h a chuckle. "And I'll wager, too, the
Venetians were quite as happy and as well off without it. The games of
the time were doubtless much more simple. But whatever they were, they
proved to be so fascinating that they soon became an actual menace.
Amusements were few in those dull, monotonous days, when there were
neither theaters, books, moving pictures, railroads, or automobiles. One
day was much like another. Therefore even the clergy welcomed a
diversion and devoted so much time to cards that the recreation had to
be forbidden them. Now and then some great religious movement would
sweep over the land and break up card-playing; but after a little
respite people always returned to it with even greater zest than before.
Nor was it a wholly bad thing. In the absence of schools the games
quickened the intellect and made the common people mentally more alert;
the ignorant were also trained by this means to count and solve simple
problems in arithmetic, of which most of them knew nothing."

"That's a funny way to get arithmetic lessons," said Paul.

"Yet you can see that a knowledge of numbers could be thus obtained?"

"Why, yes. Of course. But I never thought of it before."

"Remember that the race had reverted to its childhood during the Dark
Ages," explained Mr. Cameron. "For years all its attention had been
given to warfare, and learning and the arts which had been destroyed by
constant strife and turmoil had to be built up again."

"But to have people learn arithmetic by means of playing cards!" mused
Paul.

"Better that way than not at all. It helped the big result by gradually
making them realize how little they knew, and making them want to know
more, which was the necessary spur to learning. You will be interested
also to know, since we are discussing playing cards, that the four suits
are said to represent the four great social classes of society at that
time. Hearts stood for the clergy; Spades (spada meaning a sword) for
the nobility; Clubs for the peasantry; and Diamonds for the more
prosperous citizens or burghers."

"That is interesting, isn't it?"

"Yes, I think so."

"And the images?"

"Oh, the image-prints were small religious pictures done in color,"
answered his father, "and I fear they were often valued far more for
their brilliant hues than for their religious significance. They
represented all sorts of subjects, being taken largely from incidents in
the lives of the saints. You know that