not stay in camp. I shall find a way to get the dresses
done, and she shall motion Jack Frost and see the Christmas tree. I
shall tell them I am tired of playing silly games, and Susie shall not
play, either, so they cannot leave her out. And I shall tell the school
they must not watch Susie motion, for they are such horrid Indians they
would scare her very bad. When Hannah Straight Tree's big and little
sister come into the playroom I shall walk close up to them and pull my
dress away, and look at it so sharp, and say, so Hannah hears me, 'Those
wild Indians have so many grease spots I am much afraid of catching
them.'"

While plotting these misdeeds Cordelia Running Bird fell asleep. A
young girl from the teachers' table brought her dinner on a tray and set
it by the bed without awaking her. She did not wake up until near the
middle of the afternoon. She found that the white mother had stolen
into the dormitory with a small book which she had placed upon the
pillow. There was a narrow white ribbon, frayed and yellow, wound
around the book and tied on one side in a bow. The rooms below now were
quiet, for the wind had lulled and the entire school was out of doors.

Looking from the window near her bed, Cordelia saw the broad, white
plains illumined with brilliant sunshine and the girls exercising on the
glittering crust of snow occasioned by the thaw. The little girls were
sliding down hill on boards and broken shovels, cast-off dripping-pans
and ash-pans--everything, indeed, that could be seized on for coasting.
A group of large and middle-sized girls were walking over the mission
pasture, stretching for a mile on every side. Another band of girls was
packed into a long, wide bob-sled on the point of starting with the
white mother to the little log post office down the river.

"Very lots of fun, and I am being punished here in bed!" Cordelia said
to herself, mournfully. "Now the bob-sled starts, and very loud the
sleigh-bells ring. The white mother drives, and she must hold the lines
so tight, for very fast the horses want to go. We go to the post office
by the al-pha-bet on Saturday, and this day it is the P's and R's--there
are no Q's--so it is my turn. Very fast I meant to feather-stitch, so I
could spare the time to go. Ee! There is Hannah Straight Tree in my
place. She made me talk Dakota and get punished. Now she gets my
sleigh-ride!" And Cordelia Running Bird threw herself back upon the
pil