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"It's getting colder!" Emma said in amazement, closing the door before any more of the winter made its way into their cabin. "I didn't think it was possible to get any colder, but it is!"

Sitting cross-legged on the bed, Josiah was preparing the bear hide he had skinned. He lifted his head a moment to look at Emma, and then went back to work without comment.

"That'll make you a good warm coat," said Emma, trying hard to overcome last night's tension. "It was Providential the bear came when it did." Suddenly remembering his disagreement over God's provision, Emma bit her lip. Josiah was already in a bad mood this morning, and she didn't want to make him any worse.

The mountain man gave Emma a defiant glare, but when he saw her regret, he made no argument.

After warming her hands before the fireplace, Emma told Mary to sit down at the table to begin her lessons.

"Lessons?" Mary asked in puzzlement.

"When I was your age, Ma started teaching me my alphabet and numbers."

"What are those?" asked Mary.

"Climb up onto your chair, and you'll find out."

Taking out her Bible, Emma opened it to the book of Genesis. "See this letter? That's the letter 'A.' It's the first letter in the alphabet. Trace an 'A' on the table with your finger like this." Emma made an imaginary "A" on the tabletop, and then Mary followed her example. "Very good! Now we'll make a lower case 'a.'"

Mary's mouth spread into a pleased grin when Emma praised her invisible letters.

"I wish you had something more to write on than this," sighed Emma. Then, getting an idea, she motioned for Mary to climb down. Kneeling on the dirt floor, Emma made an upper case and a lower case "A" in the dirt. "Your homework is to make as many sets of these letters as you have fingers on both hands. Do you know how many that is?"

Mary shook her head, "no."

Holding up Mary's right hand, Emma began counting the child's fingers. When Emma reached ten, Mary asked her to do it again. Smiling, Emma repeated the game, until she finally patted Mary's head and told her to get to work.

Emma crossed the room to her bed, where Josiah was sitting with his bearskin. Bending down, she reached between the buffalo robes to pull out her deerskin dress. She had worn her blue dress to bed last night, and now that Christmas was over, decided it was time to change back into her mountain clothes. To Emma's disappointment, Josiah paid her no mind while she changed. He worked as though she wasn't there, and didn't acknowledge her presence with even the smallest of glances.

Sighing, Emma put away her cloth dress between the robes and then gazed at the trapper. When he didn't look up, Emma took a seat beside him on the bed. In the background, Emma heard Mary's voice sounding out the letter "A" every time she made another character on the floor.

Emma turned her gaze back on Josiah. After skinning the bear he had shot the day before yesterday, Josiah had rubbed the bear's brains into the underside of its hide to make the skin more pliable. Now he was fleshing the hide with a knife, scraping its underside to remove any remnants of flesh and fat, while leaving the thick fur on the other side intact. All in all, Josiah was making a mess on their bed, but Emma held her peace.

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