"Oh! what is it in the cups?" she cried.
"Silver ore," replied Mr. Kleesman. "It have to be burnt and burnt wiz fire before I can tell if it are good. It are done now. I take out." Then with a long pair of tongs he took out one cup after another, and set them all on an iron block on the table.
Nelly stood on tiptoe, and looked into the little cups. The fiery red color died away very quickly; and there, in the bottom of each cup, was a tiny, little round speck of silver. One was as big as the head of a common-sized pin, and one was a little smaller, and the third one was so small you could but just see it. In fact, if it had been loose on the floor or on a table, you would not have noticed it at all.
"That is not good for any t"ing," said Mr. Kleesman, pointing to this small one. "I tell the man ven he bring his ore, I think it are no good."
Nelly did not speak; but her face was so full of eager curiosity that Mr. Kleesman said:--
"Now I show you how I tell how much silver there will be in each ton of the ore."
Then he went into the front room, and Nelly followed him. On a table in the window stood a long box; its sides and top were made of gla.s.s, set in narrow wooden frames. In this box was a beautiful little pair of bra.s.s scales; and in one of these scales was a tiny silver b.u.t.ton. One side of this gla.s.s box drew up like a sliding door. Mr. Kleesman set his little cups down very carefully on the table; then he sat down in a chair opposite the gla.s.s box, and told Nelly to come and stand close to him.
"Now I weigh," he said, and pulled up the sliding side of the gla.s.s box; then with a very fine pair of pincers he took up one of the little b.u.t.tons which had come out of the furnace, and laid it in the empty scale.
"See which are the heaviest," he said to Nelly.
Nelly strained her eyes; but she could hardly see that one scale was heavier than the other.
"They are alike," said Nelly.
Mr. Kleesman laughed.
"Ah, no! but they are not," he said. "Look! here it is written." And he pointed to a little needle which was fastened on the upright bar from which the scales swung. This needle was balanced so that the very smallest possible weight would make it move one way or the other, and point to figures printed on a scale behind it,--just as you have seen figures on the scales the cooks weigh sugar and b.u.t.ter on in the kitchen. Mr. Kleesman took off the gla.s.ses he was wearing, and put on another pair. "These are my best eyes," he said, "to read the small figures with." Then he peered a few minutes at the needle; then he shut down the gla.s.s slide, and watched it through the gla.s.s.
"Even my breath would make that it did not swing true," he said.
Presently he pushed up the slide, and took out the little b.u.t.ton with his pincers, and put it up on a bar above the scales, where there were as many as a dozen more of the little b.u.t.tons, all arranged in a row,--some larger, some smaller. Then he wrote a few words in a little book.
"There," he said, "I haf good news for two men, and bad news for one man,--the man who haf the little b.u.t.ton; his mine are not goot. The other two can make twelve dollars of silver from one ton of ore."
By this time Nelly looked so hopelessly puzzled, that the old gentleman laughed, and said:--
"You haf not understand: is that so?"
"Oh, no, sir!" said Nelly: "I have not understood at all. Could I understand?"
"Ach, yes! it is so simple, so simple; the smallest child shall understand, if I show him. Stay you here till afternoon, and I show you from beginning," said Mr. Kleesman. "I make two more a.s.says this afternoon."
"Thank you, sir," replied Nelly: "I should like to stay very much; but my brother is waiting for me. I must hurry home. Some other day, if you will let me, I will come. May I bring my brother?"
"Is he goot like you; not to touch, and not ask the questions that are foolish?" said Mr. Kleesman.
Nelly colored. She was afraid Rob would not be able to keep as quiet as she had, or to refrain from touching things. Yet she wanted to have him see the curious sight.
"I think he will not touch any thing if you ask him not to; and I will try to keep him very still," said Nelly.
"Vary goot: he may come. Little one, it will be to me pleasure to show you all. You are like German child, not like American child,"
replied Mr. Kleesman, whose heart warmed towards Nelly more and more the longer he watched her quiet ways and her thoughtful face.
Nelly was so full of thoughts about the fiery furnace, the wonderful little silver b.u.t.tons in the glowing red cups, and the kind old man with the white beard, that, for the first time all summer, she forgot Ulrica, and set out for the valley on a shorter road, which did not pa.s.s Ulrica"s house. Poor Ulrica stood in her door, watching for a long time, till she grew anxious; at last, she pinned her white handkerchief over her head, and walked up into the town to see what had become of the child.
"If it is that she haf again to be frighted by the bad boys," said Ulrica, doubling up her fist, as she strode along, "I will make Jan that he go to the townmaster, and haf punish them all."
No Nelly was to be found. Each person that Ulrica asked had seen Nelly early in the forenoon; but no one had seen her since. At last, a man who was driving a long string of pack-mules overheard Ulrica"s questions, and stopped his mules to say:--
"Is it that little brown-eyed gal o" March"s, down in the valley, you"re asking after?"
"Yes, yes, it are she!" exclaimed Ulrica: "haf you saw?"
"Yes," said the man: "I met her two hours ago well down the valley road, most to Cobb"s cabin,--she an" her brother."
"Ach!" said Ulrica, and turned away without another word. Nor did she speak to a soul all the way home. She was hurt and offended. "It are first time," she said; "but it will not be last time. She haf found more as Ulrica," and poor Ulrica brooded over the thing till she made herself very unhappy. She would have been quite comforted if she had known that Nelly was feeling almost as badly about it as she did. Nelly did not remember, till she was half way to Lucinda"s cabin, that she had not stopped to say good-by to Ulrica. As soon as she thought of it, she stood still, in the middle of the road, and said, "Oh, dear!" out loud. At first, she had half a mind to go back; but she knew that would be silly. So she trudged along, trying to hope that Ulrica would not have been watching for her. As soon as she saw Rob, she exclaimed:--
"Oh, Rob! I forgot to come by way of Ulrica"s, as we always do. I"m afraid she is watching for me. If it hadn"t been so far, I"d have gone back."
Rob looked astonished.
"Why, what in the world made you forget it?" he asked. "You don"t like goat"s milk as well as I do, or you wouldn"t ever forget to go to Ulrica"s!"
"Well, you"d have forgotten it yourself, this time," said Nelly, "I know, if you"d seen what I have."
Then she showed him the cups, and told him all about the good time she had had in Mr. Kleesman"s rooms.
"What! that jolly old fellow with the pipe that looked like Santa Claus?" cried Rob. "Oh, Nell! don"t you believe papa"ll let me go with you, next time?"
"I guess so," said Nelly. "I didn"t see a boy to-day, not one, when I first went in; and at noon they didn"t take any notice of me. Mrs.
Clapp says they forget every thing very soon."
"Well, they don"t!" said Rob, firing up at this statement about boys; "and Mrs. Clapp needn"t think so. I guess I know. You"ll see they"ll pitch into us again yet,--at least, into me. I dare say they won"t bother you. But I"m going in, anyhow. It"s too mean."
"I"ll ask papa to let you," said Nelly. "We might go in just in time to get in about nine, and we could stay at Mr. Kleesman"s at twelve o"clock; and then we needn"t see them at all. Say, Rob, do you suppose Ulrica"ll care much because I didn"t stop?"
"Why, no!" said Rob: "why should she? You saw her in the morning?"
"Yes," said Nelly: "but we always did stop, you know; and she was always standing in the door watching for us, don"t you know? I"m awful sorry!"
"Oh, pshaw!" said Rob: "you"re always thinking of things, Nell."
It seemed very long to Rob and Nelly before the day came round to go up to Rosita again. It was only two days; but it seemed as much as a week to them both. That is one of the queerest things in this life, I think, that time can seem both so much longer and so much shorter than it really is. Haven"t you known Sat.u.r.day afternoons that didn"t seem one bit more than a minute long? I have; and I remember just as well all about them, as if it were only this very last Sat.u.r.day.
At last the day came. It was Friday, and a lovely, bright day. Mr.
March had said that Rob might go too; and both the children were awake long before light, in their impatience to be off.
"It would do just as well if we got up there early enough to be all through with selling things, and get in to Mr. Kleesman"s before nine o"clock: wouldn"t it, Nell?" said Rob.
"Why, yes," said Nelly, "of course it would. That"s splendid. Let"s get right up now. It"s beginning to be light."
When Mrs. March heard their feet pattering about, she called from her room:--