Malcolm Reynolds sighed. He was bored. The lessons that his Ma had planned for the day looked like a mountain and he could hear the birds chirping outside and feel the warmth of the sun through the window.

Spring had come to Shadow after a long, cold winter and all he wanted was to be outside, preferably with the hands doing anything except sitting inside doing school work. Riding through the hills on Lucy, his cowpony. Letting the sunshine warm his head as he galloped Lucy to the far side of the ranch. Maybe even take a dip in the creek if it wasn't too cold.

Mal shifted in his chair and tried mightily to concentrate on the book that he was reading. His Ma had insisted that he continue his education once he graduated from the local school. She'd added subjects that would help him run the ranch some day. Gorram accounting hurt his head, but history wasn't too bad, it was more like the stories that she had told him since he was a little boy.

Just don't mention science and math at all. He couldn't see how they would help him run the ranch at all. But the stars, oh the stars. When they twinkled in the clear sky whey beckoned and teased him at the same time. He was fascinated with them and spent countless hours up on the roof of the house at night looking at them and wondering about them.

He mentally counted the days until spring roundup. Just three weeks to go. This year he was going to spend the whole week out with the hands instead of just a day here and there because of school. Long days in the saddle followed by a hearty dinner and being so tired that he'd instantly fall asleep despite sleeping on the ground underneath the starry sky.

“Mal, Mal, you finished with that poem?” his Ma called from the kitchen. The aroma of a roast cooking in the oven drifted into the room where Mal had things spread out on a table.

“Yes, Ma. But I want to know how will a poem about a ship's captain and a bird called an albatross help me run the ranch?”