of showing that Molly couldn't do simple math problems on the train? She was supposed to be highly educated. In the book she may have been a bit naive but she certainly was smart enough to do basic arithmetic.
“Wait a minute, wait a minute. You ain’t heard nothin’ yet!”
One can be highly educated and not be good at math. I'm sure her education did not delve into higher math, as young ladies from good homes education did not focus on math beyond basics. She was doing fractions, and may have just been playing around with it (some people doodle, for example). Frontier teachers were brought in to teach basics: readin', writin', and 'rithmatic.
shareWhen Molly was about to leave Bennington, she mentioned to her mother that the position in Wyoming was offered to her and she was lucky to get it. Maybe because she wasn't as smart at math? She alluded to something lacking in her education, I assumed.
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