"Ah," he said--speaking just as cool as if he was calling the deal right among friends at his own table--"that is one of the new German kindergarten appliances that even you, madam, may not have seen. We received it as a present from a rich German merchant in Pueblo, who was grieved by our pitiable plight and wanted to do what he could to help us after the fire." "But what in the name of common-sense," said Hart's aunt, "do you do with it--with all those numbers around in circles, and that little ball?" [Illustration: "'ONE OF THE NEW GERMAN KINDERGARTEN APPLIANCES'"] 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 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.