ss and be ready in ten minutes."

Cordelia flew to get the plaid dress from the closet, and was ready and
downstairs in a twinkling. The little girls selected for the drive were
in the playroom putting on their hoods and coats in great delight.
Cordelia hurriedly put on her own, and, opening her cupboard, she
unlocked a doll trunk, taking out a tiny purse for coins, whose portly
sides bespoke some wealth within. She looked an instant at the blue
dress and the silk for feather-stitching, finding to her great relief
that they had not been touched. She locked them in the doll trunk, put
the little key into the purse, and whisked away.

"The store is much nicer than the post office," was her joyous
reflection, as she slipped the purse into her pocket on her way
outdoors. "Very long have I been saving this last part of all the money
that I earned tending baby; now I have a chance to spend it with my own
eyes."

Down the steep hill went the bob-sled to the great Missouri River, where
it took the straight, smooth road on the snow-laden ice. The sewing
teacher drove the horses, giving them free rein. The school-teacher sat
beside her on the seat, and Cordelia and the girls were snuggled down in
hay upon the bottom of the sled, with comforters for lap-robes.

The little log store was but two miles distant, and the party were not
long in reaching it. It stood upon a steep bluff on the opposite shore.
The white man who kept it dealt to some extent in Indian curiosities, of
which the two teachers were in quest to send as Christmas gifts to
Eastern friends.

"We wish to look especially at moccasins and Indian dolls," said the
school-teacher to the trader when they had made known their errand.

[Illustration: "We wish to look especially at moccasins and Indian
dolls," said the teacher.]

"I've got some first-class moccasins, both porcupined and beaded, but no
Indian dolls," replied the trader. "Indian dolls are growing mighty
scarce, now the young squaws get so much put into their minds to do.
Only the old-timers understand the trick of making dolls."

"I am disappointed that you have none, for I wished to send one to my
little niece. But I must wait and try to get one elsewhere."

While the two teachers were examining the moccasins, Cordelia Running
Bird and the children were absorbed in looking at the china dolls and
other articles displayed upon the shelves and hanging from a wire
stretched above the counter.