ross
Cordelia's wet floor to insure a startling trail of footprints.

"I cannot keep them up, they come again so fast," she murmured to
herself in grim despair, while wringing out her mop-rag to attack a line
of tracks imprinted by the largest girl in school, in going to and from
the laundry to dispose of laid-off sheets and pillow-cases. "_Ver-ry
hor-r-i-d_ pictures of the ugly issue shoes. I will not wear them. I
am wearing kid store shoes my father buys for every day. The dormitory
girls are shovel-feeted, and I Wish they could not walk one step--only
lie in bed!"

She was overheard by Hannah Straight Tree, coming up the girls' stairs
at that moment. Hannah's own work had been done with little difficulty,
and she had obtained permission to help the middle dormitory girls, for
reasons all her own.

The reckless speech was repeated to the dormitory girls by Hannah
Straight Tree, much to their displeasure.

"The dormitory girls are shovel-feeted, and she wishes they could not
walk one step, only lie in bed!" exclaimed the largest girl, sitting
down on a straw-tick to discuss the matter. "Then we should be
cripples, and, tokee! how many cripples there would be!"

"If they came from both the other dormitories into this to lie down with
the middle dormitory girls, there would be one cripple in each bed, and
in one there would be two cripples," said a broom girl, who was quite
expert at figures, having studied on the problem with the aid of
broom-straws representing cripples.

This portrayal of the startling situation, if Cordelia Running Bird's
wish could be fulfilled, increased the shock of indignation in the
dormitories.

"Ee!" cried one, "we hate the ugly government shoes, of course, and wish
that we could wear the nice shoes from our mission boxes every day. But
we cannot, only Sundays--and we have to change them after Sunday-school
--and when we wear our best clothes for white visitors. Cordelia Running
Bird will not wear the government shoes because her father is an agency
policeman, 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 her
back," said Hannah Straight Tree, adding fresh fuel to the fire.

"Now I shall not show her how to feather-stitch th