Sunday morning there was wonder in the school to see Cordelia Running
Bird in the heavy government shoes that had been lying in her cupboard
since the distribution of the clothing early in the fall. And when it
was observed that she had dressed for Sunday-school and had not changed
the shoes the wonder grew to pure amazement.
"Ee! What ails the vainest girl in South Dakota? She will now be
wearing issue shoes to Sunday-school!" exclaimed a dormitory girl, among
a group of large and middle-sized pupils gathered in the music room,
adjoining the playroom, in Sunday-school attire.
Cordelia sat in a corner with her eyes upon her Sunday-school lesson.
Her feet were planted side by side as if with studied care.
"Just like she is very scared because the large and middle-sized girls
do not speak to her since yesterday. She is not sorry, only scared,"
said Hannah Straight Tree. "See, she sticks her feet out very far, so
we will see the shoes and think she is not vain; but we will not believe
her. She has found the dustpan, too, because she is so scared of me.
She bragged so much she made me cross, so I told her she must find it
and take up my dirt, yesterday. She minded me this morning."
"She will be more scared before we speak to her," remarked the bread
girl. "Ver-r-y ugly issue shoes! She ought to wear a dragging dress to
hide them."
There was a burst of laughter, while the keen, black eyes of the entire
group were fixed upon Cordelia Running Bird's feet. She did not draw
them back nor lift her eyes, but suddenly her dusky face grew scarlet,
and there was a nervous trembling of her lips that moved persistently in
an attempted study of the lesson. She had heard the words, as the girls
intended she should. They were speaking in Dakota without fear of being
understood by the white mother, who was in the playroom passing pennies
for the missionary plate.
The white mother heard the laugh and stepped into the space between the
sliding doors, which were ajar. She saw the girls' resentment at a
glance, and that it was directed at Cordelia Running Bird. She was
troubled, but could not combat the feeling that had spread throughout
the school, to mar the peace and quiet of the Sabbath, which these
Indian girls were wont to keep in reverent spirit.
"She has bought another pair of shoes for Susie--stockings, too--not
black ones, like the little schoolgirls have to wear for best, but very
stylish brown ones," Hannah Straight Tree said. "She put them in her
trunk last night. I crept upstairs and watched her, for the children
said she had them in her pocket. The large and middle-sized girls must
not see them till the entertainment, but the little girls keep saying
they are like the ones the little white visitor that wore the dress that
was pink dim-i-ty, had on. Ver-ry white-minded shoes! She wants to
hire me to like her, if she does not wish to have Dolly in the Jack
Frost song with Susie, so she bought new hair ribbons at the store for
Dolly and Lucinda. She told the little girls because she knew they
would tell me. But Dolly and Lucinda shall not wear them. Very cotton
silk, of course."
The ringing of the bell for Sunday-school relieved Cordelia Running Bird
of the torment she was undergoing. Conversation was suspended, and the
girls put on their hoods and marched in a procession to the
school-house, guided by the teachers.
Cordelia had a trying hour in Sunday-school. The middle-sized girls,
her companions in the white mother's class, indulged in frequent
whispering at her expense and kept deep silence when she tried to lead
the class, as she was wont, in reading reference verses and in concert
recitation of the memory verses and the Golden Text. Thus it happened
that she read a reference verse alone, in faltering accents, with the
eyes of all the class upon her:
"'_Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive_.'"
"She gives a nickel every Sunday, so she minds the verse and gets the
red dress very cheap," Hannah Straight Tree whispered from the seat
behind.
The white mother heard the whisper, but the words were in Dakota, so she
failed to understand. She saw Cordelia Running Bird shrink and color
and her face grow very grave. Seeing this the class ceased whispering,
but the white mother's faithful teachings went unheeded, and she saw the
lesson was a failure. In fact, the whole room was in sad disorder from
the opening to the close of Sunday-school, and all three teachers were
perplexed and disappointed by the strange behavior of their usually
attentive pupils.
"How unfortunate that the race mood has attacked the school when
Christmas is approaching, and we wish the girls to do their best and be
their happiest," said the white mother, lingering; for a minute in the
schoolroom after the dismissal. "Cordelia seems about the only one,
except the little girls, who isn't out of sorts to-day, yet she is the
one they are all against. The older girls all seem displeased at her."
"The large girls worried me with loud and constant whispering and
inattention to the lesson," was the school-teacher's sorrowful report.
"There were so many, with the superintendent's class combined with mine,
I found it quite impossible to keep good order, as you probably
observed."
The superintendent was not present. He had started for the distant
railroad station two days previously to get the Christmas boxes.
"I have never had the slightest trouble with both classes, heretofore,
but to-day they seemed to throw off all restraint, and I was simply in
despair," added the young teacher with a strained expression in her
voice. "They whispered in Dakota, and their meaning was a mystery, but I
heard Cordelia Running Bird's name and Hannah Straight Tree's very
often, also Susie, Dolly and Lucinda."
"There was some trouble in the hall yesterday, which made Cordelia
Running Bird moody for a time, but she recovered her good-nature in the
afternoon and seems to be behaving nicely now, although much hurt by the
treatment which she is receiving from the girls," the white mother said.
"The children were excited also," said the teacher, who had taught the
infant class. "They whispered much in English, and I gathered from
their talk that the unusual wardrobe which Cordelia is preparing for her
little sister to appear in during her Christmas visit, has to do with
the disturbance. I was forced to hear about the red dress and the brown
shoes and stockings, and the blue dress and the black shoes and
stockings, till I knew not what to do. It seems that Hannah is vexed
about the little things, and the other girls are sympathizing with her,
and they seem to have some grievance of their own, besides."
"That explains it," said the white mother. "Perhaps it was unwise to
let Cordelia have the red cashmere for the little dress, but she is
paying for it by contributing a portion of her hard-earned money to the
missionary fund. Her patience with the baby, who was very fretful, was
quite wonderful. She cheerfully devoted all her playtime for a month to
baby, while I gave attention to the little children, and I thought it
but a just reward to let her have the little dress, especially as it was
in her mission box. Her father had not brought the blue dress then, But
dear me! She has added brown shoes and stockings, which I didn't in the
least expect."
The children in their bedtime talk had told the white mother of Cordelia
Running Bird's purchase at the store, and later in the evening the
second teacher had informed her of the barter of the Indian doll.
"The brown shoes and stockings must be laid to my account. Whatever can
be done?" exclaimed the school-teacher, in dismay.
"Nothing," said the white mother, firmly. "I wish Cordelia was less
extravagant, and we will be careful to restrain her after this. But
Indian girls must learn as well as white girls to respect the right of
property. The girls have been allowed much freedom in the spending of
what money they could call their own, but it has mostly gone for hair
ribbons and candy, and there has been no trouble before. I hope the
feeling will subside, however, in a day or two. So many Christmas
pleasures are in prospect that the girls will surely have no room for
strife and envy in their hearts."
Here the teachers hastened to the mission building to discharge the
duties that devolved upon them after Sunday-school.
Just before sun\et Monday afternoon a flock of girls were gathered at
the stile in front, watching with intensity a solitary little figure
moving slowly on a far side of the pasture, near the barbed wire fence.
"Again there walks Cordelia Running Bird very far away," said Hannah
Straight Tree. "She has walked alone two afternoons. She must be
thinking very hard."
"She is going on the mourner's walk," observed the girl who kept the
playroom. "When an Indian walks alone, so far and very slow, that means
they are too sad. She cannot be happy, for the large girls--only me--and
the middle-sized girls do not talk to her. Then, too, of course, she
thinks of Annie. It was just one year ago this Monday that they took
her to the agency. The large girls did not wash, because there was a
funeral."
"And Cordelia Running Bird was so proud because the girls all cried,"
said Hannah. "Now I wish we had not cried."
"Kee! You must not be so mean as that," exclaimed the largest girl, in
shocked surprise. "Of course we cried for Annie. She was very kind to
everyone--not cross like us."
"She was a very little cross, sometimes, because she was an Indian. She
tried much harder than Cordelia Running Bird."
"I am glad I sang 'The Sweet By and By' when she was so afraid," said
Emma Two Bears.
The girls were silent for a little, stirred by memories of the
schoolmate who had passed into the life beyond.
Meantime the solitary girl in the snowy pasture continued her walk.
"I can wish I had not told Cordelia Running Bird that I would not sleep
with anyone but her," said Hannah. "I am glad she is not in the middle
dormitory now."
"They put her in our dormitory so that she can go and tell the teachers
if a little girl is sick, or cries," remarked the prudent little girl,
who had arrived upon the scene with several other children. "The
teachers say she wakes up easy, and is braver in the dark than any other
girl."
"Ee! Cordelia Running Bird is a dress pattern for the other girls--I
mean a pattern!" Hannah cried. "Cordelia is the bravest, and she has a
white memory, so she has the longest piece. Cordelia is polite. She
keeps her clothes so clean and does not tear them, so the missionary
ladies send her prettier things, for the teachers write she is so nice.
The visitors always talk about Cordelia Running Bird very lots. They do
not think the girls are listening, but they are."
"They should not listen. That is stealing talk, the white mother says,"
replied the prudent little girl. "We like Cordelia Running Bird, for
she does not scold us little girls and tell us we are in the way, as you
do," was the bold defense. "We shall choose Susie in the games."
"If the little girls choose Susie, the large and middle-sized girls can
pull their hairs when they are combing them," was the appalling threat
from Hannah Straight Tree. "If they tell the teachers we can say their
hairs were snarly and we could not help it."
"Ee! We shall not pull the little girls' hairs and tell a lie," said
Emma Two Bears, rallying her honest principles. "We can treat Cordelia
Running Bird cross because she called us shovel-feeted, and is very
vain, so we should punish her, but we will not be wicked."
"I did not say we shall--I said we can," retracted Hannah, in confusion.
"The girls were very mean to walk whole-feet where she was scrubbing,"
said the playroom girl, who knew from sad experience what Cordelia's
trials must have been. "It makes me very cross because the little girls
will not stay out or, sit still on the benches when I scrub the
playroom, and they do not make big tracks, if they do walk whole-feet."
"You can speak to her, because she could not call you shovel-feeted, for
the white mother lets you always wear the mission shoes," said Hannah
Straight Tree, growing bold again.
"Because I have an onion--no, a bunion--on my foot. The issue shoes
would make it worse. Just like there is no girl in school that does not
hate to have the horrid whole-feet tracks on her wet floor."
"I hate them--some," confessed a middle dormitory girl.
"I, too," admitted a south dormitory girl. "I threw a few drops of
scrub water on a girl that walked whole-feet."
"I told a girl her tracks were so big, just like she had on snowshoes,"
said a north dormitory girl, relentingly.
"Of course, I made the very biggest kind of tracks on Cordelia Running
Bird's wet floor," said the largest girl; "but if we walk tiptoe all the
other girls will laugh and say, 'See how she nips along. She tries to
walk so nice, just like the teachers.' And if we are walking on our
heels they say, 'Very awkward; hear her tramp just like a steer.' But
it is not kind to walk whole-feet."
The race mood was upon the wane, and Hannah Straight Tree was fast
losing influence.
"I would not have cared so much about the blue dress and the black shoes
and stockings, but she bought the red dress and the brown shoes and
stockings, when her little sister does not need them," Hannah argued in
an injured tone.
"She did not buy them with your money," said the playroom girl. "You
would not have taken care of a cross baby four weeks, and missed a plum
picnic, and not played a leap, to earn pretty things for Dolly. You are
much too lazy."
"Now I shall not stay another minute!" springing from the stile in deep
chagrin. "You all can like Cordelia Running Bird if you want to, but I
shall not like her."
Hannah Straight Tree ran into the house, and those remaining turned
again to watch Cordelia. She had reached a sloping bluff, down which
the fence extended to the flats beside the river. She stood a moment on
the edge, then wrapped her clothes about her and sat down on the crust.
Presently she disappeared.
"She has slid down hill," observed the playroom girl. "She must be going
to the river."
"She should not. It will soon be dark, and she is all alone," said Emma
Two Bears, in a tone betraying some anxiety.