"

"My little daughter will please me and her father if she proves to be
industrious and skillful with her needle and in all woman's work. Then
she can have a fine teepee and make it all cheerful within. The indolent
woman has a small teepee, and it is very smoky. All her children will
have sore eyes, and her husband will soon become ill-tempered," declares
the mother, in all seriousness.

"And, daughter, there is something more than this needed to make a
cheerful home. You must have a good heart, be patient, and speak but
little. Every creature that talks too much is sure to make trouble," she
concludes, wisely.

One day this careful mother has completed a beautiful little teepee of
the skin of a buffalo calf, worked with red porcupine quills in a row of
rings just below the smoke-flaps and on each side of the front opening.
In the center of each ring is a tassel of red and white horse-hair.
The tip of each smoke-flap is decorated with the same material, and the
doorflap also.

Within there are neatly arranged raw-hide boxes for housekeeping, and
square bags of soft buckskin adorned with blue and white beads. On
either side of the fireplace are spread the tanned skins of a buffalo
calf and a deer; but there is no bear, wolf, or wildcat skin, for
on these the foot of a woman must never tread! They are for men, and
symbolical of manly virtues. There are dolls of all sizes, and a play
travois leans against the white wall of the miniature lodge. Even the
pet pup is called in to complete the fanciful home of the little woman.

"Now, my daughter," says the mother, "you must keep your lodge in
order!"

Here the little woman is allowed to invite other little women, her
playmates. This is where the grandmothers hold sway, chaperoning their
young charges, who must never be long out of their sight. The little
visitors bring their work-bags of various skins, artistically made and
trimmed. These contain moccasins and other garments for their dolls, on
which they love to occupy themselves.

The brightly-painted rawhide boxes are reserved for food, and in these
the girls bring various prepared meats and other delicacies. This is
perhaps the most agreeable part of the play to the chaperon, who is
treated as an honored guest at the feast!

Winona seldom plays with boys, even her own brothers and cousins, and
after she reaches twelve or fourteen years of age she scarcely speaks to
them. Modesty is a virtue which is deeply impr