these best Christmas things for Dolly.  And will you please take the hair ribbons, for they are not very cotton silk?’

“And I was very ’shamed, and said I would not take them, I had been so mean.  But Cordelia Running Bird said I must, for she had made the red dress too short for Susie, so if I did not it would be wasted.  So I told her I would take it if she would excuse my meanness, but I should not take the brown shoes and stockings—­only just the black ones.  But she begged so hard just like I had to.  And Cordelia and I scrubbed Dolly very hard in a tub, for Lucinda has not learned the neat way, and she did not cry, only laughed.  And the white mother found some very little underclothes for her, and we curled her hair with a slate pencil, and she wore the best things and looked so pretty.  And the brown shoes were a little bit too large, but they did not show.

“And Dolly motioned Jack Frost very cunning, and they looked at Dolly more than Susie, but Cordelia Running Bird did not care.  And my father was so happier he laughed and laughed when Dolly nipped her nose and pinched her toes just right, and when the song stopped he slapped his knees and cried very loud, he was so glad about Dolly.

“And after the Christmas tree my father told the teachers (and Emma Two Bears was interpreter):  ’Your school is a good place, for it makes the Indian children very smart, and you treat the Indian visitors very kind, so I shall let Dolly stay, and then Lucinda will stay, too.’  Very fast Lucinda stopped being sad, for she thought before my father would not let Dolly stay till she was ten birthdays, and Lucinda loves her so she would not stay without her.

“And the doll they hung me on the Christmas tree was bigger than Cordelia Running Bird’s, and its hairs and clothes were prettier, so I told Cordelia, ’I am your friend, and I shall give you my doll.’  And she did not want to take it, but I made her.  So she said, ’I am your friend, and I shall give you my doll, but it is not so nice as yours.’

  “And Cordelia Running Bird and I now walk together
  all the time, and again I shall never be mean to her.  And
  they did not choose Susie quite so much as Dolly in the
    games, but Cordelia says that makes her glad.  And it
  was because she read the King’s Daughters’ verses.

  “Now I shall put an end to this too long letter.  Many
  days have I been writing it, and the girls, said just like
  I was writing a book.  And Cordelia sends her love.

     “From your unknown American Indian friend,
          “Hannah straight Thee.”