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.
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