CHAPTER II.
As something quite unusual at that season in the Dakotas, there had beena thaw the day before, and a great quantity of mud had been tracked inon the girls' side by the sewing classes coming from the schoolhouse,separate from the main mission building, to the upstairs room in whichthe sewing work was done.
Hannah Straight Tree quickly swept her portion of the hall, for therewas but little mud on the teachers' side, and was proceeding to herstairs before Cordelia Running Bird was half way along her floor.
"You have not taken up your dirt! You have swept it over on my side!"exclaimed Cordelia Running Bird, who, with all her close attention toher own work, kept a sharp eye on the other's movements.
"There is little, and it will not be much work to take it up withyours," was Hannah's reply. "When we finished yesterday I lent ourdustpan to the middle dormitory girls--they said theirs was too broken--and they lost it. Now they say they can borrow the south dormitorydustpan, and they shall not hunt ours. You can always find things betterthan I can, so you must hunt it and take up my dirt," was HannahStraight Tree's demand.
"Tokee! How strange you talk!" exclaimed Cordelia Running Bird, inamazement. "The dormitory girls must ask for a new dustpan if theybreak theirs. It is not the rule to lend things, for it makesconfusion; if you lent the dustpan you must find it and take up yourdirt, for I have more to do than you. It is Number 8, and you can tellit when you see it."
"You are very cross as well as proud and vain--and you have learned themotto, every word. If I had learned the motto I should try to be good,"said Hannah Straight Tree.
"The motto does not say a girl can tell us we must do a work that is notours, and we must mind her. I shall sweep your dirt back," was the warmreply.
Cordelia Running Bird gave her broom a sudden push and sent thesweepings flying backward in a cloud.
"Now look how mean you are! Again I have to sweep my floor!" criedHannah Straight Tree, angrily. "Proud--vain--cross--mean!" Shecounted the four failings on her fingers.
"Not the least bit do I care," replied Cordelia Running Bird, stungbeyond endurance by Hannah's taunts. "I was not cross at first, but nowI am, because you call me four bad names. I am now glad your littlesister cannot play the games, or motion in one song, or even have anugly green dress. I am not sorry that your big and little sister cannotcome to school, and very much I wish I had not learned the motto."
Here the young Sioux girl, who was compelled to battle with hereditarypride and stubbornness in every effort to do right, forgot the whitemother's admonition that the heart might be a dark place and a coldplace needing to be cleansed of evil thoughts.
Hannah Straight Tree did not hunt the dustpan, but with perseveranceworthy of a better cause, she brushed the sweepings from her floor andstairs upon a ragged palm-leaf fan which she discovered in a corner,and, dropping them into the scrub-pail, took them out of doors. Cordeliabrought a shoe-box from her cupboard in the playroom and applied it asan inconvenient dustpan. Meanwhile dustpan Number 8 remained in thedarkest corner of the middle dormitory closet, where it had been pushedin the rush of clearing up the day before.
Cordelia Running Bird's work of making clean her floor and stairs waseven harder than she had expected. Never had there seemed so manyerrands to and fro by those who did the weekly cleaning in the threedormitories, numbering quite a force. The thaw had ended in a freezingsnow squall in the night, but a sufficient quantity of mud was clingingto the broad soles of the government shoes that tramped acrossCordelia's wet floor to insure a startling trail of footprints.
"I cannot keep them up, they come again so fast," she murmured toherself in grim despair, while wringing out her mop-rag to attack a lineof tracks imprinted by the largest girl in school, in going to and fromthe laundry to dispose of laid-off sheets and pillow-cases. "_Ver-ryhor-r-i-d_ pictures of the ugly issue shoes. I will not wear them. Iam wearing kid store shoes my father buys for every day. The dormitorygirls are shovel-feeted, and I Wish they could not walk one step--onlylie in bed!"
She was overheard by Hannah Straight Tree, coming up the girls' stairsat that moment. Hannah's own work had been done with little difficulty,and she had obtained permission to help the middle dormitory girls, forreasons all her own.
The reckless speech was repeated to the dormitory girls by HannahStraight Tree, much to their displeasure.
"The dormitory girls are shovel-feeted, and she wishes they could notwalk one step, only lie in bed!" exclaimed the largest girl, sittingdown on a straw-tick to discuss the matter. "Then we should becripples, and, tokee! how many cripples there would be!"
"If they came from both the other dormitories into this to lie down withthe middle dormitory girls, there would be one cripple in each bed, andin one there would be two cripples," said a broom girl, who was quiteexpert at figures, having studied on the problem with the aid ofbroom-straws representing cripples.
This portrayal of the startling situation, if Cordelia Running Bird'swish could be fulfilled, increased the shock of indignation in thedormitories.
"Ee!" cried one, "we hate the ugly government shoes, of course, and wishthat we could wear the nice shoes from our mission boxes every day. Butwe cannot, only Sundays--and we have to change them after Sunday-school--and when we wear our best clothes for white visitors. Cordelia RunningBird will not wear the government shoes because her father is an agencypoliceman, and can buy store shoes for every day."
"I was always much ashamed of my big feet, and now I am more ashamed,"complained the largest girl. "If the dormitory girls are shovel-feeted,every large girl in this school is shovel-feeted."
"Cordelia was very cross about the dustpan, too, but we can pay herback," said Hannah Straight Tree, adding fresh fuel to the fire.
"Now I shall not show her how to feather-stitch the little blue dress,"said the largest girl, who was quite famous at embroidery, and hadpartly promised to instruct Cordelia Running Bird in her work that day.
"And I shall not help her make the little red dress, as she will bewanting me next week," resolved a south dormitory bed girl, Emma TwoBears, who was standing in the doorway. Emma was the most experienceddressmaker of the large girls' class and was generous, as a rule, inhelping younger girls. "I am sorry now that I cut and made the littleblue waist, but I did not think she would so soon be wishing me acripple."
"And you need not praise the little blue and red dresses if she getsthem done; but I am sure she cannot," gloried Hannah Straight Tree.
"Ee! We will not. We will call them ugly issue goods," said one of thegirls.
"Or watch her little sister in the Jack Frost song," said another.
"We will shut our eyes!" exclaimed another.
"And the middle-sized and short girls need not choose Susie in thegames," came from another.
"We will tell them not to. They will choose Dolly," cried a fifth.
"But Dolly looks so horrid, I am much ashamed of her," was HannahStraight Tree's answer.
Cordelia Running Bird heard the fierce discussion through the open door,near which she knelt at work, and the bitter tears ran down her face.
When at length her work was done as well as she was able, and the laststair wiped, she went back upstairs on tiptoe to inspect her floor andsee if it was dry. She was met by Hannah Straight Tree on the upperlanding, carrying a pail of scrub water, mixed with ashes, from thedormitory. Hannah set it on the top stair, and then glanced wickedly atCordelia through half-closed eyes that meant mischief.
"What if I should tip it over?" she said.
"Ee! You must not. It would freeze, and I should have to scald my handswith too hot water, thawing it!" exclaiming Cordelia Running Bird,rushing to prevent her.
In her haste to keep the pail from being overturned Cordelia hit it withher foot, upsetting it herself. The stairs were deluged with thecontents, Hannah Straight Tree fell back with a laugh. "Now see whatyou have done yourself! I did not spill one drop. You cannot say Idid."
> Cordelia Running Bird burst into upbraiding exclamations in Dakota,which, because they wished them to learn to speak English, was aforbidden language in the school except on Sundays and on holidays. Byan odd mishap of memory, Cordelia was apt to break the rule in momentsof excitement, and she knew the penalty too well.
"Now you have talked Dakota, and you must report yourself," HannahStraight Tree said triumphantly. "You wished the dormitory girls wouldhave to lie in bed--now you must lie in bed yourself. You cannotfeather-stitch or speak to anyone."
The unclean water froze upon the stairs, and Cordelia Running Bird'swork of thawing it with hot water was a long and painful process. Whenit was accomplished, though but poorly, she went upstairs a second time,passing through the front hall to the white mother's room to report thatshe had spoken in Dakota.
"Again, Cordelia? How can you forget so often?" said the young whitemother in a seriously inquiring tone.
The little Indian girl's excitement had now given place todiscouragement. She was silent for some time, then she murmured anoriginal 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. Dakotais my own language, and it tells me how to scold just right."
"No, dear, just wrong," was the reply. Then looking at the draggledlittle figure with head drooped moodily and smarting hands lockedtightly at the sides, the white mother added, "You have had a cold, hardtime this morning in the hall, I know. Have you been cross about yourwork?" The gentle voice invited confidence, but it did not meltCordelia Running Bird.
"Yes, ma'am. I was very cross at Hannah Straight Tree and the dormitorygirls. I called the dormitory girls a name, and then a pail of verydirty 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 talesto divide the blame.
The white mother saw that there was more than she knew of connected withthe trouble in the hall, but seeing that the race mood was uponCordelia, she forbore all further questions.
"It has often been explained that if the older pupils spoke Dakota verymuch the little ones would speak it, too, and not learn English as theyshould," she said. "I'm sorry that the cross thoughts caused you toforget, Cordelia Running Bird."
"I am very cross now," said Cordelia, fearing her confession might bemisconstrued as a repentance. "I have enemies that I am hating veryhard. I shall be thinking Indian thoughts about them while I lie inbed."
"I hope the cross thoughts will leave you if you lie in bed, where youcan be alone, and try to drive them out. I will send your dinner to thedormitory," said the white mother.
"I cannot eat one bite for many days. I wish to starve," CordeliaRunning Bird said, as she turned away.
Big and Little Sisters: A Story of an Indian Mission School Page 2
