“’Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

“She gives a nickel every Sunday, so she minds the verse and gets the red dress very cheap,” Hannah Straight Tree whispered from the seat behind.

The white mother heard the whisper, but the words were in Dakota, so she failed to understand.  She saw Cordelia Running Bird shrink and color and her face grow very grave.  Seeing this the class ceased whispering, but the white mother’s faithful teachings went unheeded, and she saw the lesson was a failure.  In fact, the whole room was in sad disorder from the opening to the close of Sunday-school, and all three teachers were perplexed and disappointed by the strange behavior of their usually attentive pupils.

“How unfortunate that the race mood has attacked the school when Christmas is approaching, and we wish the girls to do their best and be their happiest,” said the white mother, lingering; for a minute in the schoolroom after the dismissal.  “Cordelia seems about the only one, except the little girls, who isn’t out of sorts to-day, yet she is the one they are all against.  The older girls all seem displeased at her.”

“The large girls worried me with loud and constant whispering and inattention to the lesson,” was the school-teacher’s sorrowful report.  “There were so many, with the superintendent’s class combined with mine, I found it quite impossible to keep good order, as you probably observed.”

The superintendent was not present.  He had started for the distant railroad station two days previously to get the Christmas boxes.

“I have never had the slightest trouble with both classes, heretofore, but to-day they seemed to throw off all restraint, and I was simply in despair,” added the young teacher with a strained expression in her voice.  “They whispered in Dakota, and their meaning was a mystery, but I heard Cordelia Running Bird’s name and Hannah Straight Tree’s very often, also Susie, Dolly and Lucinda.”

“There was some trouble in the hall yesterday, which made Cordelia Running Bird moody for a time, but she recovered her good-nature in the afternoon and seems to be behaving nicely now, although much hurt by the treatment which she is receiving from the girls,” the white mother said.

“The children were excited also,” said the teacher, who had taught the infant class.  “They whispered much in English, and I gathered from their talk that the unusual wardrobe which Cordelia is preparing for her little sister to appear in during her Christmas visit, has to do with the disturbance.  I was forced to hear about the red dress and the brown shoes and stockings, and the blue dress and the black shoes and stockings, till I knew not what to do.  It seems that Hannah is vexed about the little things, and the other girls are sympathizing with her, and they seem to have some grievance of their own, besides.”