Miriam heard her sister's approaching foot steps before she opened the west parlor door. She dressed in a coat and mittens and bundled to perfection. "Miriam?" Taitiann said gently. The brooding eldest sister hadn't said much since her arrival. "Selene and I are going on a sleigh ride. Do you want to come with us?"

Miriam continued to stare out over the powdered lawn. It was Sunday and she hadn't been out the room since service that morning.

"Miriam?"

"No. No I do not."

"But you can't stay here all day. You never come to Supper. You don't talk to anyone..."

Miriam closed her eyes tightly. "Leave me be."

Taitiann stared at her sister's back. As the years progressed she could feel Miriam slipping further away from them. "We'll be back before Supper." She closed the door behind her leaving Miriam in still, cold, silence.

/

White was the color of winter. The cold weather pushed at Heloise's coat as she stood on the bank next to Alifair. Hannah was between Astrid and Josie being helped to skate on the ice.

"Look at me!" She shouted to her land bound sisters. Her dark red coat stood out among the white as she hobbled on the ice trying to keep her balance.

Astrid left her with Josie and returned to her sisters on the bank nearly falling forward as she came to a stop. "You ought to at least try it."

"I'm not sure how safe it is," Heloise said.

"If I can do it, you can do it," Astrid said. "I've never ice skated before."

"But you've roller skated."

"Come on, Heloise," Astrid pushed. "It's a mystical world just like in your stories." She reached out her mitten protected hand and reluctantly Heloise took it. Astrid pulled her forward until she was standing on the ice. "Come on Alifair."

"No way!" Alifair crossed her arms. "I'm not getting all cut and bruised."

Heloise wobbled in her skates. She felt her feet slide from beneath her and the next thing she knew she was on her back with Astrid looking down at her.

"You can do it, Heloise!" Josie shouted as Astrid helped her up. "Practice makes perfect." She gave Hannah a push from behind sending her gliding out gently a few feet.

Heloise held both of Astrid's hands as she steadied her. "Astrid, I'm going to fall!"

"Slow steps," Josie said as she skated up. "Slow gliding steps."

When Heloise tried to move forward with her left foot her right one slipped out behind her sending her crashing to the ice.

"That's all right," Josie said.

"Did you fall so much when you first started skating, Josie?"

"I was born ice skating!" Josie boasted as Heloise once again got to her feet. Josie pushed off reaching high speed. "I love Moosehead!" she shouted throwing her arms up and letting velocity pull her across the ice. "Come on, keep up. We can go visit my cousin Nate a few houses down."

Astrid took Hannah's hand in one hand and Heloise's in the other. "Come on, Alifair we're moving down the lake."

Alifair had made several snowballs and was starting on another. "I'll stay here, thank you."

/

By the time the four girls reached Josie's cousin their skates were hurting their feet. They played in the snow for a few hours before being served hot chocolate then getting on their way.

"Looks like snow again tonight," Josie said skating backwards on the return home. "Tomorrow we can build a snowman. We don't have carrots though so we'll have to use something else for a nose."

"We could use a potato," Hannah suggested. "The whole cellar is filled with them." The other girls laughed. Hannah liked her idea, so long as she never had to eat them.

Supper that night was a chicken and dumpling soup in a creamy broth. Hannah had two helpings and would have gone for a third had it been allowed. Now that the school was empty Josie slept with her aunt so she wouldn't have to be alone in the large dorm room. The wool blankets were now coveted despite their discomfort.

/

Astrid shivered as she sat on the raised bed before the doctor. He had taking her temperature twice over the hour but his face remained solemn. He held the thermometer up and shook his head.

"The fever is not reducing," He put his stethoscope to her heart and lungs to check her breathing. "Yes, I can hear fluid." He went over to the counter and Mrs. Murphy followed him.

"Is she going o be all right." She glanced back at Astrid and rung her hands. "I was praying it was only all the excitement from yesterday."

Dr. Longmire finished taking notes. "It is a time of year when many people get sick. I will keep her over night with me. It is better so she does not spread it to the other girls."

Mrs. Murphy nodded. "I suppose I ought to let her sisters know. The poor dears are scattered all over the country. From the south they come."

"Do you know the family well?"

"I'm acquainted with her eldest sister. We spent some time together when she was a girl." Mrs. Murphy followed doctor Longmire to the front of the office where Heloise, Alifair and Hannah were waiting. Heloise and Alifair waited quietly watching the empty street outside while Hannah played with her new rag doll, a lion she named Benjamin Matthias Percival James, on the back of the chair. She had also brought her other two dolls but at the moment long legged Benjamin was more interesting. Mrs. Murphy watched the three of them. "When do you think she can return to us?"

Dr. Longmire looked at the younger girls. "I will let you know tomorrow. Please do not worry, Linda. For her I recommend strong medicine, for you I recommend rest."

Mrs. Murphy nodded. "Very well. Girls."

Heloise was the first up. "We're leaving? What about Astrid?"

"She'll have to stay with Dr. Longmire overnight," Mrs. Murphy said. "He's a very good doctor. I trust he will take good care of Astrid."

Hannah gathered her dolls and joined Heloise. "But she'll be lonely."

Dr. Longmire bent down to her level. "Ah, but she won't be. My wife and I will take turns looking in on her. We will make sure she has all the company she needs." He smiled but Hannah wasn't convinced enough.

She looked down at the dolls in her hand: her lovely blonde in the red velvet, the rag doll made on the train and brave Benjamin Matthias Percival James. She took the smaller two in one hand. "Will you give her this?" She asked the doctor placing the doll in his hands. "She's here because of Astrid and to say thank you she'd like to keep her company."

Doctor Longmire smiled at Hannah. "I will do just that and no less."

"Thank you so much," Mrs. Murphy said. "Please let us know as soon as you can when she is well."

Doctor Longmire nodded and showed them out of the flat faced building and walked them to the wagon. "Be safe. We can expect more snow this evening." He helped each of them up into the wagon and waved as they rode away.

Returning inside he went back into the room where Astrid was now lying down.

"Are my sisters gone?" she asked weakly as he came to the bedside.

"They are," the doctor said. "But you will see them again shortly."

"Yesterday I felt just fine."

"It happens that way sometimes." He opened a cupboard below the counter and took out an extra blanket. "Besides, you coming from the south...this cold must come as a surprise." He covered her in the blanket and a pleasant sigh escaped from her. "Your little sister wanted me to give you this." He placed the doll on the blanket where her arms would be.

Managing to get one hand out, Astrid touched the dolls hair. "Hannah? She left her?"

"Left her to keep you company. She is a very sweet girl; very worried about her big sister."

Astrid smiled. "Hannah can be so silly sometimes. If it weren't for Mama and Papa, she'd drive Alifair mad."

Doctor Longmire chuckled. "It's good you have, your sisters. Me, I was my parents' only child. To have siblings is a blessing I wish I could have enjoyed."

Astrid smiled then heaved an achy cough, prompting the doctor to tuck her tighter in the blankets.

"I want you to sleep for now. Later I will move you across the street to my residence where it will be warmer."

"Thank you," Astrid wheezed. Her head hurt so badly that she had to close her eyes. It wasn't long after that she was sleeping.