the class, as she was wont, in reading reference verses and in concert
recitation of the memory verses and the Golden Text. Thus it happened
that she read a reference verse alone, in faltering accents, with the
eyes of all the class upon her:

"'_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