"He is very bad man!" repeated Wonota vehemently.

"Yes. That is just it. Why stir up his passions to a greater degree,
then?"

"Of course, Ruthie would want to turn 'the other cheek,'" scoffed
Jennie.

"I am not going around with a chip on my shoulder, looking for somebody
to knock it off," laughed the girl of the Red Mill. "I just want Joe to
leave us alone--that's all."

Wonota shook her head and seemed unconvinced of the wisdom of this. She
was not a pacifist. She knew, too, the heart of the showman, and perhaps
she feared him more than she was willing to tell her new friends.

The four girls made their headquarters at the hotel, and then set forth
at once to shop and to look. As the hours of that first day passed
Wonota was vastly excited over the new sights. For once she lost that
stoic calmness which was her racial trait. The big stores and the tall
buildings here in the mid-western city seemed to impress her even more
than had those in New York.

There was reason for that. She was, while in New York, so much taken up
with the part she was playing in "Brighteyes" that she could think of
little else. She saw many things in the stores she wished to buy. Ruth
had advanced Wonota some money on her contract with the Alectrion Film
Corporation. But when it came right down to the point of buying the
things that girls like and long for--little trinkets and articles of
adornment--the Indian girl hesitated.