Big and Little Sisters Part 4

CHAPTER V.

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 pa.s.sing pennies for the missionary plate.

The white mother heard the laugh and stepped into the s.p.a.ce 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 cla.s.s, indulged in frequent whispering at her expense and kept deep silence when she tried to lead the cla.s.s, 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.s 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 cla.s.ses, 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 cla.s.s. "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 sunet 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 pa.s.sed 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.