Cordelia Running Bird carried out her plan of asking Jessie Turning
Heart, the playroom girl, to help her make the red dress, and the latter
willingly agreed to "trade work," and escape bringing in the wood to the
torture of her lame foot.
Cordelia found that she had undertaken no light task, for there were
violent snowstorms in the next two weeks, and an enormous quantity of
wood was swallowed by the great stove in the playroom, which must needs
be kept red-hot from long before dawn until bedtime, to dispel the
freezing atmosphere within.
Owing to the influence of the playroom girl, the large and middle-sized
girls in general ceased to be intensely hostile to Cordelia, but they
did not break the seal of silence, so she could not ask help from among
them. The small girls showed their friendship for Cordelia now and then
by marching in a line behind her from the wood-yard laden with what fuel
they could bring, or even going down the path the older girls had broken
to the flats for willow fagots, which they tied upon their backs and
brought to her for kindling.
Hannah Straight Tree tried Cordelia's resolution to do good to her by
stealthy persecutions that escaped the notice of the teachers, who
remarked to one another in relief that Hannah and the other girls
appeared in better humor toward Cordelia, and the fatter had regained
her cheerful spirits.
Hannah took her station in the little outside hall one blustering
afternoon, watching through the side window till Cordelia climbed the
porch steps loaded to her chin with wood; then Hannah braced her back
against the outside door. Cordelia spared one hand with difficulty,
tugging at the door with wind-tossed garments, all in vain. She dropped
her wood to use both hands. The door would sometimes stick when lightly
closed, and thinking this to be the case, she threw her weight against
it in a forcible attempt to burst it open. Hannah jumped away and
darted through the inside door in silent glee.
Cordelia fell full length into the hall and struck her head against the
inner threshold. She lay in a dazed condition for a little, then aroused
herself, to catch a glimpse of Hannah peering through the window of the
inside door. She vanished instantly, but the expression of her face had
told Cordelia where the mischief lay.
"She will not let me like her," thought Cordelia, struggling to her feet
with aching head, and blinking back the tears. "Just like I shall have
to hate her just a little while I do her good."
She turned, and saw to her surprise that Emma Two Bears, who had come
behind her to the porch, was gathering up her wood. Emma often helped to
fill the wood-box in the music room, as an especial friend of hers
attended to that work, and Cordelia feared her wood was being boldly
captured for that purpose. She was about to cry out sharply, but
restrained herself and fell back silently, while Emma passed into the
house. Cordelia followed her, and saw with sinking heart that Emma took
a straight track through the playroom for the music room; but on the
threshold of the room she whirled about, and, walking to the playroom
wood-box, dropped the wood in.
"Thank you very much!" exclaimed Cordelia, in sign language on her
fingers. Etiquette forbade her to employ her tongue in the expression
of her gratitude, seeing that the girls had placed a ban on it. A
curious contortion of the deaf-and-dumb alphabet was used among the
Indian girls when pride forbade the use of speech.
"You need not thank me. I am only punishing Hannah Straight Tree," Emma
answered, likewise with her fingers.
This exchange of compliments was read without scruple by the many pairs
of eyes, including Hannah's, that were watching the affair.
"Emma Two Bears talks deaf-and-dumb to her. Now we can plan
crack-the-whip with her, for that is not a speaking game," observed a
middle-sized girl, who had been a comrade of Cordelia's heretofore.
"She will not have time to crack the whip," said Hannah. "She is going
to the south dormitory, where she sits her whole playtime helping sew
the red dress for Susie, so she can look nicer than the other little
home sisters and the little schoolgirls."
"You are very jealous-minded, and you try hard to spite Cordelia Running
Bird," said the recent comrade.
"You can talk that way because you have no little sister," grumbled
Hannah.
Cordelia passed upstairs with quick steps.
"Just like the large and middle-sized girls--only Hannah Straight Tree--
will again be speaking to me pretty soon," she said to Jessie Turning
Heart, who sat beside a sunny window in the south dormitory sewing
briskly on the little red waist.
"They cannot speak to you till Christmas day, because they all said they
would not," Jessie answered. "Then if you ap-ol-ogize and say you do
not wish them to be cripples any more, and that you will stop talking
vain, they will again speak to you, and they will walk heel or tiptoe on
your floor."
"I shall write an ap-ol-ogy in Dakota on three papers Christmas morning,
and pin them on a side of the three dormitories, but you must not tell,
because I do not wish to brag what I shall do," Cordelia said, in
strictest confidence.
"I think it would be better if you had but one shoes and stockings and
best dress for Susie. But you cannot help it now," the playroom girl
replied. "Two best dresses and two shoes and stockings look too many,
when the other little home sisters have not one best thing."
Cordelia Running Bird was quite strongly tempted to confide still
further in the friendly playroom girl, who had sustained her through the
trying tempest of events, but she resisted and began to hem the little
skirt in silence.
"Ee! how short you have it!" Jessie noticed suddenly. "You must think
Susie is to grow the other way before she wears it."
Cordelia's only answer was a noncommittal smile which Jessie failed to
understand. This thought, however, suddenly impressed Cordelia:
"Now it is too short for Susie, and the hem is not one bit too wide, so
I could not let it down. What if Hannah Straight Tree is so cross she
will not let Dolly wear it? And there is no other little home sister
just the size of Dolly that could wear it, and is coming Christmas. Just
like Hannah will not take it and will keep on hating me forever and
ever, so I cannot do her good."
Whether this foreboding was fulfilled, or otherwise, will be explained
in Hannah's letter to the King's Daughter in the Far East, who had sent
the little Bible and the loving message to the King's Daughter in the
Far West:
"_Dear Helen Merriam_: Now I shall write you a letter,
for Cordelia Running Bird cannot, for she says it,
would be bragging. It is all about Christmas, and our
big and little sisters. Cordelia's big sister is now in
heaven, and Cordelia wrote good-by to you from Annie.
My big sister is now in the First Reader, but she cannot
help it, for my mother died, and so Lucinda had to stay
at home and keep Dolly, and that is my little sister.
"And it was about Susie--that is Cordelia's little sister--
that I got so mean and jealous, for she had a nice
Christmas things--two kinds--and Dolly would not have
one kind, and she would look so horrid. So I called
Cordelia Running Bird proud, vain, cross, mean. And
I talked about her so the girls got cross at her. And
I made her push a pail of scrub water downstairs, so she
talked Dakota and had to lie in bed and could not
feather-stitch the blue dress, for it smutted so the silk
would be too dirty. But she feather-stitched the red dress,
and she sold her Indian doll, and it was her grandmother's
when she was Cordelia's age, so she bought the brown shoes
and stockings.
"And Cordelia read the King's Daughters' verses,
'Love your enemies,' and 'It is more blessed to give than
to receive,' so she put the red dress and the brown shoes
and stockings and two hair ribbons in a box, and Jessie
Turning Heart tied a blue scarf round my eyes so tight
I could not see, and led me to the chicken house. And
I put my hand on the box, and Jessie pulled off the scarf,
and I uncovered the box and found the things. And
Cordelia Running Bird had pinned a piece of paper on the
red dress, and these words were written on it: 'Dear
Hannah Straight Tree, I am your friend, so I shall give
you these best Christmas things for Dolly. And will
you please take the hair ribbons, for they are not very
cotton silk?'
"And I was very 'shamed, and said I would not take
them, I had been so mean. But Cordelia Running Bird
said I must, for she had made the red dress too short for
Susie, so if I did not it would be wasted. So I told her
I would take it if she would excuse my meanness, but I
should not take the brown shoes and stockings--only just
the black ones. But she begged so hard just like I had to.
And Cordelia and I scrubbed Dolly very hard in a tub,
for Lucinda has not learned the neat way, and she did
not cry, only laughed. And the white mother found some
very little underclothes for her, and we curled her hair
with a slate pencil, and she wore the best things and
looked so pretty. And the brown shoes were a little bit
too large, but they did not show.
"And Dolly motioned Jack Frost very cunning, and
they looked at Dolly more than Susie, but Cordelia
Running Bird did not care. And my father was so happier
he laughed and laughed when Dolly nipped her nose and
pinched her toes just right, and when the song stopped he
slapped his knees and cried very loud, he was so glad
about Dolly.
"And after the Christmas tree my father told the
teachers (and Emma Two Bears was interpreter): 'Your
school is a good place, for it makes the Indian children
very smart, and you treat the Indian visitors very kind,
so I shall let Dolly stay, and then Lucinda will stay, too.'
Very fast Lucinda stopped being sad, for she thought
before my father would not let Dolly stay till she was ten
birthdays, and Lucinda loves her so she would not stay
without her.
"And the doll they hung me on the Christmas tree was
bigger than Cordelia Running Bird's, and its hairs and
clothes were prettier, so I told Cordelia, 'I am your
friend, and I shall give you my doll.' And she did not
want to take it, but I made her. So she said, 'I am your
friend, and I shall give you my doll, but it is not so nice
as yours.'
"And Cordelia Running Bird and I now walk together
all the time, and again I shall never be mean to her. And
they did not choose Susie quite so much as Dolly in the
games, but Cordelia says that makes her glad. And it
was because she read the King's Daughters' verses.
"Now I shall put an end to this too long letter. Many
days have I been writing it, and the girls, said just like
I was writing a book. And Cordelia sends her love.
"From your unknown American Indian friend,
"HANNAH STRAIGHT THEE."
"P. S.--Cordelia Running Bird nearly drowned both
kinds of Christmas clothes, and then she thought to give
the best kind to Dolly. And Susie did not care because
she had to wear the blue dress, and it smutted so her
hands and face got dirty, and the black shoes and stockings.
She was just as happier. And the teacher saved Cordelia's
Indian doll and gave it back to her, because she knew
she loved it very hard. And Cordelia was so glad
she hugged it very tight.
"Again P. S.--Cordelia wrote, 'Peace on earth, good-will
toward men. I do not wish the dormitory girls were
cripples, and I will stop talking vain and will always
wear the issue shoes every day. And will they please
excuse me?' And they did. And now they walk heel or
tiptoe on Cordelia's wet floor. Lucinda will now learn
the neat way, and they will grow Dolly more white-minded,
for she came to school so short. And again I say it was
the King's Daughters' verses. And I do not like to think
hard, but I shall try to learn them, too. And we did
not shut our eyes at Susie when she motioned Jack Frost,
as we meant to just for spite. And the girls all said
Cordelia was so generous, she said she nearly got vain
again. So I shall stop this time."
[Illustration: Helen read the letter to her King's Daughters circle.]
Helen read the letter to her King's Daughters Circle, and a young
member, thinking of the little Sioux maiden at the far Northwestern
Mission who had tried to overcome her faults and love her enemies,
repeated softly:
"'For thou hast a little strength, and thou hast kept
my word and hast not denied my name.'"
End of Project Gutenberg's Big and Little Sisters, by Theodora R. Jenness