Cordelia Running Bird carried out her plan of asking Jessie TurningHeart, the playroom kid, to help her make the black dress, and the latterwillingly agreed to "trade work," and escape bringing in the wood to thetorture of her lame leg.

Cordelia found that she had undertaken no light task, for there wereviolent snowstorms in the next two months, and an enormous quantity ofwood was swallowed by the great stove in the playroom, which must needsbe kept black-hot from long before dawn until bedtime, to dispel thefreezing atmosphere within.