“Emma Two Bears has a sweet song, and one night when she was watching Annie, and there was a blizzard, and the wind cried very loud, like many dogs all round the house, Annie was afraid; so she asked would Emma sing ‘The Sweet By and By,’ and Emma sang it louder than the wind, but very sweet.  Annie said it made her feel so happy that again she would not be afraid.

“And once more when Annie could not eat one bite of anything and was so very faint, Hannah Straight Tree thought that she could drink some rosebud porridge, so she ran away without permission, and waded through the deep snow to the rosebushes up the river, to pick off some buds to make the porridge.  She froze her shortest right side toe, and a wild steer watched her very fierce, but Hannah Straight Tree did not care, for she was all the time thinking Annie was so faint.  And Annie drank a little porridge and told Hannah she was very glad indeed.  And they did not punish Hannah, for the rosebuds were for Annie.

“When the Indian preacher told at Annie’s funeral how she was so good and learned so many Bible verses for the King’s Daughters’ meetings, there was much crying in the schoolhouse, for the girls all felt so bad.  And before I got into the wagon with my father, when we carried Annie to the agency, Hannah Straight Tree whispered that she did not want to sleep with anyone but me, and if they put another girl in bed with her she would be sure to turn her back and never say one word to her.

“Now the dormitory girls and Hannah Straight Tree are my enemies.  The verse that Annie tried to think of most is all about enemies.  I cannot read it just now.  I shall read some other verses first.”

Many of the verses her sister had marked were familiar to Cordelia, for, as Annie had requested, she had been allowed to take the little Bible when in thoughtful mood, perhaps when kept within doors on a stormy Sunday afternoon.  She had read them often, asking explanation of the hard words from the teachers, and had learned a number of the simplest ones in preparation for her own admission to the King’s Daughters Circle, which would be before long, she had hoped.

“Here is one about the tongue, that has the straight marks Helen made, and Annie’s cross behind it.  This I have not learned to say.”

Cordelia Running Bird read aloud slowly:  “’Even so the tongue is a little member, and boast-eth great things.  Behold how great a matter a little fire kind-leth.’

“That means to brag with the tongue and make folks very cross.  Hannah Straight Tree bragged because her floor and stairs are always nicer than my floor and stairs,” Cordelia said.  “But just like I have bragged some, too,” she added.  “My tongue has talked so much because my father is an agency policeman and my little sister has nice things.  And I bragged about my white memory and my store shoes.  But I was only talking to myself about the ugly issue shoes, and Hannah Straight Tree went and told it.”