Big and Little Sisters | Page 5

largest girl, sitting down on a straw-tick to discuss the matter. "Then we should be cripples, and, tokee! how many cripples there would be!"
"If they came from both the other dormitories into this to lie down with the middle dormitory girls, there would be one cripple in each bed, and in one there would be two cripples," said a broom girl, who was quite expert at figures, having studied on the problem with the aid of broom-straws representing cripples.
This portrayal of the startling situation, if Cordelia Running Bird's wish could be fulfilled, increased the shock of indignation in the dormitories.
"Ee!" cried one, "we hate the ugly government shoes, of course, and wish that we could wear the nice shoes from our mission boxes every day. But we cannot, only Sundays--and we have to change them after Sunday-school --and when we wear our best clothes for white visitors. Cordelia Running Bird will not wear the government shoes because her father is an agency policeman, and can buy store shoes for every day."
"I was always much ashamed of my big feet, and now I am more ashamed," complained the largest girl. "If the dormitory girls are shovel-feeted, every large girl in this school is shovel-feeted."
"Cordelia was very cross about the dustpan, too, but we can pay her back," said Hannah Straight Tree, adding fresh fuel to the fire.
"Now I shall not show her how to feather-stitch the little blue dress," said the largest girl, who was quite famous at embroidery, and had partly promised to instruct Cordelia Running Bird in her work that day.
"And I shall not help her make the little red dress, as she will be wanting me next week," resolved a south dormitory bed girl, Emma Two Bears, who was standing in the doorway. Emma was the most experienced dressmaker of the large girls' class and was generous, as a rule, in helping younger girls. "I am sorry now that I cut and made the little blue waist, but I did not think she would so soon be wishing me a cripple."
"And you need not praise the little blue and red dresses if she gets them done; but I am sure she cannot," gloried Hannah Straight Tree.
"Ee! We will not. We will call them ugly issue goods," said one of the girls.
"Or watch her little sister in the Jack Frost song," said another.
"We will shut our eyes!" exclaimed another.
"And the middle-sized and short girls need not choose Susie in the games," came from another.
"We will tell them not to. They will choose Dolly," cried a fifth.
"But Dolly looks so horrid, I am much ashamed of her," was Hannah Straight Tree's answer.
Cordelia Running Bird heard the fierce discussion through the open door, near which she knelt at work, and the bitter tears ran down her face.
When at length her work was done as well as she was able, and the last stair wiped, she went back upstairs on tiptoe to inspect her floor and see if it was dry. She was met by Hannah Straight Tree on the upper landing, carrying a pail of scrub water, mixed with ashes, from the dormitory. Hannah set it on the top stair, and then glanced wickedly at Cordelia through half-closed eyes that meant mischief.
"What if I should tip it over?" she said.
"Ee! You must not. It would freeze, and I should have to scald my hands with too hot water, thawing it!" exclaiming Cordelia Running Bird, rushing to prevent her.
In her haste to keep the pail from being overturned Cordelia hit it with her foot, upsetting it herself. The stairs were deluged with the contents, Hannah Straight Tree fell back with a laugh. "Now see what you have done yourself! I did not spill one drop. You cannot say I did."
Cordelia Running Bird burst into upbraiding exclamations in Dakota, which, because they wished them to learn to speak English, was a forbidden language in the school except on Sundays and on holidays. By an odd mishap of memory, Cordelia was apt to break the rule in moments of excitement, and she knew the penalty too well.
"Now you have talked Dakota, and you must report yourself," Hannah Straight Tree said triumphantly. "You wished the dormitory girls would have to lie in bed--now you must lie in bed yourself. You cannot feather-stitch or speak to anyone."
The unclean water froze upon the stairs, and Cordelia Running Bird's work of thawing it with hot water was a long and painful process. When it was accomplished, though but poorly, she went upstairs a second time, passing through the front hall to the white mother's room to report that she had spoken in Dakota.
"Again, Cordelia? How can you forget so often?" said the young white mother in a seriously inquiring tone.
The little Indian girl's excitement had now given place