43: The Quartermaster

By the third week of the seventh moon, An Ashi had, by the small unhurried recovery of his small thin body, become a fourth set of hands.

He could not, on the eighth-moon roof, do what Tie-zhu could do; he could not, at the splitting axe, do what Wang Er could do; he could not, on the snare-line, do what Heizi could do. He was a merchant's son. He had not, in his sixteen years, been raised at any of these works. But he had — by the small specific accumulating attention of a young man who knew he had to earn back a lean-to — begun, in the small ordinary way, to learn each of them.

He went up the snare-line on the third day of the third week. He went with Heizi. The lame boy had said, in the small low voice at the morning fire, *let him go on the small route up the western face today; the foot is well enough; he should learn the line.* Heizi had agreed. The two of them had gone together, in the small clear cold of the morning, with An Ashi behind. Heizi had walked the line slowly, showing each snare in turn — the small specific setting of the loop, the small specific covering of the cord with the proper number of leaves, the small specific reading of the small bent grass beside the loop that told a man the run had been used in the past day. An Ashi had watched. He had asked, at the third snare, a small specific question.

"Big brother."

"Yes."

"The hempen cord is too thick."

Heizi paused.

He had — by the small accumulating arithmetic of two months of upper-hills work — known that the hempen cord was too thick. He had, on every snare's resetting, accepted the small specific limitation. The country had only the small length of cord Wei Da-niang had given him at the door. There was no thinner cord in the country.

"Yes, An Ashi. It is. We have only the cord we have."

An Ashi nodded.

"By how much."

"By how much?"

"By how much is it too thick. If we — if we could split each strand of the hempen cord into its small four-strand twist that the smith's son's father's peddler used — by what the smith's son told me last night — would the small four-strand twist be the right thickness."

Heizi looked at him.

He had not — in two months of the snare-line — thought of splitting the cord.

He had, in the small specific working of the road, thought of cord as the small unalterable thing it was. The country's cord was the country's cord. It was, he understood, in the small specific way of his own thinking, a thing that was used as it was given.

An Ashi was, by the small specific question, suggesting that the cord was a thing that could be made into smaller cord by a small specific work of the hands.

It was — by the small clear arithmetic of the boy's small thin face — a small specific thing the boy had thought of, perhaps, before he had been received by the household; a small specific thing his father, perhaps, had taught him about the small specific working of the small road materials of the lower country.

"Yes," Heizi said, slowly. "The four-strand twist would be — would be the right thickness for a hare's neck."

"Then the smith's son and I should — if you allow — split the cord this evening. The smith's son knows the four-strand twist. I — I have done it once, at twelve, in my father's caravan, at a small mending of a torn pack-rope. We can split the small length of hempen cord into perhaps four times its length of four-strand twist. The four-strand twist will set straighter than the hempen cord. The hares — by what the lame brother said this morning — have been balking at the loops in the past three days. Perhaps they will not balk at the new loops."

Heizi looked at him.

He nodded.

"Yes, An Ashi. Tonight."

That evening, at the small fire ring, An Ashi and Wang Er sat together across the small flat stone with the small length of hempen cord laid out between them. Wang Er, with the small bigger knife, peeled the cord — slowly, in the small specific way the cord came apart at the wider strand. An Ashi, with the small whittling knife, separated the four small thin strands. Together, with their hands working in a small specific alternation neither of them had practiced before this evening but that came, by the small accumulating attention of two boys at a small specific working, into a small steady rhythm, the two of them began to twist the four small strands into the small new four-strand twist.

The work was slow. By the second hour of the evening, they had perhaps two armspans of new four-strand twist. By the third hour, four. By the fourth, perhaps eight.

Tie-zhu, at the slab inside the lean-to, watched the work in the small thin firelight at the open south face of the lean-to. He did not — by the lame boy's small specific discipline — comment.

By the dusk of the next day, by the small accumulating work of the two of them at the small fire ring, the new four-strand twist had been made, the small old thicker hempen cord had been retired, and the snares of the western-face line had all — by Heizi's hand at the noon, with An Ashi watching — been reset with the new finer cord at the proper height for the small specific runs.

By the third dawn, the small four-strand twist had taken — by Heizi's count — three hares from the line.

In two days, the line had taken five.

By the small accumulating arithmetic, the new line was producing, at the slow steady rate of a winter's hare-line, perhaps twice what the old line had been producing.

An Ashi, by the seventh day after the resetting, was — by the small specific accumulating contribution of the small four-strand twist — a young man who had paid back, in dried hare meat, more than the small portion of his eating for the week.

He did not, in any small specific way, say so.

He continued.

By the second week of the eighth moon, the boy's recovery had carried him to the point at which he could do — at his own pace, with the small specific accommodations the household had begun to make for him as it had for Tie-zhu — most of the small ordinary work of the camp. He drew water at the morning. He gathered the kindling on the lower edge. He cooked, at the noon, the small portion of millet and the small slice of dried hare. He took his turn at the watch.

He did, at the second week, the small specific work the household had not — until this point — known it needed.

He counted.

He counted, on the small specific morning of the second week, with the small folded scrap of pine bark Tie-zhu had brought him from the slab and a small thin sliver of charcoal from the fire ring's small banked ash, the small accumulating inventory of the household's stores.

He counted slowly. He counted in the small careful even way of a merchant's son for whom small specific counting had been the daily work of his ninth and tenth and eleventh years at his father's table.

He laid out, at the front of the lean-to, the small specific list:

Dried hares: forty-seven, in the small thatched rack at the western corner, plus the eight in the small inner sack against the wet of the wettest day.

Millet: three small hempen sacks of perhaps six days' worth each, at the small four-portion of three brothers; at the small four-portion of four brothers, four-and-a-half days each; total fourteen days of millet for four.

Salt: the small grey heap, by his small specific careful weighing on a small scale he had built at the slab from a small piece of pine and two pebbles, perhaps four weeks at the small portion they had been using.

Dried wild greens: the small thatched rack at the eastern corner, perhaps two weeks at the small portion.

Yu-ma roots: a small clay jar, perhaps thirty roots, at the back of the lean-to.

Pickled fern shoots: a small clay jar, perhaps half-full, at the back of the lean-to.

Dried bean curd: a small folded cloth, perhaps eight pieces, the last of the eastern-pine hermit's gift.

Kindling: at the back of the lean-to, eight piles, of the size to last — by the lame boy's small specific reckoning — perhaps the eighth and ninth moons, with care.

He counted.

He counted again.

He laid out the small list on the small flat stone at the front of the lean-to and called the brothers over.

"Brothers."

They came.

They sat at the small flat stone.

"By the small specific count — by the small careful arithmetic — by my father's old method — the household has, at this morning, the small specific stores listed here. By the small honest reckoning of the eighth moon, the household needs to last from now to the second moon of the next year — that is, by the small specific count of an upper-hills winter, perhaps four moons. The stores, at the small portion we have been using through the seventh moon — that is, the small portion that fed three boys at the third moon and four boys at the seventh — will not, by the small honest arithmetic, last four moons."

He paused.

"They will last — by my count — about two and a half moons. We have, at the small specific count, perhaps a moon and a half of food short of the spring."

The brothers were silent.

Wang Er, at the small flat stone, said in the small low voice he had been using since the funeral: "Are you sure."

"Yes, smith's son."

"Show me."

An Ashi showed him. He laid out the small specific arithmetic on the small folded scrap of pine bark in the small thin charcoal lines. He laid out the small specific reckoning of how he had calculated — the small portion of millet they had been eating, the small specific number of hares they had been taking on the snare-line, the small specific number of days in the four-moon winter, the small specific accumulating drop in the small wild gathering of greens and roots after the seventh moon. He laid it all out.

The smith's son looked at the small bark for a long beat.

The smith's son looked up.

"You are right, An Ashi."

"Yes."

"What — what do we do."

An Ashi paused.

"There are — by the small specific reckoning — three small possible answers, smith's son."

"Tell us."

"First — we eat less. By the small specific portion-cutting of the noon and the dusk, we can extend the millet by perhaps three weeks. The bodies will, by the small specific accumulating weariness, take a small specific cost in strength. The snare-line will be harder to walk. The wood-splitting will be slower. The lame brother's foot will, by the small specific lower nutrition, heal slower. The boy — myself — will, by the small specific recent recovery, perhaps relapse a small fraction. We will, however, last perhaps a moon and a quarter longer. That puts us at three and three-quarters moons. Still short of the spring by perhaps a quarter moon."

He paused.

"Second — we hunt larger game. The snare-line will not take what we need. We will need to take a deer, or perhaps two. The smith's son's hammer at close range will not — by the small honest reckoning — take a deer. The big brother's militia knife will not. The lame brother's small whittling will not. We have no bow. We — we may, in the third moon of winter, find a dead deer at the lower contour, but we cannot count on that."

He paused.

"Third — we go back to the lower country. We find a peddler. We trade, perhaps, the small dark jade Lu Wen-han gave us. We trade the small piece of jade Old Zhang gave to the big brother. We come back with grain, perhaps with a bow, perhaps with — perhaps with a small portion of the lower country's salt-pork."

Heizi, at the flat stone, paused.

He thought.

He had not — in two months — taken out the small wrapped jade from Old Zhang, with the small braid of his foster mother's hair. He had not — by the small specific economy of his own small inner ledger — considered it as anything other than an inheritance. The jade was the household's last resort. The jade was, by Old Zhang's small specific instruction at the threshold the night before departure, *for any need that money will solve; do not sell it for less than four bolts of silk; will keep four people alive for a season.*

The household had — by An Ashi's small specific arithmetic this morning — a small specific need that money would solve.

The household, after the spring, would have four people who would have lived through the season.

The jade was, at this morning of the second week of the eighth moon, the small specific instrument it had been laid in his palm to be.

He had not — until this morning — fully understood that Old Zhang's instruction had been not a wish for some abstract distant year but a small specific reading of the small specific arithmetic of the road.

Old Zhang had known. Old Zhang had, in some unhurried way, been counting forward — at the kang at the brazier, at the threshold step, at the laying-out of the small things on the kang — in the same small specific way An Ashi had counted on the pine bark this morning.

Heizi filed it.

"We will — we will not go back to the lower country," he said. "Not yet. The lower contour has — by the small specific observation of the past month — had no peddler in three moons except for the single sandal-print at the small spring. Going back is — going back is a trip of perhaps eight days for two of us, and we do not know that any peddler is in the country. We may — we may need to go back, by the third moon of winter, if all else fails. But not yet."

He paused.

"We will — we will do the first thing. The small portion-cutting. We will eat less. By the small specific cutting of the noon and the dusk, we will stretch what we have. The lame brother's foot will heal slower; the boy will be careful of relapse; the snare-line walking will be slower. We will manage."

He paused.

"And — and we will, in the third week of the eighth moon, lay a second snare-line. The lame brother has, by his small specific watching, identified — yes, lame brother, you have, in the past two weeks, mentioned this — a second hare-run at the lower edge of the long low ridge's eastern face, where the snow drops less in this country. The new four-strand twist will allow us perhaps four more snares there."

The lame boy nodded.

"Yes, big brother."

"Wang Er, An Ashi — the second snare-line is your work. Five days to lay it. Begin tomorrow."

The smith's son nodded.

An Ashi nodded.

"And — the third option, the lower country, the jade — the third option remains in our small inner ledger. If, by the second moon of winter, the new line and the small portion-cutting have not been enough, the big brother and the smith's son will go back. We will — we will not go yet."

Wang Er, at the flat stone, said: "All right, brother."

An Ashi, beside him, said: "Yes, big brother."

The lame boy, at the slab, nodded.

The decision was made.

That afternoon, the household — by the small specific shift in the small daily shape — began the small portion-cutting. The noon meal became, by the small specific rearrangement, three-quarters of what it had been. The dusk meal became three-quarters. The morning meal stayed at full, because An Ashi had said the body that has not eaten through a winter morning works the snare-line slower than the body that has.

They ate, on the first night, the small reduced portion in silence.

The reduced portion was — by the small honest measure — enough. It was not, by the small specific accumulating measure, enough for a body in winter. The body would, by the small specific accumulating ten days, begin to feel it in the small specific dropping of its small heat.

Heizi, at the small fire after the meal, looked at the brothers.

He looked at them with the small specific attention of a young head of household who had — at this morning — been given, by a Sogdian boy with a piece of pine bark and a thin sliver of charcoal, the small clear arithmetic of the next four moons.

The brothers were tired. They were thinner than they had been at the third moon. Wang Er, in the small thin firelight, had the small thin set of jaw of a smith's son who had been on a road for five months and would, by the spring, look more like the smith's son's father than the smith's son himself. Tie-zhu, at the slab, had the small specific drawn carriage of a young apprentice's lame frame at the small honest end of an autumn. An Ashi, at the small fire, was a small thin Sogdian boy with the small slow recovery of a young man who had nearly died, who had — at this morning — done the household's first piece of true small specific quartermaster work, and who would now, by the small specific accommodating rearrangement of the household, accept a small specific portion-cut as the price of the household's keeping him alive.

They were a small specific household.

Heizi filed it.

In the small lighter catalog of moments, beside the first storm's holding and the bird's eye and the small lock of dark hair on the unfound shrine and the seventh-moon broth at the boy's first waking, he set: *the small specific morning at the front of the lean-to when An Ashi laid out the small careful arithmetic on a piece of pine bark.*

It was not — by any honest reckoning — a small light moment. The arithmetic, by the small honest measure, had been a dark one. The household was short of the spring by a moon and a quarter. The body's small specific drop in heat from the portion-cutting would, by the small unhurried measure of the eighth and ninth moons, become a small specific accumulating cost.

But the moment, in some small specific way, was nonetheless light.

It was light because the household had — by the small accumulating arrangement of the country's small unhurried way — been given, at the right hour, the right hand. The right hand was a sixteen-year-old Sogdian boy with the small specific knowledge his father had laid into him at his ninth and tenth and eleventh years, which had not — until this morning — been needed at the small flat place behind the long low ridge.

The country had laid him in the snow gully at the right hour.

Heizi filed it.

He took the first watch.

The shape of the silence on this night had — at the small specific change in the small inner accounting — a different shape than it had had at any night of the small flat place yet.

It had — for the first time — the small specific shape of a winter that the household was not, by every honest reckoning, certain of getting through.

He listened.

The owls of the upper hills called twice.

The small banked fire at the rock-face hollow burned low.

The wind, at the third hour of the watch, shifted to a small cooler northwest.

Heizi sat his watch.