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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Silver Moon" data-source="post: 2943800" data-attributes="member: 8530">Chapter Fifty-three, “New Students”, Tuesday, May 30th, 1882, 8:00 A.M.Kate was up with the sun the next morning to get ready for her school day.   At 7:30 AM Meghan O'Hara arrives with her seven children.  Shortly thereafter Mollie Caudell and her son Melvin arrives.   The other students soon come in, including all of the other non-human children from the day before.  There are several new human children arriving with their parents.   Not surprisingly, these include the three children of butcher Rudy Baines and the two sons of Kris Wagner, as both of them had been in favor of all races voting.   Carrie Nevers, wife of Wells Fargo stagecoach driver Chuck Nevers soon arrives with their four-year-old daughter Gina and two-year-old son Torry.  She asks what the minimum age is for children to attend the school.  Kate smiled down at Gina and Torry before lifting her eyes to speak to their mother.  "Most schools start at about age five.  If Gina wants to start school and is able to focus for long periods of time, I'll be glad to start her early. Children much younger than five usually aren't ready to sit quietly for the length of a school day.  Their inclination is to play and explore, which is how they learn.  The school-room doesn't hold much interest for them yet.  Why don't you tell me your needs, and we'll see how we can accommodate them."Carrie says, "I need for Gina to be educated.  Torry is such a handful to keep track of that I feel that I've been neglecting her.   If she could be at your school I'd sure appreciate it.  She'll be good, honest.""Let's try this for now.  This week we'll keep her here half-days, from eight until noon.  By the end of the week we should be able to tell if she's ready for the lessons and the quiet in the school-room.  If she seems alright, we'll try full days next week.  If not, I'll be glad to help you try to find some arrangement in town that will work for you."  She thanks her.    Another woman arrives with three children, ages 6, 9 and 14.   She looks to be around forty years old and the lines on her face indicate that she's led a long hard life.   She introduces herself as Flora Covington and says that they live on a farm nine miles away.   They had come to town last night for the meeting and plan to join the incorporated town.   Her husband and oldest son headed back to the farm to take care of the animals and will return for the next meeting on Wednesday morning.   In the meanwhile she and the children are staying in town at the hotel.  She asks if the children can attend classes for the next two days.   She doesn't know how often they would be able to attend after that but would probably be able to get to town at least once or twice a week.  "That's a long way to come," Kate said sympathetically.  "Of course they can attend.  There will be some specific challenges since they'll only be here once or twice a week.  I'll send home the lessons for the days they won't be here, and we can go over it the days they are.  Hopefully we'll be able to work out some kind of set schedule for them."Ginnie looks directly at Kate "Excuse me ma'am I believe that many of the children here are going to be capable of working at different paces. If we set up small folders here on the shelve for each student and set aside a section of the day for individual work each student could work at their own pace. For students that are not capable of being here every day they would have that time to make up unfinished group lessons without falling so far behind." Ginnie also thought that that system would allow her to cover her individual studies without drawing as much attention to the work she was doing.  "It would also allow each of the teacher time to focus on each student individually giving them time to support students that were having difficulty or extend lessons as needed.”   Kate replies, “That's an excellent idea, Ginnie.  It will also allow some students to study subjects that interest them but aren't major subjects during the school day.” She turns back to the woman and says, “I'm sure we can accommodate your children, Mrs. Covington.  Every challenge is an opportunity."   For Minerva, the next day begins as every other day.  Luna flies through the window and lands on the bedpost in greeting. Minerva rises and turns to her statues of Jupiter and Minerva, lighting the candles and giving thanks for the day. She quickly dresses and goes out to the kitchen to prepare a meal for her new charge, but is pleasantly surprised to see that he has beat her too it.  Nakomo, beaming with pride, turns from the stove and places two plates of eggs, cheese and meat, toasted bread and jam on the table. He fills her cup with steaming coffee and sits opposite her waiting for her response.  She smiles broadly "You can cook! My, this is a pleasant surprise! I consider myself lucky if I do not burn the toast, and usually rely on the generosity of my congregation or the chef at one of the local establishments to feed me!" or Nanuet, she thinks as she suddenly remembers that he is away. She silently sends up a prayer, instructing the gods to keep him safe and brushes away her worry. "So, what shall we do today? I would like to show you the rest of the town and perhaps see about enrolling you in Senora Kale's school. I need to practice with my whip and rapier for a bit, but I can do that in the yard. Perhaps you can work in the garden while I am doing that. Nakomo responds enthusiastically. "I will do whatever you ask Priestess. I am very grateful that you have taken me in. I will chop wood and paint and clean."   Minerva laughs, thinking of a time when Nanuet referred to her as priestess. "Por favor, Do not call me priestess. You must call me Minerva." "Oh, but I could not call you that, it would be disrespectful." he protests.  "Nonsense, we are friends. I would be offended if you did not call me by my name. If you are not comfortable with Minerva you may call me Senorita Minerva." "O.K... Senortia, Minerva" he says shyly testing out the name.  Minerva finishes her meal and sits back in her chair with a satisfied sigh. Nakomo immediately jumps up and quickly begins to clear the table.   He appears quite skittish, causing her to wonder just how harshly Pakesso and Naumkeag dealt with him. now he wonders if I will do him harm, also.  The thought of what they must have done to him angers her but she places an easy smile on her face. "I can see that you are going to be a great help to me, Nakomo but it is not necessary for you to rush about like a rabbit. You must learn to relax. ""I am going out to the yard to exercise my weapons now.  You take your time cleaning up in here and later we shall seek out Sr. Jake and ask him to come to the desert with us.  Oh, and we are to meet the Barker's for lunch."  She turns to walk out the back door and as she turns the knob to do so she says. "Gracias, Nakomo. Breakfast was delicious."  He replies, "You're welcome Pries...I mean Senorita Minerva.   I am glad that you enjoyed it.   We should probably also stop by and see the Town Marshall to see about my community service assignments."   Sweaty from her morning practice, Minerva enters the kitchen to find it sparkling clean. She finds Nakomo in the parlor busy polishing the furniture. "By the gods, Nakomo, have you not rested at all? The place is absolutely shining!" He smiles shyly but says nothing.   "We have a lunch appointment with the Barker's. I shall go change and then we will go." She changes into more appropriate clothing grabs her parasol and then she and Nakomo make their way to the Lucky Lady.The Tuesday morning classes at the Hoover Memorial School go well, smoother than the day.   It is clear that is will still take some time to decide which students belong with which peer grouping, as their ability scores don't necessarily coincide with their ages.   This is due to a variety of factors.  Some students just have never been exposed to an education before, while others such as the Ginnie, the O'Hara Children and Juan Tolucca's children have maturity levels beyond their years.   The school breaks for their lunch recess at 11:30 A.M.  As the children ran outside, glad to be free to work off some of their energy, Kate stepped into the kitchen and came back out with some bread, cheese, and fruit.  "I'm not much of a cook," she explained as she laid it out on the teacher's desk to share with Meghan and Mollie.   "Hannah Milford mentioned she provides lunches and suggested she could do so for us.  I don't want to take her up on that just now considering her husband's vote yesterday, but we might want to in a few weeks.  Colonel Seawell was right last night, we can't let the tussle over which votes split the town down the middle.  And as people are exposed to what we're doing here, we might open some minds just a bit."Mollie says to Kate, "Well, that Clay Milford sure voted right on the Gender question so I'm inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt."   Meghan says, "Politics aside, I've heard some very good things about her cooking.   There have been times that food has been scare for my family and I've personally gone days without food so that my children could eat what little we had instead.   I'm never opposed to eating well, especially if the school's sponsors are paying."Kate says, "I'm not sure how much the sponsors will be willing to cover, but considering they had none of the start-up costs it’s not ridiculous to think they might offer a little more.  And if they don't want to pay for lunch I will.   Perhaps we should rotate weeks with different restaurants.  The more businesses that have a relationship with the school, the more support we'll have. Which reminds me, my partner Sonoma suggested that we bring some of the students out the our ranch once every other week or so.  It would give them some hands on education in agriculture.  Some other businesses might like to do something similar.  An apprenticeship program sometime in the future might not be a bad thought either."Meghan says, "I would say that is a wonderful idea.  It would give the students something to look forward to.  The only problem would be logistical, finding enough vehicles to transport all of the students.  My brood alone would fill up an entire wagon."   Mollie says, "I like the idea too.   I grew up in an agricultural area and remember how town-folk and city-folk looked down upon us.   It would probably be an opportunity for the farm-raised children to show off an area where their knowledge and experience exceeds that of their classmates.""Well, with the three of us we wouldn't have to take them all at one time.  We could take some students in the morning and another group in the afternoon, or even take one group one week, and the other the next.  Two of us could go with them and one stay here.  I'll talk to some of the other businesses in town and see if they'd like to do something similar.  Both of you have been around the teaching trade before, how much do you think would be a fair salary for each of us?"Mollie says, "Nate was getting $ 40 a month when he finished up last month."   Meghan says, "I'm familiar with lower salaries for teachers, in the range of $ 20 to $ 25 a month, but in those cases housing was also provided to the teacher free of charge."Kate's eyes got wide.  "I had no idea.  I had only planned to charge twenty cents a week for tuition, so I figured I wouldn't get more than $15 a month.  I don't want to bankrupt our benefactors....  I myself would be happy with about $25.  Let's set up a meeting with Neil Cassidy and Roger Fly after school tomorrow.  We can tell them the usual ranges and let them make an offer."Mollie says, "Well, Nate's salary was also after nearly two decades of service.  Given that none of us three have much in the line of teaching credentials and experience I would find $ 25 a month sufficient."    Meghan says, "You're forgetting that this is a mining town with a mining economy, prices and salaries are higher."  "I'm afraid I don't know much about standard pricing either," Kate said with a bit of a blush. "You're inclined to think we should aim higher, Meghan?  All the men on the committee do have successful businesses, although I have no idea how much those businesses actually bring in.  Should we aim for $30 then?"  Mollie says, "It sounds like a good point to start off from."  The women finish their meal as Ginnie returns.   The other students begin to arrive back as well.During the break Ginnie does her lunch run finding out what is the talk around town.  Ginnie hears about the result of the trial as well as information about Chumbley's plan.   The main focuses of his 'Boycott' are Cook's General Store and Condon's Bank.    All morning there has been a steady stream of customers closing their accounts at Condon's Bank.   Helen Barker has been keeping any eye on these customers as they walk to the other bank, making sure that no harm comes to them.   The Promise City National Bank manager Paul Stevens is required to meet with all people opening new accounts.   Stevens had also voted against all races being allowed to vote, but instead of mentioning that each new depositor has instead made sure to tell Mr. Stevens they are moving the money to his bank because of the position that the bank's Head Teller Derik Avery had taken in support of all races.Ginnie decides to make sure that Dorita has the information of what is going on at the banks as she picks up the lunch orders for delivery. She also makes a point to take the profits from her table bussing last night and spend half of it at Lacey's store when there is the most amount of traffic. At the counter with her threads she states loudly "I want to be sure that I can purchase what I need now. I know that people will be spending their money in the places where their beliefs are similar so I'm expecting that you will be having quite a bit of business today. There are a lot of other people who think that voting is a right of people not just of human men."Morgana continues to assist the non human people of Promise City in relocating and spending their money. Making sure that the people who may end up with a lack of business get no backlash from the human population that don't want them to get the vote realize that they not only have the support of the paper but her support as well.Chester does a patrol about the town. He pays particular attention to Cassidy's lumberyard, the Barker's studio and Berg's office.  The morning goes quietly.     Berg relieves him at lunch time and tells Chet to go get himself a bite to eat and some rest, that he'll be back on duty at 11:00 PM, but that since they are now without any prisoners and with the meeting early the next morning it should be a quiet shift for a change.Late Tuesday morning Jake makes his way to the Lucky Lady to begin figuring out how things will change with the Niles gone and the construction completed.  When Jake arrives at the Lucky Lady he sees that the only people inside are Job Kane, Harry Rote and Neil Cassidy.  They are sitting together with empty shot glasses in front of them and a half-full bottle of Scotch Whiskey sitting on the table between them.  "It appears I am late as usual," Jake says with no mirth in his voice.Job says, "Pull up a chair and grab a glass Jake, we're celebrating and Neil's buying!"  "Celebrating?" Jake says sitting down.   Cassidy says to Jake, "Yeah, celebrating the result of today's trial.   Judge Isby sentenced Evan Adair to three years in prison, one year for each man killed in the shootout.    Kris Wagner was even nice enough to hold the stagecoach until after the trial was over so our dear Palace saloon owner friend is currently on his way to the County Jail in Tombstone."  "Along with his buddy Will Flynn," Harry Rote adds."I will certainly drink to that!"  Jake replies enthusiastically.  Then without skipping a beat he says, "I wonder what will become of the Palace?"  Job says, "Nothing different for the short term, he's turned control over temporarily to his buddy Bob Skull, so tomorrow's vote will be the same.   And Fisk is filing an appeal with the Governor.  Adair will be held in Tombstone until the appeal result is known.""Hmmm...." is all Jake says to that.  "I was thinking it was about time we got ourselves a faro dealer to put that table to good use.  Know anyone?  It is time we got ourselves a hotel manager too."  Harry says, "Kate was having drinks last night with that ex-soldier gentleman from North Carolina, the one whose wife fought in the war with him.   She mentioned the manager job opening to him and he apparently showed some level of interest."  Job interjects "I've been thinking about that.   The best Faro dealer in town is Darla Peacock, about the only thing around that's kept that puny little saloon that she and Michael George own in business.   But they've had a tough run of luck lately.  They had a incident there three weeks back when Darla caught a cheater and Mike George fired off his shotgun.   Nobody was hurt and the guy's in Prison now, but he had friends and since she deals out of their small back room with only one exit many of their regulars have stayed away out of safety concerns.  We may want to consider approaching them.""I do not know them very well.  Neither has tried to shoot me though, so it is work at least a discussion," Jake laughs good naturedly.  "Are you suggesting that George might be a good choice for running the bar at night?  Harry is going to be plenty busy and we do need some extra help."   Job says, "Nah, when it comes to management I wouldn't trust Michael George to manage an outhouse.   Darla's the brains of that couple and the one I wouldn't mind getting here.   She'd even bring in her own clientele instead of us starting from scratch.  But he might make a good bartender though, that's really his main job at Peacocks."Jake nods, "Are we agreed then that I should talk to Darla and the southerner from North Carolina to check their interest?"   Harry and Job both think it's worth talking about, although Job adds "Of course, if Peacock and George do decide to quit their own saloon it would probably also help our competitor, the Gay Lady, as they share a wall so Lumley would probably pay more than anybody else to buy them out and expand his place."   Neil Cassidy says, "We'll, as one of your regular customers I would support both.   That Caudell guy has a lot of chutzpah and integrity, not many former Rebs would step up to a bunch of Union Veterans and ask to join them to save a bunch of non-humans.    I heard that he told off Mrs. King, Doc Eaton and that bigoted tutor Shackelton."  Jake replies, "Heh, great.  Just what we need to further antagonize King and Eaton."  Jake shrugs.  "No matter, a good man is a good man.  I will talk to them."Job tells Jake, "And on the subject of new staff, my cousin Alison is back in town.  I haven't had a chance to talk to her yet but if she's planning to stick around I'd like to offer her employment here too."</blockquote>

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