Charley had himself in good shape by that time, and he put down his words as sure as if they was aces––with more, if needed, up his sleeve. “It is used by our most advanced class in arithmetic, madam,” he said. “The mechanism, you will observe, is arranged to revolve”––he set it a-going––“in such a way that the small sphere also is put in motion. And as the motion ceases”––it was slowing down to a stop––“the sphere comes to rest on one of the numbers painted legibly on either a black or a red ground. The children, seated around the table, are provided with the numerating disks to which I have already called your attention; and––with a varying rapidity, regulated by their individual intelligence––they severally, as promptly as possible, arrange their disks in piles corresponding with the number indicated by the purely fortuitous resting-place of the sphere. The purpose of this ingenious contrivance, as I scarcely need to point out to you, is to combine the amusement of a species of game with the mental stimulus that the rapid computation of figures imparts. I may add that we arouse a desirable spirit of emulation among our little ones by providing that the child who first correctly arranges his disks to represent the indicated figure is given––until the game is concluded––the disks of the children whose calculation has been slow, or at fault.”
“Well, of all things in the world, Mr. Charles,” said Hart’s aunt, “to think of my finding such a good thing as this out here 122 in New Mexico––when I’ve time and again been over the best kindergarten-supply places in Boston, and have been reading all I could lay my hands on about kindergartens for twenty years!”
“Oh, we do try not to be too primitive out here, madam,” said Santa Fé, taking a long breath over having got through all right; “and I am even vain enough to think that perhaps we manage to keep pretty well up with the times. But I must say that it is a pleasant surprise to me to find that I have been able to give more than one point to a lady like you, who knows every card––I should say, to whom kindergarten processes are so exceptionally well known.
“And now I really must beg your permission to leave you, that I may return to my sermon. I give much time to my sermons; and I am cheered by the conviction––you must not think me boastful––that it is time well employed. When I look around me and perceive the lawless, and even outrageous, conditions which obtain in so many other towns in the Territory, and contrast them 123 with the orderly rectitude of Palomitas, I rejoice that my humble toil in the vineyard has brought so rich a reward. I deeply regret, madam, that your present stay with us must be so short; and with an equal earnestness I hope that it may be my privilege soon again to welcome you to our happy little town.”
Hart’s aunt––she was just pleased all over––was beginning to make a speech back to him; but Santa Fé looked so wore out Hart didn’t give her the chance to go on. He just grabbed her, and got her away in a hurry––and Charley went to fussing with the cover of the wheel, putting it on again, so she couldn’t get at him to shake hands for good-bye. He said afterwards he felt that weak, when he fairly was shut of her, all he could do was to flop down into a chair anyway and sing out to Blister Mike to come and get the sheets off the bar quick and give him his own bottle of Bourbon and a tumbler. And he said he never took so many drinks, one right on top of another, since he was born!
There was more’n the usual crowd down at the deepo that night when the Denver train pulled out––with Hart’s aunt in the Pullman, and Hart standing on the Pullman platform telling the boys up to the last minute how much he was obliged.
Things went that same Sunday-school way right on to the end of the game; and Hart said his aunt told him––as they was coming along down to the deepo––she never would a-believed there could be such a town as Palomitas was, out in that wild frontier country, if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes. As to the ladies of the town, he said she told him they certainly was the most domestic she’d ever known!
Hart was so grateful––and he had a right to be––he left a hunderd dollars with Tenderfoot Sal and told her to blow off the town for him that night by running a free bar. Sal done it, right enough––and that turned out to be about the hottest night Palomitas ever had. Most of the trouble was in the dance-hall, where it was apt to be, and had its start, as it did generally, right around the 125 Sage-Brush Hen: who kept on being dressed up in her white frock and wearing her white sun-bonnet, and looked as demure as a cotton-tail rabbit, and cut up so reckless I reckon she about made a record for carryings on! Santa Fé had to fix one feller because of her––shooting him like he was used to, through his pants-pocket––and more’n a dozen got hurt in the ordinary way.