

Baldwin felt his skin grow hot. "You come in here lambasting me for telling Pleasant Day she can be a school teacher yet in the same sitting you upbraid me for minding my own business. There is no satisfying you , Espen! If you wish to make a fool of yourself before the Singers than go right ahead. Go yourself and find Miss Margaret a husband. You are not her father or her brother and her affairs are none of your business."

Espen put his hat on his head. "I shudder, Baldwin," he said. "I shudder to think what sort of place this town will be when you inherit it. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

"And I shudder to think where we would be if you were first born," Baldwin said and dismissed his brother by turning away from him.

Espen sheathed but he knew the argument was over. Baldwin always had a way of doing that. He turned away slowly and went back into the cold night not knowing rather or not anything he said had an effect on his brother.