"Very well," replied the teacher, opening her purse and handing her the dollar, with a sorry look. "Perhaps, however, we would better see the little things before you buy them."
The brown shoes and stockings were examined by the teachers and were thought quite satisfactory for the price. Cordelia bought them breathlessly and hid them in her coat pocket to insure their safety.
But the home-going in the early moonlight evening was less joyous than had been the journey to the store. To the young Sioux girl the sleigh-bells seemed to jingle harshly, and the gumbo hills, whose tops were bare of snow, seemed frowning blackly from across the river.
Cordelia Running Bird passed some peppermints to the children, which awoke a burst of gratitude.
"We little girls shall always choose Susie in the games," said one.
"Yes," exclaimed another, "Hannah Straight Tree and the dormitory girls have told us not to, but we shall."
"Ee! Talk lower so the teacher will not hear you," said Cordelia, with a sudden flutter of the breath. "You must choose Dolly half the time— if Susie plays."
"She is too bad-looking," said a third. "Susie has two pairs of pretty shoes, and two nice dresses, and we like her better."
"But you must not talk that way before the larger girls," Cordelia cautioned in an undertone. "Doily has a new hair ribbon like the red one I have bought for Susie—both are in my lap. And I have bought a pink one for Lucinda. I wish to do them good—Hannah Straight Tree, too. You must tell the larger girls you like Dolly just as well as Susie. If they wear alike ribbons on their braids it will be nice."
"A new ribbon cannot dress Dolly up," remarked the prudent little girl. "The points of her hairs will look like Susie's points, and that is all."