Big and Little Sisters | Page 7

Cordelia lay very still, but the thought of Susie's missing the festivities
by staying in the big building in the mission pasture, where the Indian
visitors camped in winter, was put from her in short order.
"Susie shall not stay in camp. I shall find a way to get the dresses done,
and she shall motion Jack Frost and see the Christmas tree. I shall tell
them I am tired of playing silly games, and Susie shall not play, either,
so they cannot leave her out. And I shall tell the school they must not
watch Susie motion, for they are such horrid Indians they would scare
her very bad. When Hannah Straight Tree's big and little sister come
into the playroom I shall walk close up to them and pull my dress away,
and look at it so sharp, and say, so Hannah hears me, 'Those wild
Indians have so many grease spots I am much afraid of catching them.'"
While plotting these misdeeds Cordelia Running Bird fell asleep. A
young girl from the teachers' table brought her dinner on a tray and set
it by the bed without awaking her. She did not wake up until near the
middle of the afternoon. She found that the white mother had stolen
into the dormitory with a small book which she had placed upon the
pillow. There was a narrow white ribbon, frayed and yellow, wound
around the book and tied on one side in a bow. The rooms below now

were quiet, for the wind had lulled and the entire school was out of
doors.
Looking from the window near her bed, Cordelia saw the broad, white
plains illumined with brilliant sunshine and the girls exercising on the
glittering crust of snow occasioned by the thaw. The little girls were
sliding down hill on boards and broken shovels, cast-off dripping-pans
and ash-pans--everything, indeed, that could be seized on for coasting.
A group of large and middle-sized girls were walking over the mission
pasture, stretching for a mile on every side. Another band of girls was
packed into a long, wide bob-sled on the point of starting with the
white mother to the little log post office down the river.
"Very lots of fun, and I am being punished here in bed!" Cordelia said
to herself, mournfully. "Now the bob-sled starts, and very loud the
sleigh-bells ring. The white mother drives, and she must hold the lines
so tight, for very fast the horses want to go. We go to the post office by
the al-pha-bet on Saturday, and this day it is the P's and R's--there are
no Q's--so it is my turn. Very fast I meant to feather-stitch, so I could
spare the time to go. Ee! There is Hannah Straight Tree in my place.
She made me talk Dakota and get punished. Now she gets my
sleigh-ride!" And Cordelia Running Bird threw herself back upon the
pillow, giving vent to wild, resentful tears.
When the tears had spent themselves the Indian girl raised her head and
saw the little book on the other pillow.
"Tokee! The white mother put it here. She always keeps it, and it
means that I can look at it now."
Cordelia unwound the ribbon, opening the little book.
"Annie's Bible, and I never thought of her to-day! Just like I am
forgetting her so fast. Here is Helen's letter. I shall read that first."
[Illustration: She read the little note slowly.]
She took a little white note from a dainty envelope and read it slowly,

but with understanding that spoke of previous acquaintance with the
words:
"_Dear Annie_: Will you let this little Bible be your friend and guide,
as I have tried to have it for my friend and guide since I have been a
King's Daughter? I have marked some verses I have learned and have
recited in the meeting of our circle, and I wish that you might care to
learn them and recite them in your meeting at the school.
"The King's Daughters in the Far East love to think about the Indian
girls away out West, who are also members of our circle. Isn't it a sweet
thought, Annie, that although so widely separated, we are all the
children of one family in Christ, and are cared for by the same heavenly
Father?
"Yours with loving interest, "HELEN MERRIAM, Hartford, Conn.
"Aged 16."
"It came in Annie's mission box, and Helen was her unknown white
friend," said Cordelia Running Bird, as she put the letter back into the
envelope. "I shall next read Annie's letter." And she took another little
missive from the Bible, written with a pencil on the tablet paper of the
school, in wavering penmanship that showed the weakness of the
writer's hand. Cordelia read:
"_Dear