it too wide, so
I could not let it down. What if Hannah Straight Tree is so cross she
will not let Dolly wear it? And there is no other little home sister
just the size of Dolly that could wear it, and is coming Christmas. Just
like Hannah will not take it and will keep on hating me forever and
ever, so I cannot do her good."

Whether this foreboding was fulfilled, or otherwise, will be explained
in Hannah's letter to the King's Daughter in the Far East, who had sent
the little Bible and the loving message to the King's Daughter in the
Far West:

"_Dear Helen Merriam_: Now I shall write you a letter,
for Cordelia Running Bird cannot, for she says it,
would be bragging. It is all about Christmas, and our
big and little sisters. Cordelia's big sister is now in
heaven, and Cordelia wrote good-by to you from Annie.
My big sister is now in the First Reader, but she cannot
help it, for my mother died, and so Lucinda had to stay
at home and keep Dolly, and that is my little sister.

"And it was about Susie--that is Cordelia's little sister--
that I got so mean and jealous, for she had a nice
Christmas things--two kinds--and Dolly would not have
one kind, and she would look so horrid. So I called
Cordelia Running Bird proud, vain, cross, mean. And
I talked about her so the girls got cross at her. And
I made her push a pail of scrub water downstairs, so she
talked Dakota and had to lie in bed and could not
feather-stitch the blue dress, for it smutted so the silk
would be too dirty. But she feather-stitched the red dress,
and she sold her Indian doll, and it was her grandmother's
when she was Cordelia's age, so she bought the brown shoes
and stockings.

"And Cordelia read the King's Daughters' verses,
'Love your enemies,' and 'It is more blessed to give than
to receive,' so she put the red dress and the brown shoes
and stockings and two hair ribbons in a box, and Jessie
Turning Heart tied a blue scarf round my eyes so tight
I could not see, and led me to the chicken house. And
I put my hand on the box, and Jessie pulled off the scarf,
and I uncovered the box and found the things. And
Cordelia Running Bird had pinned a piece of paper on the
red dress, and these words were written on it: 'Dear
Hannah Straight Tree, I am your friend, so I shall give
you these best Christmas things for Dolly. And will
you please take the hair ribbons, for they