ance. I would rather learn to play the part of a very rich New York
lady, and have servants and motor-cars and go to the opera and wear a
diamond necklace."

Ruth laughed at her, but good-naturedly.

"All girls are the same, I suppose, under the skin," she said. "But we
each should try to do the things we can do best. Learn to play the parts
the director assigns you to the very best of your ability. Doing that
will bring you, quicker than anything else, to the point where you can
wear diamonds and ride in your own motor-car and go to the opera. What
does your father, Chief Totantora, say to your new ideas, Wonota?"

"The chief, my father, says nothing when I talk like that to him. He is
too much of an old-fashioned Indian, I fear. He is staying at a country
hotel up the road; but he would not sleep in the room they gave him (and
then he rolled up in his blanket on the floor) until they agreed to let
him take out the sashes from all three windows. He says that white people
have white faces because they sleep in stale air."

"Perhaps he is more than half right," rejoined Ruth, although she laughed
too. "Some white folks even in this age are afraid of the outdoor air as
a sleeping tonic, and prefer to drug themselves with shut-in air in their
bedrooms."

"But one can have pretty things and nice things, and still remain in
health," sighed Wonota.

Ruth agreed with this. The girl of the Red Mill tried, too, in every way
to encourage the Indian maiden to learn and profit by the better things
to be gained by association with the whites.

There were several days to wait before Mr. Hammond was ready to send Mr.
Hooley, the director, and the company selected for the making of Ruth's
new picture to the Thousand Islands. Meanwhile Ruth herself had many
preparations to make and she could not be all the time with her visitor.

As in that past time when she had visited the Red Mill, Wonota was
usually content to sit with Aunt Alvirah and make beadwork while the old
woman knitted.

"She's a contented creeter, my pretty," the old woman said to Ruth. "Red
or white, I never see such a quiet puss. And she jumps and runs to wait
on me like you do.

"Oh, my back! and oh, my bones!" exclaimed Aunt Alvirah, rising
cautiously with the aid of a cane she now depended upon. "My rheumatism
don't seem any better, and I have had it long enough, seems to me, for it
to get better," she added.

"Poor dear!" said Ruth. "Don't the new medicin