, 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 to
discouragement. She was silent for some time, then she murmured an
original defense.

"The cross thoughts come in Indian, and I speak them out that way.
Che-cha (hateful) means much more in Indian than in English. Dakota
is my own language, and it tells me how to scold just right."

"No, dear, just wrong," was the reply. Then looking at the draggled
little figure with head drooped moodily and smarting hands locked
tightly at the sides, the white mother added, "You have had a cold, hard
time this morning in the hall, I know. Have you been cross about your
work?" The gentle voice invited confidence, but it did not melt
Cordelia Running Bird.

"Yes, ma'am. I was very cross at Hannah Straight Tree and the dormitory
girls. I called the dormitory girls a name, and then a pail of very
dirty water was tipped over on my stairs, so again I had to clean them,
and I screamed at Hannah Straight Tree in Dakota."

"Did Hannah tip it over?"

"No, ma'am, I tipped it over."

With all her sense of injury, Cordelia Running Bird would not tell tales
to divide the blame.

The white mother saw that there was more than she knew of connected with
the trouble in the hall, but seeing that the race mood was upon
Cordelia, she forbore all further questions.

"It has often been explained that if the older pupils spoke Dakota very
much the little ones would speak it, too, and not learn English as they
should," she said. "I'm sorry that the cross thoughts caused you to
forget, Cordelia Running Bird."

"I am very cross now," said Cordelia, fearing her confession might be
misconstrued as a repentance. "I have enemies that