diff options
Diffstat (limited to '58378-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 58378-0.txt | 3566 |
1 files changed, 3566 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/58378-0.txt b/58378-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a1f5f90 --- /dev/null +++ b/58378-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3566 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58378 *** + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: UMÉ SAN IN THE FIELD OF IRIS] + + + + + LITTLE PEOPLE EVERYWHERE + + UMÉ SAN + IN JAPAN + + BY ETTA BLAISDELL McDONALD + AND JULIA DALRYMPLE + + Authors of "Manuel in Mexico," "Raphael in + Italy," "Kathleen in Ireland," etc. + + [Illustration] + + Illustrated + + BOSTON + LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY + 1909 + + + + + _Copyright, 1909_, + BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. + + _All rights reserved._ + + Published September, 1909. + + + Printers + S. J. PARKHILL & CO., BOSTON, U. S. A. + + + + + PREFACE + + +Japan is a paradise of flowers and of treasure-flowers, as the Japanese +mothers call their babies. In no other country in the world do they both +form so large a part of the daily life of the people. From the first +white plum blossom to the last gorgeous chrysanthemum the path of the +days is strewn with beautiful blossoms; and from the time of the Dolls' +Festival to the New Year's Celebration there is a constant round of +simple pleasures for the children. + +Happy children! who are always laughing and never crying; who are taught +filial respect, reverence, and unquestioning obedience, but are +surrounded in their homes with an atmosphere of kindness, cheerfulness +and loving care. + +It is true that the New Japan is very different from the Old. Railway +trains and electric cars are taking the place of the jinrikisha and +kago; modern school-houses, with desks, chairs, blackboards, and the +latest methods of teaching are fast replacing the tiny school-room with +its matted floors and its lessons learned by rote. But the spirit of the +common people is unchanged. The children play the same games and listen +to the same delightful tales; and their fathers and mothers hold to +their old superstitions, their ancestor-worship and their love of +nature. + +This story is a picture of the simple life of a Japanese family. To +follow little Umé San through the year, to play with her dolls on the +days of the Dolls' Festival, to go with her to the parks to admire the +cherry blossoms or chrysanthemums and join the crowds who are +celebrating these joyous seasons, to feed the goldfishes and doves in +the temple gardens, to buy toys and gifts in the streets of shops, and +to welcome the New Year with festivity and merrymaking, is to catch a +glimpse of the rare charm and spirit that pervade life in this "Land of +the Rising Sun." + + + + + CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. LITTLE MISS PLUM BLOSSOM . . . . . . . 1 + + II. UMÉ'S BIRTHDAY . . . . . . . . . 9 + + III. TEI BUYS A DOLL . . . . . . . . . 18 + + IV. THE DOLLS' FESTIVAL . . . . . . . . 26 + + V. A VISIT TO THE TEMPLE . . . . . . . 36 + + VI. CHERRY-BLOSSOM TIME . . . . . . . . 42 + + VII. THE FLAG FESTIVAL . . . . . . . . 51 + + VIII. THE SINGING INSECTS . . . . . . . . 57 + + IX. A TRIP TO KAMAKURA . . . . . . . . 63 + + X. THE ISLAND OF SHELLS . . . . . . . . 74 + + XI. A DAY IN SCHOOL . . . . . . . . . 82 + + XII. YUKI SAN IN THE STREET OF SHOPS . . . . . 88 + + XIII. THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY . . . . . . . 95 + + XIV. DARUMA SAMA . . . . . . . . . . 104 + + XV. NEW YEAR'S DAY . . . . . . . . . 111 + + + + + LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Umé San in the Field of Iris . . . . FRONTISPIECE + + Boys Playing Marbles . . . . . . . _Page_ 12 + + Umé Riding in a Jinrikisha . . . . . " 37 + + "The Cherry Trees in Ueno Park are in full + Blossom" . . . . . . . . " 42 + + There was a Fish for every Boy . . . . " 52 + + Fujiyama, the Sacred Mountain . . . . " 69 + + "Nothing can harm the Great Buddha" . . . " 73 + + "Umé caught her first Glimpse of the Lovely + Green Island" . . . . . . . . " 74 + + The Street of Shops and Asakusa Temple . . " 91 + + + + + UMÉ SAN IN JAPAN + + + CHAPTER I + + LITTLE MISS PLUM BLOSSOM + + +The little plum tree in the garden had blossomed regularly every year +for ten years on the twentieth day of the second month. That day was +Plum Blossom's birthday. + +On the day that she was born the little plum tree had blossomed for the +first time. For that reason she was called Umé, which is the Japanese +word for "plum blossom"; and for her sake the tree had opened its first +blossoms on that same day for the next nine years. + +Now, on the day before her eleventh birthday, all the buds were closed +hard and fast. Umé looked at them just before going to bed and there +seemed no chance of their opening for several days. + +"Perhaps the weather will be fine to-morrow, Umé-ko," said her mother, +as she spread a wadded quilt on the floor for her little daughter's bed. +"If it is, and the sun shines honorably bright, the buds may open before +the hour of sunset." + +"I will say a prayer to Benten Sama that it may be so," answered Umé. +Benten Sama is the Japanese goddess of good fortune, to whom the little +girl prayed very often. + +She knelt upon the mat and bent down until her forehead touched the +floor, after the Japanese manner of making an honorable bow. She clapped +her hands softly three times, and then rubbed one little pink palm +against the other while she prayed. + +"Dear Benten Sama," she said, "grant that just one little spray of the +plum blossoms may open to-morrow." + +For a moment she was very still, and then she added, "If they are open +when I first wake in the morning, I will honorably practise on my koto +for one whole hour after breakfast." + +Then little Umé Utsuki slipped into her bed upon the floor, laid her +head on the thin cushion of her wooden pillow, and drew the soft puff +under her cunning Japanese chin. + +"Good-night, dear Benten Sama," she whispered softly, and fell asleep +with the words of an old Japanese song on her drowsy tongue:-- + + "Evening burning! + Little burning! + Weather, be fair to-morrow!" + +The buds on the plum tree outside were closed hard and fast, and the +house walls about Umé were also tightly closed. The bright moon in the +heavens could find no chink through which to send a cheering ray to +little Umé San. + +All through the night the frost sparkled on the bare twigs of the dwarf +trees in the garden. All through the night the plum tree stood still and +made no sign that Benten Sama had heard Umé's prayer. When the moonbeams +grew pale in the morning light the buds were still tightly closed. + +Umé stirred in her bed on the floor, crept softly to the screen in the +wall and pushed it open. She moved the outer shutter also along its +groove and stepped off the veranda without even stopping to put on her +white stockings or her little wooden clogs. + +Down the garden path to the plum tree she pattered as fast as her bare +feet could carry her. + +Alas, there was nothing to be seen on her plum tree but brown buds! + +She looked up into the gray morning sky and tried to think of something +else; but her gay little kimono covered a heart that was heavy with +disappointment. + +The tears tried to force their slow way into her eyes, but the little +girl blinked them back again. + +Umé's ten years had been spent in learning the hard lesson of bearing +disappointments cheerfully. Now, with the shadow of tears filling her +eyes, she tried to bring the shadow of a smile to her tiny mouth. + +"Benten Sama did not honorably please to open the buds," she whispered +with a sob. + +Then, standing on the frosty ground, with her bare toes numb from the +cold, Umé made a rebellious little resolve deep in her heart where she +thought Benten Sama would know nothing about it. + +She resolved not to practise on her koto at all after breakfast. + +There were two reasons for making the resolve so secretly. She might +wish to pray to Benten Sama again some time, although if the goddess +were not going to answer her prayers it did not seem at all likely; and +besides, it was being very disobedient, because it was the rule that she +must practise one-half hour every morning after breakfast. + +Suddenly she realized that her disobedience would hurt her mother, who +was not at all to blame because the plum tree had not blossomed; but +just as her resolution began to weaken, her mother came out upon the +veranda and called to her. + +"The plum branch which your august father brought home only a week ago +is full of blossoms," she said, as she led the child back into the +house. + +It was true. In a beautiful vase on the floor of the honorable alcove +stood a spray of white plum blossoms. Umé's mother pushed the sliding +walls of the room wide open so that the morning sun might shine full +upon the flowers. + +The little girl ran across the matted floor and knelt joyously before +them. "They are most honorably welcome!" she cried, and bent her +forehead to the floor in salutation. + +She forgot at once her disappointment in the garden and her resolve not +to practise. She touched the sweet blossoms with loving fingers and +called her brother to look at the beautiful things. + +"Come Tara San! Come and look at the eldest brother of a hundred +flowers!" she called. + +Not only Tara, her brother, but Yuki, her baby sister, also came to bend +over the blossoms in delight. + +The spray stood in a brown jar filled with moist earth; here and there +the brown color of the jar was flecked with drifts of white to represent +the snow on bare earth, and the branch looked like a tiny tree growing +out of the ground. + +The plum is the first of all the trees to blossom in Japan, and for that +reason it is called "eldest brother" to the flowers. + +While the children touched the blossoms gently and chattered their +delight, their mother was busy, waking the servants, sliding back all +the wooden shutters of the house, folding the bedding and putting it +away in the closets. + +Umé left her flower-gazing and sprang to her own puffs before her mother +could touch them. "I will put them away," she said, and folded them +carefully as she had been taught to do. After breakfast they would have +to be taken out and aired; but the room must first be put in order for +the morning meal. + +Umé's bed was made, as are all Japanese beds, by spreading a quilted +puff upon the floor. With another puff over her, and a wooden block on +which to rest her head, the little girl slept as comfortably as most +people sleep on mattresses and soft pillows. + +Umé laughed softly now as she folded the puffs away in their closet. +"There are still many things to make my birthday a happy one," she said +to herself. "There will be a game with Cousin Tei after breakfast, and +perhaps she will give me a gift." She said the last words in a whisper, +so that her mother would not hear. No matter how much she might long for +a gift, it was not becoming in her to speak of it beforehand. + +She was sure that there would be gifts from her father and mother and +from the respected grandmother. That was to be expected, and had even +been hinted. The grandmother had mentioned an envelope of paper +handkerchiefs the very day before, after Umé had made an unusually +graceful bow to her. + +In her heart Umé wanted most a pair of little American shoes, but she +had never dared to ask for them because her father did not like the +dress of the American women. In fact, he often told Umé to observe +carefully how much more graceful and attractive the kimono is than the +strange clothing worn by the foreign people. + +The little girl sighed as she remembered it. Just then she heard her +father's step in the next room and turned quickly to bow before him. + +The maids had brought several lacquered trays into the room, one for +each member of the family, and had set them near together on the floor. +Each tray had short legs, three or four inches high, and looked like a +toy table. On the tray was placed a pair of chopsticks, a dainty china +bowl and a tiny cup. Now one maid was beginning to fill the bowls with +boiled rice and another was pouring tea into the cups. + +All three children remained standing until the father entered the room. +Then each one, even Baby San, bowed before him, kneeling on the floor +and touching his forehead to the mat and saying, "Good morning, +honorable Father." + +To their mother the children bowed in the same way, and also to their +grandmother when she came into the room. Everything would have been most +quiet and proper but for the baby. She liked to bump her little forehead +on the floor so well that she kept on kotowing to old black Tama, the +tailless cat, who stalked into the room. As if that were not enough, she +bowed to each one of the breakfast trays until her mother seated her +before one of them and gave her a pair of tiny chopsticks. + +Then there was the waiting until the grandmother and the father and +mother were served, which seemed to the baby to take too long a time. +She beat the tray with her chopsticks and called for the rice-cakes even +as they were disappearing down the honorable throat of her father. + +Tara laughed. He was very fond of his little sister. That she should do +such an unheard-of thing as to demand cakes from her father seemed to +him exceedingly funny. His father smiled, too. + +"Your grandmother will have a task to teach you what is proper, Yuki +San," he said. + +At last the breakfast of rice, tea and raw fish was over. The little +lacquer trays were all taken out of the room, and the father was ready +to go to his silk shop. + +His jinrikisha was waiting at the garden gate. In their place on the +flat stone at the house entrance stood his wooden clogs, and all the +family gathered at the door to bid him "Sayonara." + + + + + CHAPTER II + + UMÉ'S BIRTHDAY + + +Umé stood still, looking after her father until his jinrikisha was out +of sight. + +Down in her heart there was an uneasy feeling that she was going to do +wrong. She had resolved to omit her koto practice, and having made such +a resolve it seemed to her as binding as a promise. But now was the time +she had always given to her practice; now, when her mother was busy with +household cares. + +"I will go first to cousin Tei's," she said to herself, and ran to her +grandmother's room to find her mother. + +"O Haha San," she said, "may I have your honorable permission to go to +cousin Tei's house?" + +"Yes, Daughter," answered her mother, and went on matching the silk +pieces of the grandmother's new kimono. + +Umé stepped down from the veranda into the garden path; then she stopped +and looked back into the room where her koto lay. Something within her +told her to go back. It was the strong sense of obedience to duty which +makes such a large part of the life of every Japanese girl. + +She felt it so strongly that she took one step backward. Then the +resolve made in the early morning, when she was disappointed at not +seeing the plum blossoms, flashed into her memory. She slipped her feet +into her wooden clogs, turned toward the garden and clattered swiftly +down the path. + +All the flowering shrubs were still wrapped in their winter kimonos of +straw and it seemed to Umé that they knew about her disobedience. The +cherry trees and the dwarf pine trees waved their branches backward +toward the house. + +She passed the little hill, the pond with its bridge, and the stone +lantern, and she remembered that one day her father had told her that +they all stood for obedience. But she ran forward, shaking her naughty +little head as if to shake away every good influence. + +At the farther end of the garden a tiny gateway led into her cousin +Tei's garden, through which she ran to the house. + +Tei was standing on the veranda bouncing a ball. + +"Come, Tei," said Umé. "Let us go to the street of shops and buy some +sweets. It is my birthday and I have ten sen." + +Tei was so much in the habit of obeying that she obeyed Umé, and the two +little girls went into the city streets, where they found so many things +to interest them that Umé quite forgot her koto practice. + +It was not a common thing for the two children to wander away in this +manner. They had so many playthings and so much room in the two gardens +that they were quite contented to play together at home all day long +after they had finished their house duties and the lessons at school +were over. + +Today the children were to have a holiday; and while Umé's mother +thought she was at Tei's house, Tei's mother thought her little daughter +was at her cousin Umé's. + +It was the middle of the afternoon before the two little girls returned +home. They went first to the street of toy-shops and Umé bought a big +red ball and a fairy-story book full of the most delightful pictures. + +Then they sat down on the temple steps to look at the pictures, and +would have read the story, too, but in a moment a man came down the +street with a crowd of merry children following him. He stopped in front +of Umé and quickly made five or six butterflies out of pieces of colored +paper he took from his sleeve pocket. + +The man blew the butterflies up into the air and kept them flying about +by waving a big fan. At last he made a beautiful yellow one light on +Tei's hair. + +"Keep it," said Umé, "it will bring good luck," and she gave the man a +rin for it. + +At one of the booths near the temple she bought two baked sweet potatoes +and some rice-cakes, and the little girls ate their luncheon, holding +the crumbs for the pigeons that flew down to eat from their outstretched +hands. + +Now the sen were all spent; but there were still many pleasant things +for the two little girls to do. They ran down to the pond in the temple +garden to look at the goldfish. Then they played a game with the new +ball, and watched a group of boys playing marbles. They even played +blind-man's-buff with some of the other children, and were really very +happy. + + [Illustration: Boys Playing Marbles. _Page_ 12.] + +Perhaps they would not have thought to go home at all if Umé had not +remembered the tea-party in honor of her birthday. Her father was to +come home from his shop earlier than usual, so that the family might +drink tea together. + +"Come, Tei," she said at last, "it is nearly the hour of tea-drinking. +Let us go home." + +Obedient Tei turned at once, saying only, "It would have been good to +read the fairy story in the picture-book." + +But Umé had not heard what Tei said. For the first time in many hours +she was thinking of the koto practice. + +"Did you ever do anything disobedient, Tei?" she asked. + +Tei thought very hard for a few moments. "Yes," she said at last, "I +once put the cherry blossoms into the chrysanthemum vase when the +honorable mother told me not to do so." + +Umé looked at Tei in surprise. "But how could you?" she asked. "They +must have hurt your intelligent eyes after you put them there." + +Tei shook her head. "I thought they looked pretty," she confessed. + +Umé looked doubtful. After a moment she said, "I could never have put +them in that vase; it would have looked wrong from the first. But I ran +away from my koto practice to-day, perhaps that was just as bad." + +It was Tei's turn to look surprised. "How could you do it?" she asked in +horror. "All the gods will talk about you." + +Umé shook her head. "It was not hard to do it," she said, "and it is +true that I have not thought about it in this whole beautiful day. I do +not understand why." + +"It is because there have been so many other things to think about," +said Tei; but she went home and told her mother that she thought Umé +would feel the displeasure of the gods because of her disobedience. + +As for Umé, she said nothing about it at first. Her father was at home +and the little girl slipped out of her clogs and into the room like a +gay butterfly. + +"I have returned, honorable Father," she said, fluttering to her knees +and spreading her kimono sleeves as widely as they would go above her +head. At the same time she bobbed the saucy little head upon a mat. Once +would have been quite enough, but Umé did it several times. + +"That will do," said her father at last. + +He saw that the child was excited. Umé's grandmother saw it also and +spoke reprovingly. "Little girls should never behave in a way to draw +the honorable eyes of their parents upon them in displeasure," she said. + +But Umé had discovered the tray of gifts standing on the floor. There +were several packages, each neatly wrapped in white paper with a bit of +writing on it, and tied with red and white paper ribbons. + +Before she touched them Umé made a deep bow before her grandmother, +saying, "Truly, thanks!" Then to her father she said, "O Chichi San, +have I your generous permission to open the packages?" + +The permission was given and happy little Umé knelt on the floor beside +the tray and opened one package after another. From every one she took +first a tiny piece of dried fish wrapped in colored paper, which is +nearly always given with a present in Japan. + +"These are for good luck," she said, and placed the bits of fish +carefully in a little lacquered box. + +Of course there was the envelope of paper handkerchiefs from her +grandmother. There was also a beautiful new kimono from her mother, and +from her father there was a hairpin with white plum blossoms for +ornament. + +Tara gave her a doll dressed in a kimono like her own new one. "I kept +it in the godown for a whole week of days," he told her. + +"Yes," said the mother softly, "and it was not very hard to make such a +small kimono secretly." + +"I shall call her Haru," said Umé, "because she has come to me in the +first days of the honorable springtime." + +"On the day that I brought the hairpin home and hid it in your mother's +sleeve," said her father with a smile, "I felt deeply deceitful." + +Suddenly Umé felt very unhappy. She looked at all the loving faces and +remembered that she, too, had this very day been most deceitful. + +"Now let us look at Umé's plum tree," said the grandmother. + +All the family rose from the floor and followed the good father into the +garden. Yuki San toddled along on her wooden clogs, and behind the baby +marched tailless Tama, keeping a sharp eye on the baby's hands. Tama did +not like the feeling of those little hands. + +They stopped under the plum tree and the father pointed to the branches. +Umé looked, and the sight of the tree sent the blood into her face and +then out of it. The buds all over the branches were shyly shaking out +their white petals. + +Umé heard her father say, "We must now write fitting poems and fasten +them to the heavenly-blossoming branches." She saw all the family go +back into the house for the brushes, ink and slips of paper, but she +remained under the tree. She was too unhappy to make poems, and she felt +sure that no thought of hers could be pleasing to the gods at this time. + +"Benten Sama heard my prayer," she whispered; "and while I was +disobedient, the plum tree has blossomed." + +In a few moments her mother returned to the garden. + +"Condescend to hear my unworthy poem," she said, and read it aloud from +a slip of paper. "The illustrious sun called to the brown buds and the +blossoms obeyed." + +Umé hung her head. She only, it seemed, had been disobedient; even the +buds had obeyed the call of the sun. + +Just then Tara ran from the house. "My miserable poem is about the +lovely sunset," he said, and read, "The joyful blossoms blush under the +rosy glances of the sunset sky." + +The father took the poems and fastened them to a branch of the tree. As +he did so he looked down at his little daughter. "What unhappy thought +clouds your face, Umé-ko?" he asked gently. + +Umé began to cry. It was a long time since she had done such a thing. +Little Japanese children are always taught not to permit their faces to +show either grief or anger; but Umé's tears fell in spite of all her +efforts to keep them back. + +At the sight of her tears a silence fell upon the whole family. Even +little Yuki looked at her in surprise as she told the story of her +disobedience. + +It was the grandmother who spoke first. + +"Our spirits are poisoned that you have been so forgetful of our +teaching," she said; "but I have learned many things in my long life. It +is our honorable privilege to forgive your disobedience, if you are +truly sorry for it, because this is your birthday." + +Little Umé counted that forgiveness as the best of all her birthday +gifts. + + + + + CHAPTER III + + TEI BUYS A DOLL + + +"A whole year of months is a very long time, is it not, Umé?" + +"Yes, Tei." + +"Would you like to stay shut up in a dark room as long as that, the way +the dolls do?" + +"No indeed, Tei, and I would not stay shut up. I would find some way out +and would run away." + +"Just as we did on your birthday," said Tei. + +"Oh, Tei, why did you speak of that? I had put that unworthy memory away +in a dark place with all my other bad deeds and was never going to think +of it again." + +"Just as we put away the dolls in the godown after the Dolls' Festival +is over, Umé?" + +Umé laughed. "I had not thought of that, but it is so," she said. + +All the time the two little girls were talking they were busily +preparing breakfasts for their dolls. They had five or six small trays +and on each one they placed chopsticks and bowls, and cups about as big +as thimbles. + +The room in which they were playing was the honorable guest room, the +best one in the Utsuki house. On one side of the room was a sight to +make any little girl jump for joy. As many as five long shelves had been +placed along the wall, arranged one above another like steps, and more +than one hundred dolls were grouped on the shelves. + +"Here are dolls of all honorable sizes! Ten sen for each, and all +honorable prices!" chanted Umé, just as she had heard the toy-peddler +cry. + +There were indeed dolls of all sizes and kinds. There were big dolls and +little dolls, boy dolls and girl dolls. Some were over a hundred years +old, and others looked quite new. + +On the top shelf stood five emperors with their empresses, and on the +lowest shelf, among the toys, Haru was standing beside a new doll which +Umé's mother had given her for this Dolls' Festival. + +This festival, on the third day of the third month, is the most +important one of the whole year to little Japanese girls. For nearly a +week Umé and her mother had been busy preparing for this festival. They +had set the shelves in place, covered them with gorgeous red cotton +crêpe, and had then brought boxes and boxes and bags and bags of dolls +and toys from the godown. + +The godown is the fireproof building which may be seen in almost every +Japanese garden. It is built of brick or stone, usually painted white, +and has a black tiled roof and a heavy door which is always shut and +locked. If the family is a very wealthy one, with a great many +treasures, the godown must be large; if there are but few treasures the +building may be smaller. + +It is quite necessary to have some such place, which cannot easily be +destroyed, because Japan is so often visited by earthquakes, and in the +cities there are often terrible fires. Perhaps this explains why the +Japanese have so little furniture and so few ornaments in their houses. + +"I hope that there will not be a fire or an earthquake while the dolls +are in the house," said Umé, standing off to see if there were a pair of +chopsticks on each tray. + +"How many dolls are there on the shelves?" asked Tei. + +"I don't know," answered Umé. "There are all of mine and my mother's and +my mother's mother's. And again there are some of her mother's mother's. +And besides that there are some of her mother's mother's, and so on, and +so on,--to the time of Confucius." + +"That can't be quite true, Umé," said Tei, who was always very exact in +her statements. "Confucius lived many hundred years ago, and I don't +think there is a doll in all Japan as old as that." + +"I said, 'and so on and so on,'" said Umé. "If you keep on you must get +to Confucius some time." She filled the little dishes with rice-cakes +for the dolls' breakfasts while she talked, and Tei poured tea into the +tiny cups. + +"Oh, Umé, when your words once make an honorable beginning they always +have trouble in finding an end." + +"Oh, Tei, sometimes it might be well if your own words were sooner to +find an honorable end." + +Tei laughed and changed the subject. "I have heard," she said, "that +there is a country where the little girls do not have a Dolls' +Festival." + +"Yes," answered Umé, "I also have heard as much, and that they sometimes +give away their dolls when they are too old to play with them." + +"Give them away! Give the dear dolls away!" cried Tei, fairly choking +with horror. + +"Yes, but perhaps they do not respect them as much as we do," said Umé, +as she placed a breakfast tray before an emperor and empress on their +throne. + +"There must be some reason for it," said Tei. "Of course they cannot +have a Dolls' Festival if they do not keep their dolls. But still there +is no need to keep the dolls if they never have a festival." + +The two children stood back and looked at the shelves. On the step below +the emperors knelt the court musicians, some playing on the koto, some +on the samisen, and others beating tiny drums. There were also many +court ladies, dressed in lovely silks and crêpes, their black hair +fastened with jeweled hairpins. + +"Are they not beautiful?" asked Tei, clasping her hands. + +Umé looked tenderly at the lower shelves, where the more common dolls +and toys were placed. "These are like the people we see every day, and I +love them," she told Tei; "but when I look at the emperor dolls it makes +me think of our own beloved Emperor, and I would give up all my toys for +him." + +"Yes," said Tei, "I would give my life for him." + +At that moment she caught sight of a baby doll tied to the back of its +nurse, and it reminded her of something very pleasant. + +"I held my new baby brother in my arms this morning," she said. + +"I am glad of the honorable baby," said Umé, "because now you are +permitted to share the Festival of the Dolls with me." + +"Yes," added Tei, "and I am also permitted to go to the shops to-day and +buy a new doll. See all the sen the august father gave me this morning," +and Tei took a handful of coins from her sleeve pocket. + +Umé clapped her hands. "We will go as soon as all the dolls have had +their breakfast," she said. "I will strap Haru on my back, and you shall +strap your new doll on your back, and we will play that they are truly +babies." + +She sprang to her feet as she said it, and danced up and down the room, +clapping her hands and singing a queer little tune. + +"I have the most honorably best time in the whole year when the Dolls' +Festival comes," she cried. + +It was not to be wondered at. Then all the dolls and toys and games that +little girls love to play with are set out on the shelves in the +honorable guest room; and for three days they have a holiday from school +and play all the day long. + +The doll-shops are always merry with children waiting to buy dolls and +crowded with dolls waiting to be bought. But there were so many +interesting things to see in the streets that Tei and Umé were a long +time in reaching the doll-shop. + +Once they stopped to watch the firemen who ran past them on their way to +a fire. + +The fire-stations in Tokio are tall ladders which are made to stand +upright in the street, with a tub at the top in which the watchman sits. +This tub looks like a crow's-nest on the mast of a vessel. Beside it is +a big bell which the watchman strikes when he sees a fire anywhere. + +The firemen run through the streets headed by a man carrying a large +paper standard, which they place near the burning house. They are very +helpful in saving the women and children, but as they dislike to desert +their standard they are not always of much use in putting out the fire. + +House-owners give the firemen a great many presents to keep them +faithful to their duty. + +As the two little girls watched the men running to the fire with a +little box of a hand-engine, and with the beautiful standard in the +lead, they thought it a fine sight. + +"Tara says he is going to be a fireman when he grows up," said Umé. "He +says it is because a fireman gets so many presents." + +Tei shook her head. "It is a sad thing when a fire burns a thousand +houses as it did in our city last year," she said. "I do not like to +think of it." + +"We need have no fear," said Umé lightly. "Our fathers have extra houses +packed away in their godowns." + +"That is true," said Tei, "but many others are not so wisely fortunate." + +Just then they reached the doll-shop and the fires were forgotten. + +"Oh, the lovely dolls!" cried Umé clapping her hands. + +There were a hundred bright kimono sleeves pushing and reaching toward +the shelves of dolls in the shop. There were fifty little Japanese girls +chattering together about the smiling face of one and the beautiful silk +kimono of another. + +The click of wooden clogs, the clank of Japanese money, and the merry +talk of the children, all trying to be heard at the same time, made it a +jolly affair. + +The doll chosen by Tei was the one which was being admired by two other +little girls at the same moment. It was a boy baby with pink cheeks and +black eyes and a little fringe of very black hair; and it was dressed in +a lovely red silk kimono covered with yellow chrysanthemums. + +"It is very like the new brother at home," said Tei, as she counted out +the sen and gave them to the doll-shopman. + +Then she strapped the doll on her back and the two little girls went +home slowly, talking of the wonderful baby brother who had come to Tei's +house the week before. + +"The house has to be very quiet, because the honorable baby is not yet +well," said Tei. "He has been very ill. I could not have gone with you +to the city streets on your birthday if the baby had been well. Every +one was glad to have me out of the house, so that it might be kept very +still." + + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE DOLLS' FESTIVAL + + +When Umé and Tei reached home, carrying their dolls on their backs, they +found Yuki on the veranda. + +"My geta! Yuki's geta!" the baby called as soon as she saw her sister +coming down the garden path; and she stood on one clog and held up the +other little white-stockinged foot. + +Small as she was, Yuki-ko could slip her feet into her wooden clogs +without any help when she could find them; but Saké, the dog, generally +found them first and as there was never a bone for him to hide, he liked +to hide the tiny shoes. + +Now, as usual, one of the clogs was missing from the flat step where the +baby had last left it. + +"Perhaps it is under the plum tree, O Yuki San," said Umé, and ran to +find it, but it was not there. + +"What a pity that Saké makes us so much trouble!" she said to Tei. "It +is plain to be seen that the good dog Shiro was no ancestor of his." + +"What good dog Shiro?" asked Tei. + +"The dog of the man who made the dead trees to blossom," answered Umé as +she looked under the quince bushes; but the missing clog was not there. +Several days later the gardener found it buried under the bush of snow +blossoms; but Umé gave up looking for it when she did not find it in any +of Saké's favorite places. + +"It is such a long time since I heard the story of the good man who made +trees blossom, that I have nearly forgotten it," said Tei; but Umé was +talking to Yuki. + +"Be happy, little treasure-flower," she said to the baby. "You shall +have a new pair of clogs; and you may come with us now and help serve +tea to the honorable dolls." + +Baby Yuki forgot her clogs at once. She knelt upon the floor and held up +her tiny hands for the tea-bowl. + +"Oh, Umé! She is too little to whip the tea," said Tei when she saw that +her cousin meant to give the baby a bowl of tea powder and a bamboo +brush with which to whip it into foam. + +"I will watch her," answered Umé. "It may be that the dolls forget all +they learn about the tea-ceremony when they are shut up in the godown +for a whole year. While I am teaching Yuki San, they may learn it all +over again by most carefully watching us." + +Tei laughed. "The illustrious dolls always behave most honorably well," +she said. "Perhaps it is because they do not forget from year to year, +but spend all their time in remembering." + +Just then there was a happy little gurgle from the baby. + +Umé turned quickly to see what she was doing. "O Yuki San! Yuki San!" +she cried, running to the rescue. + +But it was too late! While Umé had been talking with Tei, the baby had +been pouring the tea over her head. She was still holding the bowl above +her head when Umé looked, and the water was still trickling down over +her hair and into her eyes. + +She smiled sweetly up into Umé's face. "The honorable fountain!" she +said. + +"The Japanese tea-ceremony has nothing to do with the honorable fountain +in the garden," said Umé as she clapped her hands for old Maru, the +nurse. + +"Naruhodo!" said old Maru, as she brought towels and wiped the tea from +the baby and the mat with many exclamations of amazement. + +"Naruhodo!" she repeated, as she watched the two older children try to +teach something of the tea-ceremony to the baby. + +But Yuki San was soon tired of sitting still. She like to watch the tea +powder foam in the bowl, but when she tried to put her tiny hands into +the dish and play they were fishes, Umé gave her a doll and sent her off +to play by herself. + +"It will never do for the dolls to see such unworthy actions," Umé told +Tei. "They will think it is all a part of the august tea-ceremony." + +It was much easier to teach the dolls without the baby's help, and there +was everything to teach them with. There was a toy kitchen with its +charcoal brazier, its brushes and dishes. There was a toy work-box with +thread, needles and silk. + +There were toy quilts and wooden pillows and flower vases; and there +were toy jinrikishas with their runners. + +Umé and Tei taught the dolls the proper bowings for the street and those +for the house. They changed the food on the trays, and taught the girl +dolls that they must most carefully wait upon the boy dolls, as Umé +herself had been taught to wait upon Tara, although she was older than +her brother. + +Umé even read aloud with much emphasis from the "Book of Learning for +Women": "Let the children be always taught to speak the simple truth, to +stand upright in their proper places, and to listen with respectful +attention." + +There are many other directions in the book, all of which the little +women of Japan learn by heart. Umé would have read many of the rules to +the dolls, but her mother called both children to leave their play and +go with the grandmother and old Maru to listen to story-telling in the +street of theaters. + +"It is a very different thing to tell the simple truth at one time and +to listen to honorable stories at another," said Umé to the dolls as she +left them. + +In the street of theaters are many little booths in which there are men +who tell the most enchanting stories. Sometimes they tell fairy stories, +sometimes ghost stories, and sometimes stories of Japanese gods and +heroes. Umé and Tei liked the fairy stories best of all. + +"The old man in this booth tells fairy stories faithfully well," said +the grandmother as they stopped before a tiny house decorated with paper +parasols and lanterns, and with a long red banner floating above it from +a bamboo pole. + +"Honorably deign to enter," said a little woman crouching at the door. + +Maru gave the woman four sen and the little party entered and joined a +group of about twenty women and girls who were seated on mats in front +of the story-teller. + +"Hear, now, the story of the good old man who made dead trees to +blossom!" said the story-teller, waving his fan over his head and then +clapping it in his hand three times to call attention to his words. + +Umé and Tei looked at one another and clasped their hands beneath their +chins. + +"Just what we were respectfully speaking about in the morning hour!" +murmured Tei. + +Umé nodded and would have said something in answer, but her grandmother +said, "Hush!" + +"Once upon a time two men lived side by side in a little village," said +the story-teller, looking at Umé. Umé again nodded her head. She knew +the story perfectly well, but the Japanese children love to hear the +same stories told over and over again. + +"One of these men was kind and generous," continued the story-teller. +"The other was envious and cruel. Neither one of them had any children +to pay them honor in their old age; but the kind man and his wife were +always doing good. One day they found a dog which they took to their +home and taught as they would have taught a child, to be obedient and +faithful. + +"They named the dog Shiro, and fed him with the mochi cake which tastes +best after the New Year is made welcome with much joy and ceremony." + +Umé and Tei nodded and smiled at one another. + +"But Shiro knew nothing about the New Year festival," went on the +story-teller. "He was happy all the day long in following the good old +man about and getting a kind pat from the gentle hand. + +"One day he began digging for himself in a corner of the garden. +Scratch! went his two paws as fast as he could make the dirt fly, and +the good old man took his spade and dug in the spot to find what could +be hidden in the dirt. + +"He was rewarded by finding an honorable quantity of coins; enough to +keep him and his wife comfortable for many months. + +"But the envious man, the unworthy neighbor, hearing of this good +fortune, asked to borrow the dog. + +"'Yes, truly,' answered the other and sent Shiro home with his neighbor, +although the obedient creature had always been driven away from the +neighbor's gate with sticks and harsh words. + +"'Now you must find treasure for me,' said the bad man who knew nothing +about kindness to animals, for he pushed the poor dog's nose into the +earth so deeply that Shiro was nearly smothered. + +"The dog did truly begin scratching, but when the cruel man dug in that +place, he found nothing but rubbish, which so enraged him that he killed +the obedient animal and buried his body under a pine tree. + +"At last the good man, wondering why Shiro did not return, went to his +neighbor and asked the reason. 'Ah, he was a bad dog!' answered the +other. 'He would find nothing but rubbish in the ground for me, and so I +killed him and he lies under the pine tree.' + +"'It was a great pity to kill him,' said the good man. 'We should be +kind to all animals, because it may be that the souls of our ancestors +return and live in their bodies.' + +"'What is done cannot now be helped,' the bad neighbor answered. + +"So Shiro's master bought the tree, cut it down and took it home." + +Umé and Tei nodded again. The mystery was to begin in the story and they +drew closer to the grandmother. + +"The spirit of the little dog spoke to his master in the night," said +the story-teller, "and told him to make a tub from the pieces of the +tree. It must be just such a tub as the mochi-makers use at New Year's +time, and in the tub the old man must make mochi for Shiro. + +"So the good old man did as he was bidden, thinking to put some of the +cakes before the tablet on the god-shelf as an offering to the spirit of +the obedient dog. + +"But when he put the barley into the tub and began to pound it, the +quantity of barley increased until there was all that the man and his +wife could use for their needs for a long time. + +"This also, the envious neighbor saw, and he borrowed the tub as he had +borrowed the dog, thinking to have as much barley meal for himself. + +"But although the tub overflowed with the grain, it was all worthless; +so poor that no one could eat it. A second time the man was angered and +he pounded the tub to pieces in his rage. + +"The patient old man gathered up the pieces and used them for fire-wood, +saving the ashes as the spirit of Shiro directed him to do. + +"In his garden there was an old dead tree. The spirit of the dog bade +him sprinkle some of the ashes upon the branches of this tree and he +obediently did so. + +"Immediately, pop! The branches were suddenly covered with beautiful +double cherry blossoms. + +"People from far and wide flocked to see the sight, and among them was a +prince who begged the old man to do the same thing for one of his trees +which had long been dead. + +"When his tree blossomed as the first had done, he was so pleased that +he gave the old man many valuable gifts of silk and rice and sent him +home, to be known as the 'old man who could make dead trees blossom.'" + +When the story-teller finished, he disappeared behind a red curtain and +there was nothing for Umé and Tei to do but go home. + +"It is a good thing that the story was no longer," said Umé, "because +Tara is going to help me build a toy garden for my dolls." + +Tara helped to build the garden, to be sure, but the two little girls +waited upon him and listened to him, and not once forgot that in Japan +girls and women must follow their brothers. They must never try to lead +them. + +"Go and get the spade from the garden-house, Umé," Tara said to his +sister. "Bring some small stones from the rockery," he told Tei, and +both little girls obeyed without a word. + +At the end of the third day of the Dolls' Festival there was a charming +toy garden at one end of the veranda. In the garden there was a tiny +lake bordered with flowering shrubs, a little hill with trees growing +around it, a path leading to the lake beside which grew peach trees in +full bloom, and there were even two tiny stone lanterns and a little +temple on the hill. + +It had been a wonderful holiday for the little girls and they were sorry +that it was all over, but they cheerfully helped to pack the dolls and +toys away in boxes and carry them back to the godown. + + + + + CHAPTER V + + A VISIT TO THE TEMPLE + + +"O Haha San," said Umé, "when we took little Yuki San to the temple for +the first time, with whom did I sit in the jinrikisha?" + +"It is not strange that you have no memory of it, little Plum Blossom," +said her mother. + +"Why, honorable mother?" + +"Because you were ill from eating too many sweets the day before, and +had to stay at home in your bed." + +Umé laughed. "Now I do remember it," she said. "My unworthy head danced +like a geisha girl when I tried to stand on my two feet." + +Umé's mother looked at her little daughter reprovingly. "Do not speak so +easily of such girls, Umé-ko," she said. + +"Was Tara taken to the temple when he was thirty days old?" + +"Yes, my daughter." + +"But, Mother San, with whom did I ride then?" + +"With O Ba San." + +"I wish I could go to-day with Tei," said Umé. + +"It is time for them even now to begin the journey," answered her +mother. "You may perhaps ride in the same jinrikisha with your little +cousin." + +Umé made a deep bow to her mother, slipped into her clogs at the veranda +step, and ran swiftly through the garden to her cousin's house. + +Everything there was in a great state of excitement. The new baby, +dressed in a most gorgeous red silk kimono with the family crest +embroidered on the back and sleeves, was going to make his first visit +to the temple. + +"Yes, you may come with me," said Tei to Umé, after asking the honorable +father's permission. + + [Illustration: Umé Riding in a Jinrikisha. _Page_ 37.] + +The pale little mother leaned back in her jinrikisha beside the nurse +who carried the beautiful boy. + +The father, very proud to have a son who would carry on the family name, +rode in the first jinrikisha, and the little party took their way to the +famous Kameido Temple in the eastern part of the city. + +"It was not until three days ago that the baby was well enough to have +his head shaved," Tei confided to Umé. + +"But I thought it must always be done on the seventh day," said Umé. + +Tei shook her head. "The august father commanded that it should not be +done," she said. "The baby was so frail that there have been no visits +from anyone since he was first seen in our house." + +"Then the baby might just as well have been a girl," said Umé decidedly. + +"Oh no!" said Tei. "There have been dozens of presents of rice and silk, +and many other things. And there have been letters of congratulation. +And to-day, when we return from the temple, many, many people will come +to see the baby, because they could not come before." + +"What name was given to the baby on the seventh day?" asked Umé +curiously. + +"He is to be called Onda," answered Tei. + +Before Umé could ask any more questions they had reached the temple. + +Everything seemed to go wrong with Tei. She caught her clog as she was +getting out of the jinrikisha and fell upon her nose. It bled a little, +just enough to make her say pitifully, "Oh, how truly sad! It will never +bring good luck to the dear brother." + +But Umé was always quick at thinking of a way out of trouble. Near the +entrance to the temple stood a deep basin filled with water. With this +water everybody washes his hands before going in to pray. Umé lifted a +spoonful of the water and rubbed it over her cousin's nose. "That will +make it as well as ever," she told Tei. + +"What is that in your other hand?" asked Tei, seeing that Umé was using +only one hand, and that the other was tightly closed. + +"It is a rice-cake to feed to the goldfish in the temple lake." One can +always buy rice-cakes at the temple gate, but Umé had thoughtfully +brought one from her home. + +Umé would have almost preferred feeding the fish to seeing the ceremony +of placing the new baby under the protecting care of the patron saint of +the temple. Baby Onda's father had chosen the God of Learning to be his +son's patron saint. He wished to have the child become very studious and +know thoroughly all the wisdom of Confucius and the old, old gods of +learning and wisdom. + +Before going into the temple everyone slipped out of his clogs, washed +his hands, and made several bows at the entrance. + +Tei's father then pulled a rope which rang a bell to attract the +attention of the god. There was a moment when he clapped his hands +together three times to be sure that the god was listening. After that +he asked very earnestly that his little son might be carefully guarded +and guided along the rough path of wisdom. Then he clapped his hands +twice to show that his prayer was ended. + +It was so solemn and impressive to little Umé that she forgot her +rice-cake and let it drop to the temple floor as she clasped her own +hands in prayer. + +Then followed the gift to the gods, and one to the priest of the temple. +The priest blessed the new baby and he was safely placed under the care +of Sugawara-no-Michizanè, the God of Literature, in the Kameido Temple +in the city of Tokio. + +The ceremony was not very long. The moment it was over Umé and Tei stole +as quickly as they could out of the temple, and ran down to the lake +where the goldfish were waiting to be fed. + +Of course they stayed there so long, feeding first one fish and then +another, and watching them spread their fan-like tails and glide away to +nibble the bits of rice-cake, that Tei's father came to look for them. + +"We have no more time," he said gently to them. "Unless we are soon at +our unworthy house, all the honorable guests will be there before us." + +The jinrikisha runners were told to hurry home, and they obeyed so well +that Umé and Tei clung to one another and gave little shrieks of +delight. + +Hardly had they reached home when the guests really did begin to arrive. +All the relatives and friends came by ones and twos and threes; some in +jinrikishas and some on foot,--all who had sent presents and all who had +waited to bring them. + +Umé and Tei counted the different pairs of clogs that were left at the +veranda steps, and there were over one hundred pairs. + +"Such an illustrious crowd!" said Tei, drawing in her breath with +excitement. + +But there was little time to count and look. The two children were +needed to help pass tea and cakes to the visitors. It was dark before +everybody was at last gone and the baby's first party was over. + +"Baby Onda is tired with so much looking and holding and praising," said +Umé to her mother as they went home through the gardens. "He will never +go to sleep again, or else he will sleep for a week of days." + +"He is an honorable boy child," answered her mother. "A boy must learn +early to bear hardships." + +"It is no hardship to receive honorable praise," said little Umé. + + + + + CHAPTER VI + + CHERRY-BLOSSOM TIME + + +"The cherry trees in Ueno Park are in full blossom to-day," read Umé's +father in the morning paper. "The Emperor visited the park yesterday to +see the beautiful flowers." + + [Illustration: "The Cherry Trees in Ueno Park are in full Blossom." + _Page 42._] + +Umé turned from looking at the cherry blossoms in the garden to look at +her mother who stood on the veranda. + +"Something will honorably give way in my heart, O Haha San," she said. + +"What do you mean, Umé-ko?" asked her mother. + +"My heart is greatly joyous over so many blossoms," answered the little +girl. "It has grown so big that I would feel better if it should take +itself to the godown and leave me without it." + +"Foolish Umé!" said her mother, but she smiled at the child's fancy. + +"The joy began to grow with the first pink buds," Umé went on, "and now +that all the cherry trees everywhere are in blossom,--in our garden, in +Tei's garden, and in all the gardens; along the streets and river banks, +and in all the parks, my heart is bursting with gladness." + +"When hearts feel that way," said her mother, "it is because they wish +to offer thanks to the gods. We will all go to the temple to-day and +leave a gift, and then we will go to the beautiful Ueno Park, where +there will be many others who feel the way that you do in their hearts." + +"It is the way we Japanese always feel when the cherry trees hang out +their pink garlands," said Umé's father. + +Tara was bouncing a ball in the garden and heard this talk about the +cherry blossoms. + +"Wait until my festival," he said, "and then you will see what it is +really like to feel gladness." + +"Your festival," said Umé, "and pray what may your honorable festival +be?" + +"The fish-tree festival is the one I like," answered Tara, and he gave +his ball a great toss into the air. + +Umé looked puzzled for a moment, then she cried, "Oh, he means the Flag +Festival!" + +"Come, children," interrupted their mother, "find the lunch boxes and +help to put all in peaceful readiness for our journey to the park." + +Tara picked up Baby Yuki and gave her a toss into the air. In doing so +he discovered that she had lost her name-label. It is a common thing for +a Japanese child to wear a wooden label tied around his neck, on which +his name and address are printed. Then if he is lost he can be returned +to his home. + +Tara made a new label and tied it so firmly around the baby's neck that +her tiny fingers could not possibly loosen the strings. + +"Now, O Yuki San," he said, "you are all ready to go to the park, where +you can get lost a dozen times if you wish, honorable Sister," and he +gave her another toss for good luck. + +In the meantime Umé found that her clog string was broken. "I may as +well get a new string for each clog," she said. "When one breaks, I find +that the other soon breaks also, for loneliness." + +But there were no extra strings hanging in the clog-closet where some +were usually to be found, and Umé had a great hunt for them. + +Yuki San, and not Saké, was the thief this time. She had put them +carefully away in one of the drawers of the writing cabinet the day +before, when she was playing that her shoe was a doll-baby and must be +tied to her back with its strings. + +By the time they were all dressed in their finest clothes, three +jinrikishas were waiting at the gate, and Tara rode off proudly with his +father, while Baby San sat beside her mother, and Umé rode with her +grandmother. + +The streets were crowded with people dressed in gay kimonos and carrying +paper parasols or fans. Some were riding, some were walking, and all +were happily chatting and laughing. + +"Is everyone in the whole world going to Ueno Park?" Umé asked her +grandmother, and immediately forgot her question in listening to the +sounds of gongs and tinkling bells that filled the air. The joyous sound +of bells is always a part of the Cherry-blossom Festival in Tokio, and +makes the city a very merry place. + +The long avenue leading up to the entrance of the park, which is on the +brow of a high hill, was arched overhead with the blossoming branches of +the cherry trees. + +"The pink mist almost hides the blue sky," said Umé, "but the sunshine +comes dancing through. See how gently it touches the pink petals with +its rosy light!" + +The little party rode through the park looking at the cherry trees and +watching the crowds of people. Umé kept her poor grandmother's head +bobbing to right and left as she spoke of one strange sight and then +another. + +First it was, "O Ba San, look at the Japanese baby in the American +baby-carriage. It cannot be that he likes it as well as riding on his +sister's back." + +Next it was, "O Ba San, see the little foreign children playing with the +cake-woman's stove." + +Umé would have liked to stop the jinrikisha man and watch the +white-faced children as they made little batter cakes and fried them +over the charcoal. + +"We must not stop now," said her grandmother. "Your honorable father +will tell us when we may stop." + +Umé came as near pouting as a Japanese maiden can. "I think I have heard +that the foreign children tell their fathers when they wish to stop in +the honorable ride," she murmured. + +"They are all barbarians, those foreigners," said her grandmother. "You +can see by the gardens of flowers that they wear upon their heads, that +they know nothing of propriety." + +Umé, who had never worn a hat in her life, could say nothing to that. +Every little foreign girl she saw was wearing a hat on her head on which +there were many flowers of half a dozen different colors and kinds. +Although it was a sight to hurt her eyes, Umé would have been glad to +leave the jinrikisha and study the dresses of the little foreigners. +Most of all she wished to join them in their play of cake-making. + +"They must be glad to come to Japan and learn so many new ways to be +happy, O Ba San," she said. + +The grandmother did not quite understand Umé's way of thinking. "In what +way?" she asked. + +"To ride among the beautiful cherry trees, with their delicious pink +odors, in the beginning," said Umé. "I know that in no other country can +the trees be so lovely and hold so many flowers." + +As if her father knew that Umé longed to see something of the foreign +children's play, he stopped his own jinrikisha man at that very moment, +and the rest of his party stopped beside him. + +Under a particularly large and beautiful cherry tree a group of both +foreign and Japanese children were gathered around a peddler who carried +a tray of candies upon his head. In one hand he held a drum and on his +shoulder perched a monkey dressed in a bright colored kimono. + +The man danced and sang a funny song about the troubles of Daruma, a +snow man. Once in a while he beat the drum, and all the time he was +jumping and twisting about until it seemed as if his tray of candies +must surely fall off his head to the ground; but it never did. + +When the monkey jumped from his master's shoulder and snatched off one +of the boys' caps, putting it on his own head, all the people, big and +little, screamed with joy. + +By that time a great crowd of merrymakers had collected, and Umé's +father told his coolie to go on. So the little party started on again, +and soon passed an open space among the trees where Japanese fireworks +were shooting into the air. The Japanese send off their fireworks in the +daytime, as well as at night, to make their festivals more festive. + +The swish of the quick flight of a rocket into the air made every one +look up. In a moment a big paper bird popped out of the rocket and came +sailing slowly down to light on the top of one of the trees. + +Then another rocket, and still another, was sent up, and from one came a +golden dragon with a long red tongue and a still longer tail. + +Umé's father dismissed all of the jinrikisha coolies, and after they had +watched the fireworks a little while, the family went into a tea-house +to eat their lunch and rest from the confusion. + +As Tara looked out over the gaily dressed crowds he said boastfully, +"There can be no other country in the world with such fine, brave +people." + +"It is true that we are a brave people," his father answered. "Many +times, when I was no older than you are, little son, has my mother +wakened me very early in the morning and put a toy sword into my hand. +'Your companions are out playing the sword-game. Join them!' were her +words. And although the ground was white with snow, and I was very +sleepy, I always went as she bade me." + +Tara looked at his father in admiration. + +"There has been much fighting with real swords here in this very park," +his father continued. "There was once a big battle under these cherry +trees where you see nothing to-day but crowds of happy people with no +thought of anything but enjoying the Cherry-blossom Festival." + +"I shall not be perfectly happy until I have made cakes as the foreign +children were doing," said Umé. + +In the path outside the tea-house Umé had caught sight of a woman with a +little charcoal fire in a copper brazier, which she thought her father +might also see. The little old woman was neatly dressed, and carried +over her right shoulder a bamboo pole from which hung the brazier, a +griddle, some ladles and cake-turners. There was also a big blue and +white jar of batter and a smaller one of sauce. + +Umé's father beckoned to the woman, and to the children's joy she +brought the things to the tea-house door, where Umé was allowed to make +cakes for the whole family. + +Baby San toddled up the steps with a cake for the grandmother. On the +way she tumbled down and dropped it in the dirt. Then a fresh one had to +be made and carried very carefully up the steps. + +There were many children, with their fathers and mothers, coming and +going past the tea-house. There were groups of students and parties of +young ladies; there were jugglers and toy peddlers; and over everything +the cherry trees were scattering their falling petals. + +There was a merry-go-round near the tea-house, and the crowds of people +made it a gay place with their fun and frolic. + +It was lucky that Baby Yuki had her tag around her neck. Once she +slipped beyond her mother's watchful care and was only found after much +questioning and searching. + +When, at last, she was placed once more in her mother's arms, the +grandmother said that it was time to go home. + +"We have seen many cherry blossoms, and Umé's heart must be peacefully +small once more," she said. "It is better to go home before we tire of +so much merriment." + +The jinrikisha men trotted all the way home, and the happy day was over +all too soon. + + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE FLAG FESTIVAL + + +It was the fifth day of the fifth month, which is the day of the Flag +Festival in Japan. + +Tara slipped out of his wooden clogs and ran into the room where Umé was +gathering her books together for school. "Baby Onda's fish is up at +last," he shouted, "and as far as you can see the ocean of air is full +of fishes. Did I not say that the fifth day of the fifth month would be +filled with gladness?" he demanded. + +"Yes, Tara, but I have far too much to do to talk with you now," said +Umé very primly. + +"At least you can condescend to come out on the veranda just one moment +to look at cousin Onda's fish." + +"Very well, honorable Brother," said Umé, and she followed him to the +veranda. + +Both children laughed aloud at the sight of the enormous paper carp +flying from the top of the bamboo pole on their cousin's house. The fish +was at least twenty feet long and was made of strong Japanese paper. Its +great mouth and eyes were wide open and it had swallowed so much air +that it looked filled to bursting. A mighty wind blew it this way and +that, up and down, making it look like a real fish that had been caught +with a hook and was trying to escape. + +"Onda's father is augustly proud because he has a son," said Umé. "He +has found the biggest fish in all Tokio to fly, and the people will know +that he has only a very little son." + +"He will grow larger," said Tara loyally. + +"And as he grows larger the fish will grow smaller," answered Umé. "Your +own fish is only half as large as Onda's." + +From a pole in the Utsuki house flew Tara's fish, while from poles as +far as the eye could see flew fishes of all sizes and colors. Some poles +held two, three, or even five or six fishes. There was a fish for every +boy who lived in every house, and every fish was a carp, because in +Japan the carp is the fish that can swim against the swift river +currents and leap over waterfalls. + + [Illustration: There was a Fish for every Boy. _Page 52._] + +For the little Japanese girls there is the Dolls' Festival, and for the +boys is this Flag Festival, when they stay at home from school and play +all day long. They fly kites, spin tops, tell stories and are told tales +of the brave heroes of Japan. + +In the room where the dolls had sat in state for the girls there is now +a shelf for the boys' toys. There are many toy soldiers, figures of +great heroes, men in armor, men wearing helmets and carrying swords, and +some carrying guns or drawing tiny cannon on wheels. Tara had his +soldiers arranged as if they were fighting a battle, and it was truly a +most warlike scene. + +The morning had been full of excitement. Tara had already observed the +day by taking a bath in very hot water steeped with iris flowers. He had +arranged his toys and soldiers. He had been to the kite-maker and bought +a huge kite decorated with a picture of the sun in the brilliant red +color which is dear to all Japanese children. + +He had also run over in his mind the stories that he could remember of +Japanese warriors of the past, for well he knew that before the day was +over his mother would question him about them all. + +He had also recited his catechism to Umé, and had answered bravely all +the questions as she read them. + +"What do you love best in the world?" + +"The Emperor, of course." + +"Better than your father and mother?" + +"He is the father of my father and mother." + +"What will you give the Emperor?" + +"All my best toys, and my life when he needs it." + +Now he was busy tying a long silk string to his kite and getting it +ready to fly. + +Umé forgot her school books and ran down the garden path to look once +more at the bed of iris which was now in full bloom beside the brook. + +"To-morrow I will gather some of the leaves and flowers," she said, "and +arrange them in the tall green jar for the alcove. That will keep away +evil spirits from our home." + +Then she ran back to the house, making the motions of the flying fishes +with her hands. + +"If I were an honorable boy," she cried, "I would sail away from Japan +to every country where there are dragons, and kill them all. Then I +would come back home again and tell all about it, so that all the +children and their children, as long as Japan lasts, would learn about +me!" + +Tara looked at Umé as contemptuously as a Japanese boy ever looks at his +sister, which is not saying much, because in Japan the boys and girls +are taught to be most polite to each other. + +"That is not the way of a true patriot," he said. "We men must stay at +home and defend our country from enemies that may attack us from +without. True glory will find us; we do not need to run all over the +world looking for it, and then perhaps, miss it after all." + +"Well spoken, my son," said his father from the veranda, where he had +heard Tara's words. To Umé he said, "Our bravest men, the men who have +given their lives for their country, and whose names will ever be spoken +with reverence by our children's children, have died in the home-land." + +He spoke solemnly, and Tara, who adored his father, moved close to his +side as if to catch his brave spirit. + +Umé also loved her father. She was grieved that he should speak to her +in a tone of rebuke. She whirled about and fluttered to his other side, +nestling under his arm and smiling the sweetest of smiles up into his +face. + +"Now I see, O Chichi San, why we fly the brave carp for our boys," she +said prettily, "and why we steep the hardy iris flower in their bath +water." + +Her father looked down into her face. "You knew that very well before," +he said with a smile. "You have heard of the wonderful strength of the +carp ever since Tara was born. You know that every father who flies a +paper carp for his son at this festival time does it with the hope that +the boy will heed the sign and grow courageous and strong to overcome +every obstacle." + +But Umé still smiled up into her father's face. She felt that he was not +yet quite pleased with her. + +"Will you not come home early from the honorable business and tell us +stories of the old war heroes?" she asked softly. "The mother tells them +faithfully well, leaving out no brave detail, but she has never fought, +as you have done, for our beloved Emperor. It is you alone who can make +us feel the joy of battle so that even I wish I could wear a sword and +fight with it for our country." + +Umé had conquered. Her father put his hand upon her head in loving +consent. "When our women also are ready to give their lives for Japan," +he said, "the country will never suffer defeat." + +But Umé told her cousin Tei later in the day that one need not always +fight to win a victory. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII + + THE SINGING INSECTS + + +Umé sat on the edge of the veranda, taking coins from a little silk bag +and spreading them out before her. + +"Ichi, ni, san, shi, go," she counted, up to fourteen. "Fourteen sen," +she said. "If I had one more I could buy the kind of singing insect I +like best." + +"What is that?" asked Tara. + +"It is a kirigirisu." + +"What shall you buy, then?" asked Tara. + +"I shall have to buy a suzumushi, and two other honorably cheap ones," +Umé told him. + +"Ask the august father for one more sen," Tara advised. + +But Umé shook her head. "The august father has given me all the sen he +has for me this month," she answered. + +"How do you know?" + +"Because I have already asked for one more sen, and that was his +honorable answer." + +"I have one sen which you may have if you will let me call the +kirigirisu partly mine," said Tara. "I have a black cricket, a little +grass lark, that I caught in our own garden last night, and it chirps so +cheerfully that I do not need to buy any other singing insect." + +"It does not matter whose insect it is," said Umé, "if it only sings." + +So Tara gave his sen to Umé and she went to find Tei, who went with her +down to the street of shops. There, among numberless other booths, the +children found one where nothing but singing insects were for sale. + +The insects were of different colors and sizes. Some were black, some +were brown and some were bright green. The one that Umé chose looked +much like a brown grasshopper. + +"He sings most musically in the hours of darkness," said the insect +merchant. "While you lie in your bed he will say to you, 'Tsuzuré--sasé, +sasé, sasé.'" + +Both little girls laughed at the words, which mean, "Torn clothes--patch +up, patch up, patch up." + +"They are strange words for the honorable insect-singer," said Tei. + +Each insect was in a little cage which was made of horsehair or fine +strands of bamboo. The cages were of different shapes and sizes for the +different kinds of insects. Some were tall and shaped like a bee-hive, +some were oblong and others were square. Umé's kirigirisu was in a cage +four inches long. + +Tei also had a few sen. She looked at many insects carefully and finally +chose a beautiful bright green grasshopper that made a sound like the +weaving of a loom:--"Ji-i-i-i, chon-chon! Ji-i-i-i, chon-chon!" + +Then home trotted the two little girls with their cunning cages. + +It was a very warm day and the good mother was waiting for them with +cups of cold tea. She looked at the insects and smiled at the baby who +kotowed an honorable welcome to them. + +"When I was a child," she said, "my unselfish mother told me a wise +story about those same two insects." + +Immediately the children seated themselves. + +"We will be most respectfully quiet and listen, if you will tell it to +us," said Umé. + +"Long, long ago," began the mother, "when Japan was young, there were +two faithful and obedient daughters who supported their blind old father +by the labor of their hands. The elder girl spent all her days in +weaving while the other was just as industriously sewing. In that way +they took faithful care of their blind father for many years. + +"Finally the old man died, and so deeply did the two daughters mourn for +him that soon they died also. + +"One summer evening a strange sound was heard on their graves. It was a +new sound that no one had ever heard there before, and it was made by +two little insects which were swinging and singing on a blade of grass +above the place where the two daughters lay. + +"On the tomb of the elder was a pretty green insect, producing sounds +like those made by a girl weaving,--'Ji-i-i-i, chon-chon! Ji-i-i-i, +chon-chon!' This was the first weaver-insect. On the tomb of the younger +sister was an insect which kept crying out,--'Tsuzuré--sasé, sasé! +tsuzuré--sasé sasé, sasé!' ('Torn clothes--patch up, patch up! Torn +clothes--patch up, patch up, patch up!') This was the first kirigirisu. + +"Since that time these same little insects cry to every Japanese mother +and daughter to work well before the cold winter days, to do all the +weaving and sewing and mending and have the winter clothing ready. + +"We used to believe that the spirits of the two girls took these +shapes," she ended. + +In the silence that followed the story, Tei's little insect sang, +"Ji-i-i, chon-chon! Ji-i-i, chon-chon!" and Umé's answered, "Tsuzuré, +sasé, sasé! Tsuzuré, sasé, sasé!" + +The night was creeping over the garden. The sound of the temple bells +rang through the air, and little flashes of light twinkled in unexpected +places. + +The children gathered closer to the mother and begged for one more story +before bed-time. + +"Did you ever hear of Princess Splendor?" she asked. + +The children never had heard the story, and their mother told it to +them. + +"She was a beautiful little moon-child who came down to the world +hundreds of years ago. There was but one way for her to come, and that +was on a silver moonbeam. + +"While she sat on a pine branch resting from her journey, a wood-cutter +found her and took her to his home, where she stayed for many years. + +"But the Emperor, passing through the forest, wondered why the little +brown house of the wood-cutter shone with such a wonderful glow, and +when he found that there was a beautiful moon-child there, he went to +see her. + +"By day or by night it was just the same with the house; it always shone +with the glory of the Princess Splendor. + +"Of course the Emperor wished to marry her; but he had been too late in +finding her, because she was to return to her home in the moon at the +end of twenty years, and the end of the twenty years had come. + +"She begged to stay with the Emperor and began to weep, but it was of no +use. The moon-mother took her home and tried to comfort her; but her +tears went on falling, and they take wings to themselves as fast as they +fall. These fireflies are the golden tears of the lovely Princess +Splendor." + +It was quite dark when the story was finished, and Tei jumped up. "I +must go home and show the intelligent insect to my honorable mother," +she said. + +"Tara and I will walk across the gardens with you," said Umé. + +She reached under the veranda for three slender bamboo poles, while Tara +ran for candles to put in the paper lanterns which hung on the end of +the poles. + +Soon the three lanterns went bobbing down the garden path through the +dusk, and the sound of happy voices floated back to the mother. + +"It was of no use!" said Umé's voice. + +"What was of no use?" asked Tara. + +"Princess Splendor could not marry the right prince," answered Umé. + +The mother smiled, and rising, carried Yuki San into the house, while +the temple bells were still ringing through the twilight. + + + + + CHAPTER IX + + A TRIP TO KAMAKURA + + +It was a hot morning in midsummer. The veranda shutters had been open +all night and the shoji had been only half closed so that tiny breezes +might creep through to cool the pink cheek of Umé San, as she lay on the +floor under a thin silk coverlet. + +All night the kirigirisu had sung in his cage near Umé's bed; and all +night the mosquitoes had buzzed and sung outside of Umé's own cage of +green mosquito netting. + +At four o'clock, just as the sun peeped into the room, Umé opened her +eyes. "Oh, little kirigirisu," she whispered, "I like your singing much +better than that of the mosquitoes. Gladly would I put them all in a +cage in the godown." + +Then she thought of her morning-glories and pattered out into the garden +to look at them. + +"How lovely they are," she said, as she touched them gently with her +fingers. "This white one makes me think of Fujiyama when it is covered +with snow; and this pink one is like the mountain at sunrise." + +As she spoke, the little girl looked across the city roofs to where her +beloved mountain, Fujiyama, lifted its head like an inverted flower, +tinged with the pink of the rising sun. + +Just then her father came out to look at the morning-glories, too, and +after the morning greetings, Umé told him her fancy about Fujiyama. + +"Your thought is a poem, little daughter," said her father. "This very +day you shall see the mountain in all its glory. Here we can see only +its snow-capped crown, but on the way to Kamakura there are wonderful +views of our sacred Fuji." + +After breakfast there were great preparations for the journey to +Kamakura. First, each one in the family, one after the other, had to +take a hot bath. Then the best kimonos were put on, and the best paper +parasols were taken out of a long box in the godown. + +One servant ran to order the jinrikishas to take them to the station. +Another packed rice, pickled radishes, and tiny strips of raw fish into +the lunch boxes. + +Umé's mother was in every part of the house at once, and even the +grandmother seemed excited at the thought of going to the seashore. + +Umé ran across the garden to tell Tei about the trip and bid her cousin +sayonara, and Tara found a box of his best fishhooks and tucked them +into his sleeve pocket. + +"I may catch an eel," he said, "and then we can have it fried for our +dinner." + +At last the whole family were in the jinrikishas and were whirled so +fast to the station that they had to wait a long time for the train. + +The children were glad to stand on the platform, watching the throngs of +people and seeing the interesting sights. Newsboys were running +everywhere calling their papers; strangely-dressed foreigners were +hiring jinrikisha-runners to take them over the city; a police sergeant +was walking up and down; and electric cars were bringing passengers to +the station with much ringing of bells and clanging of gongs. + +"I fear Yuki-ko will not like her first ride in a train," said Umé, as +the child hid her face in her mother's kimono at the sight of a big +engine. + +"I well remember my first sight of an engine," said the grandmother. +"When I was a little girl there was not a railroad track in all Japan. +When the first trains ran through the country, the peasant women thought +the engines were horrible demons, and ran screaming away from the +puffing and hissing." + +"I, too, remember the first engines," said the father. "Many were the +honorably strange sights that went with them. One morning a man took off +his clogs at this admirable station and set them with worthy care upon +the platform before he entered the train. It was his peaceful +expectation to find them waiting for him when he left the train in +Yokohama." + +At that moment an engine came puffing down the track, and soon they were +all seated in one of the open cars and gliding swiftly out of the city. + +The children pointed out to each other the lotus blossoms in the moats, +the little boats in the canal and the freight boats on the Sumida river. + +The father and mother talked about the tea-farms and the fields of rice +and millet through which they were passing. Many crows flew cawing over +the heads of men and women who were working in the deep mud of the rice +fields. + +"Pretty birds!" called Baby San. + +"She means the white herons," said Tara. Dozens of the long-legged +herons were stalking about in the muddy fields near the track; and +farther away, many pieces of white paper fluttered from strings which +were stretched across the fields of rice. + +Yuki San saw no difference between the birds and the fluttering bits of +white paper. + +"Those small white ones scare the unworthy crows away, little flower +Sister," explained Tara; but the baby sister shook her head and said, +"No, pretty birds!" + +Umé turned the baby's head gently away from the fluttering scarecrows. +"Look at the pretty flowers," she said. + +Beautiful lotus blossoms were growing in the muddy ditches beside the +track. The baby bobbed her head to them and begged them to stand still, +but they all hurried past the hands she held out to them. + +"The lotus is Buddha's flower," said O Ba San. "It grows out of the dirt +and slime to give us blossoms of rare beauty. Such may be the growth of +our hearts if we choke not their good impulses." + +"It is a long way from Buddha's flower to his mountain," said Umé, as +she looked off to where Fuji rose in the distance. + +"Is it true," asked Tara, "that on the days when we cannot see the +mountain through the mist, it is because it has gone on a visit to the +gardens of the gods?" + +"That is what I always thought when I was a child," his grandmother +answered. + +"And do many pilgrims every year climb the long way up its steep sides +to the top?" + +"Yes, my child." + +"And must I also climb to the top some day, if I wish to please the +gods?" + +"Yes, unless the gods should honorably please to take away your power to +climb." + +"Oh," gasped Umé, "I hope the gods will never do that!" + +She looked anxiously at her feet and said, "I hope they will never need +my feet for anything. So unworthily short a time have I used them, that +they cannot be fit for the gods." + +"Let your use of them be always in the service of the gods, and the more +honorably old they grow, the more favor will they find in the sight of +the gods," answered her grandmother. + +But Tara did not like such serious talk. "How does the earth get back on +the mountain--the earth that the pilgrims bring down every day on their +sandals?" he asked. + +"It is said that it goes back of itself by night," his grandmother +replied, and added, "but I would rather speak of the path of straw +sandals which the pilgrims leave behind them as they toil up the rough +sides of Fujiyama." + +"Then what do they do?" asked Umé. + +"They take many pairs with them, so that when one pair is worn out they +may have others." + +"But I thought the pilgrims were honorably poor," said Umé. + +"Not always," said her grandmother. "And sandals cost but an +insignificant sum. A pair may be bought for a few rin." + +"Then I will go myself, some time," said Umé, as if the only reason she +had never been to the mountain-top was because she had never known the +price of sandals. + +But before they could say anything more they were in Yokohama, where +they were to leave the train and ride in jinrikishas to Kamakura. + +After they had left this city, with its busy streets, its harbor dotted +with boats and big foreign ships riding at anchor, the road led along a +bluff from which there was a beautiful view of the bay. + +It was intensely hot and the noonday sun beat fiercely down upon them. +Umé held a big paper parasol carefully over her grandmother, and Tara +and his father waved their fans slowly back and forth to catch the +little breezes from the sea. + +In the distance were green fields of rice, little vegetable farms, tiny +houses, low blue hills, and beyond all, Fujiyama, rising majestically to +the clear blue sky. + + [Illustration: Fujiyama, the Sacred Mountain. _Page 69._] + +As they were whirled past a little village they heard a deep booming +sound, and caught sight of an immense drum under an open shed, which was +being beaten by two men. + +"What is that?" asked Tara. + +"Everywhere there has been no rain and the rice is drying in the +fields," replied his father, "so drums are beaten and prayers are made +to the gods that it may rain." + +"Water is truly desirable," said Tara. "My unworthy throat is this +moment as dry as the rice fields." + +"Not far before us is a rocky pool shaded by ancient pines," said his +father. "There pure august water will be given." + +The rocky pool was a delightful resting-place. The stone basin was +filled with water by a spring that leaped out of the heart of the cliff. +The water overflowed the basin and formed a stream which ran along +beside the road. Many travelers were sitting on low benches under the +pines, the men smoking and the women and children chatting merrily. + +Two women were washing clothes in the brook, and Tara and his sisters +slipped off their sandals and white tabi, tucked up their kimonos and +splashed about in the water. + +The mother took the food from the lunch boxes, spread it on dainty paper +napkins and called the children to come and eat. + +"Truly thanks for this honorable food," said Umé, when she finished her +luncheon. Then, as she looked up at the spring, she added, "The water +which comes from the cliff sings a happy little song." + +"It is like the spring of youth," said the grandmother. + +"Deign honorably to tell the story of the spring of youth," said the +father, taking a pipe from his sleeve pocket and filling its tiny bowl. + +"Long ago a poor wood-cutter lived in a hut in the forest with his old +wife," said the grandmother. "Every day the old man went out to cut wood +and the woman stayed at home weaving. + +"One very hot day the old man wandered farther than usual, looking for +wood, and he suddenly came to a little spring which he had never seen +before. The water was clear and cool and he was very thirsty, so he +knelt down and took a long drink. It was so good that he was about to +take another--when he caught sight of his own face in the water. + +"It was not his own old face. It was the face of a young man with black +hair, smooth skin and bright eyes. He jumped up, and discovered that he +no longer felt old. His arms were strong, his feet were nimble and he +could run like a boy. He had found the Fountain of Youth and had been +made young again. + +"First he leaped up and shouted for joy; then he ran home faster than he +had ever run before in his life. His wife did not know him and was +frightened to see a stranger come running into the house. When he told +her the wonder she could not at first believe him, but after a long time +he convinced her that the young man she now saw standing before her was +really her old husband. + +"Of course she wished to go at once to the spring of youth and become as +young as her husband, so he told her where to find it in the forest and +she set out, leaving him at home to wait for her return. + +"She found the spring and knelt down to drink. The water was so cool and +sweet that she drank and drank, and then drank again. + +"The husband waited a long time at home for his wife to come back, +changed into a pretty, slender girl. But she did not come back at all, +and at last he became so anxious that he went into the forest to find +her. + +"He went as far as the spring, but she was nowhere to be seen. Just as +he was about to go back home again he heard a little cry in the grass +near the spring. Looking down he saw his wife's kimono and a baby,--a +very small baby, not more than six months old. + +"The old woman had drunk so much of the water that she had been carried +back beyond the time of youth to that of infancy. The wood-cutter picked +the baby up in his arms, and it looked up at him with a tiny smile. He +carried it home, murmuring to it and thinking sad thoughts." + +The story was finished and the jinrikishas were ready to take them on to +Kamakura. + +"I have heard so much about the wonderful Buddha that I do not wish to +see anything else in Kamakura," said Umé, as they walked through the +grounds of the long-vanished temple. + +There was no need to tell the children to walk quietly and speak +reverently before Buddha. + +Umé looked up into the solemnly beautiful face, into the half-closed +eyes that seemed to watch her through their eyelids of bronze, and knelt +quietly in prayer. + +"Nothing can harm the Great Buddha," said the father, after the prayers +had been said and the offering given to the priest. "Six hundred and +fifty years has he sat upon his throne. Once he was sheltered by a +temple, but centuries ago a tidal wave, following an earthquake, swept +away the walls and roof and left the mighty god still seated on his +lotus-blossom throne." + + [Illustration: "Nothing can harm the Great Buddha." _Page 73._] + +As they turned to walk toward the village Umé said to her mother, "When +I have heard the thunder I have always thought it was this Great Buddha, +very angry about something. Now that I have seen his peaceful face I +know it is not so." + +"No," answered her mother. "Many thousands of girls and boys have seen +Great Buddha's face as you saw it to-day. They have grown to be men and +women, and their children have looked upon his face, but it is always +calm and peaceful." + + + + + CHAPTER X + + THE ISLAND OF SHELLS + + +From Buddha's image at Kamakura to Enoshima, the island of shells, there +is first a ride in jinrikishas through the low screen of hills that +shuts the little village away from the sea; then there is a walk across +the wet sands if the tide is out, or over a light wooden bridge if the +waves wash over the path. + +It was late in the afternoon when the jinrikisha men trotted down from +the hills through a deep-cut path to the shore, and Umé could hear the +slow rollers breaking on the sands before she caught her first glimpse +of the lovely green island. + + [Illustration: "Umé caught her first Glimpse of the Lovely Green + Island." _Page 74._] + +The tide was coming in, but the water was still so shallow that the +children were permitted to take off their sandals and tabi, and patter +across the sands in their bare feet, while the older people walked +slowly across the bridge. + +The sands were strewn with lovely shells, left by the tide, and Baby +Yuki soon had the sleeve pockets of her kimono filled full of pearly +beauties that looked like peach blossoms. + +Tara cared nothing for the shells. He spoke about the great tortoise +which is said to live among the caves of the island, and of the bronze +dragons which twisted around the gate through which they passed to enter +the long climbing street of the town. + +"I will ask the august father if we may visit the cave of the dragon," +he said. + +"Japan must have been full of dragons once," said Umé. "Who killed them +all?" + +"They turned into the honorable dragon-flies, to drive away the +mosquitoes," answered Tara. + +"There have been no dragons seen alive in Japan since the holy Buddha +walked on the mountain," said his father. + +"Tell us about it, please," begged Umé. + +"Long ago," began the father, "as Shaka Sama, our most holy Buddha, +walked on the mountain-top at eventime, he looked into the depths below +and saw there the great dragon who knew the meaning of all things. Shaka +Sama asked him many questions and to them all he received wise answers. + +"Finally he asked the sacred question which he most wished to +understand; but the dragon replied that, before revealing this last +great mystery, he must first be fed for his endless hunger. + +"Shaka Sama promised to give himself to the dragon after he should have +been told this great truth. Then the dragon uttered the sacred mystery +and the god threw himself into the abyss as he had promised. + +"But just as the fearful jaws were about to close over the holy man, the +dragon was changed into a great eight-petaled lotus flower which held +the Buddha up in its cup and bore him back to his place on the +mountain." + +"I thought there was a dragon in the cave at Enoshima to guard Benten +Sama's temple," said Umé. + +"There is no need of a dragon on the island," said her father. "The +fisher boys who pray to her for good fortune make faithful guardians of +her temple." + +"Is it to help the fisher boys on sea, as well as unworthy little girls +on land, that she has so many arms?" asked Umé. + +But her father was leading the way along the rough street of the +beautiful island, and did not answer. + +Enoshima seems to be the home of all the shells in Japan. They lie +heaped in all the houses and shops; shells as white and lustrous as +moonlight, as rosy as dawn, as delicate as a baby's fingers. There are +thousands and thousands of them piled together like the fallen petals of +the pink cherry blossoms. + +The street is lined on each side with tea-houses and little shops, and +in every one may be seen miracles of shell-work. There are strings of +mother-of-pearl fishes, of mother-of-pearl birds, tiny kittens, and +foxes and dogs. There are mother-of-pearl storks and beetles and +butterflies, crabs and lobsters, and bees made of shell poised on the +daintiest of shell flowers, and there are necklaces, pins and hairpins +in a hundred shapes. + +Baby Yuki went about with her head bent to one side, holding her ear to +the mouth of the largest shells, wherever she could find them. Deep in +their pink chambers she could hear the sound of the sea, and the dull +roar pleased her. After listening to each one she would look up into her +mother's face with a happy smile. + +Their father bought ornaments for the children, a necklace of wee, +shimmering, mother-of-pearl fishes for the baby, a tortoise of +pearl-shell for which Tara begged, and a spray of shell flowers for Umé. + +For Tara he bought also a glass cup blown double, with a tiny shell in +the liquid between the glass. Of course it was soon broken and, after +they had climbed the steep steps to the temples and prayed to Benten +Sama in her own island home, they went back to the shops and bought +another. + +Afterwards they sat upon the rocks and watched the tide flow in from the +sea. Over the water skimmed the white sails of returning boats; the +dragon's light, which we call phosphorescence, played at the edge of the +waves, and there was no sound save that of the evening bells. + +The twilight fell, making a gray sky in which rode a silver crescent. + +"The Lady Moon," whispered Umé, and she joined her little hands, bent +her head, and gave the prayer of welcome to O Tsuki Sama. + +The father broke the stillness at last by telling the story of the +famous warrior, Yoritomo, who made Kamakura a famous city hundreds of +years ago. + +"But Kamakura has been burned these many years," he said. "People come +here now only to see Great Buddha and Enoshima." + +"No," said Umé, "I came for something else. I came to ask Benten Sama +for something which I very much wish." + +"What is it?" asked Tara. + +But Umé shut her lips together and shook her head that she would not +tell. + +"Were you afraid she would not hear you anywhere but in her own temple?" +he asked again. + +Umé nodded her head. + +"I will surely find out what it was that you asked from her," said Tara +mischievously. + +Tara usually did find out Umé's little secrets in some way, either by +making fun or by teasing her. + +"O Maru San has put an honorable stillness upon her august tongue," he +would say with a laugh. + +"O Maru San" means "Honorable Miss Round," and when Tara said it, Umé +knew he was making fun of her. + +Little Japanese girls and boys do not like to be ridiculed. So, when +Tara spoke that way, it usually ended in Umé's saying, "Don't call me +that name, Tara. My secret was only about the tea-party that Tei and I +are going to have in the garden." + +And soon Tara would know just what kind of cakes they were going to +have; because in Japan the cakes are made to suit the season, if one +wishes to have an elaborate party. + +Then, although it says in the book of "The Greater Learning for Women," +that at the age of seven, boys and girls must not sit on the same mat +nor eat at the same table, Tara was often invited to Umé's tea-parties. + +Now, although they stayed all night at the inn at Enoshima and there was +plenty of time to find out Umé's secret, she did not tell it, and Tara +finally concluded that it was something more important than a tea-party. + +In the early morning they stood once more upon the seashore, to watch +the sun rise out of the ocean. + +The children forgot everything else in looking at the beautiful sight. +"It is like our noble flag!" said Tara. + +Japan is called "The Land of the Rising Sun," and the emblem of the +country is a round red sun on a white ground. + +The children long remembered the beauty of that morning. In front of +them the great sun rose in a cloudless sky; behind them Fuji lifted his +noble head, and the blue sea stretched on either side as far as they +could see. + +At last the father said, "We will return to Tokio, to-day. We have had a +pleasant and honorable holiday." + +"I wish first to find some of the intelligent crabs that make straight +tracks by crawling sideways," said Tara. He had seen in the tea-house at +Enoshima some wonderful crabs, and hoped to find one for himself. + +"And I wish to buy return gifts for Tei and Baby Onda in the shops!" +said Umé. + +So while Tara hunted for crabs after breakfast, Umé and her mother +hunted for gifts. + +The little boy found no large crabs; neither did he find any good place +to fish for eels, but Umé found a lovely pearly necklace for Tei, and a +pink shell for Onda. + +In her eagerness to reach home and show the gifts, she gave little +thought to the beautiful sights to be seen from the train. + +She heard her grandmother say, "There are some fine young bamboo +saplings. They would look well beside the gate-pine-tree at New Year +time." + +She heard Tara ask, "Why are they used in the gateway arch?" and her +grandmother answered, "Because they stand for constancy and honesty." + +"I will ask Benten Sama constantly for my wish to be fulfilled," said +Umé to herself. + +When they reached home, she ran at once to find Tei, but Tei had gone +that very morning on a journey to Nikko. + + + + + CHAPTER XI + + A DAY IN SCHOOL + + +What country is it that starts its children off to school very early in +the morning? Japan, of course, the island kingdom, "The Land of the +Rising Sun,"--and that is as it should be. + +It was early in the "hour of the hare," as time would have been reckoned +in the days of old Japan; but the American clock in the kitchen said +half-past six, when Umé finished dressing for school. + +She wore a plum-colored plaited skirt, with a blue kimono tucked inside, +and she said to her mother, "May I now go to the honorable lesson-learn +school, O Haha San?" + +There was plenty of time between half-past six and seven o'clock for her +to reach the school building and be in line with the other children when +they greeted the teacher. + +But all the other little girls were bending up and down in their +greeting to the teacher when Umé at last slipped into her place among +them. She said her happy "Ohayo!" just after the other lips were all +closed upon the "good-morning." + +She whispered to Tei as they slipped into their seats, "We must eat our +unworthy lunches together. I have brought a bad piece of pickled radish +for you. It was because I ran back to the dirty house for it that I was +honorably late." + +The Japanese people are all alike! When they mean one thing they say +another. Umé really meant that their lunch was delicious; that her +pickled radish was the best to be had in Tokio; and her house the +sweetest and cleanest in the world; but it would have been very bad +manners to say so; and to be late to school is not at all honorable in +Japan. + +But Japan is a country where the people do everything in an original +way. The carpenter pulls his saw toward him when he saws, and the planer +pulls his plane toward him when he planes a board. Everybody sits down +to work, and the horse goes into the stall tail first. + +The Japanese school children can never understand how the English +children can make sense out of books that one reads from left to right +and from the top to the bottom of the page. + +Umé's teacher read the lesson aloud and the children read it after her. +They read from the bottom to the top of the page, from right to left, +and from the end of the book to the beginning. + +From seven until twelve o'clock the children were busy with their +lessons and recitations, stopping to eat their lunches in the middle of +the forenoon, and for a short recess at the end of every hour. + +Umé loved to go to school. Tara always said, "It is because I am obliged +to, that I go to school," but Umé knew that her school-days were the +happiest she would have for many years. After they were over, she would +go to her husband's house and take the lowest place in his family, as is +the custom of Japanese maidens. + +Before that time she must learn to sew, cook and direct the servants in +every household duty; she must also learn the tea-ceremony and the +ceremony of flower arrangement. + +All these things she learns, as well as reading, writing and music. + +The tea-ceremony, which sounds so simple, is a very old and difficult +one. Every position of the one who conducts it, as well as that of the +bowl, spoon, tea-caddy and towel, is regulated by rule. + +Bowls are used instead of teapots, and tea powder instead of tea leaves. +There is a sweeping of the room at the right time, and a walking out +into the garden at another right time. Oh, it is not so simple as it +sounds! + +The ceremony of arranging flowers is also very hard to learn. People who +have learned it thoroughly are said to have charming dispositions as a +reward of merit. They are gentle, self-controlled, peaceful-hearted and +always at ease in the presence of their superiors, besides having many +other virtues. + +Umé enjoyed it all. Everything she did was prettily and gracefully done. +Whether she bent over a difficult, unruly spray of blossoms, or over her +writing brush to make the difficult characters, her sweet oval face was +never clouded. + +After the writing lesson was over on this opening day, she took her copy +book, which was soggy with much India ink and water, and beckoned Tei to +take hers also into the yard. There they spread the books in the sun to +dry. + +Tei's family had been away for a month for the sake of Baby Onda's +health, and the two little girls had not seen each other until now. + +"What did you see at Nikko?" asked Umé. + +"We saw the most beautiful building in Japan; the tomb of the great +Iyeyasu," answered Tei. + +"I also was at Nikko and played with Tei in the temple yard," said a +third child who overheard their talk. + +The three little girls walked back to the school-room together and Umé +said, "I have asked my mother to take me to Nikko some time." + +"There are beautiful temples there," said Tei. "The mad pony of the +illustrious Iyeyasu is there in a stable which has wonderful carvings +over the doorway. It was there we saw the three monkeys your honorable +mother spoke about one day." + +Umé drew her breath in a long sigh. "I have always wished to see those +monkeys," she said. + +"After you have seen them," said Tei, "you will never again wish to see +evil, hear evil, nor speak evil." + +The little girls drew away from one another and fell into the three +positions. They made a cunning picture as they stood, Umé with her +fingers over her ears, Tei with her mouth covered, and the third little +girl covering her eyes. + +The teacher stood in the doorway and smiled--"The little dumb monkey, +the little deaf monkey, and the monkey that will not see any evil!" he +said. + +The three little monkeys bowed to the ground and ran laughing for their +lunch boxes. + +"What do you think Tara is doing in his school this minute?" asked Tei, +as they began eating rice-cakes. + +"He is perhaps having military drill," said Umé. "Or he maybe is hearing +about Iyeyasu; that when he went into battle he wore a handkerchief over +his head, but after the victory he put on his helmet." + +Tei sighed. "I wish there were not so many things to learn about our +great heroes," she said. + +Umé laughed. "Let not the honorable teacher hear you say such a thing," +she said, "else we shall have another history book given us, with the +example of brave and loyal Japanese women to read in it." + +No country in the world has so many books of history for the children to +learn as Japan. It was not strange that Tei sometimes found it +wearisome. There was all the history of Old Japan to be learned, as well +as all about the New Japan, and even Umé was never sorry when the noon +hour arrived and they were dismissed from school. + +They bowed low to the teacher, and the teacher bowed low to them, and +they clattered toward home with a great chattering of soft voices. + +But the voices were all hushed when Umé told her playmates that she had +visited Benten Sama's temple at Enoshima in the time of great heat. + +"Oh, Umé! what favor did you ask of the dear goddess?" asked Tei. + +Umé shook her head, as she had done when Tara asked her the same +question. + +"I will wait and see if she grants it to me before I tell it to any +one," she said, and opened her pretty paper parasol. + + + + + CHAPTER XII + + YUKI SAN IN THE STREET OF SHOPS + + +Asakusa Temple and its beautiful grounds are in the eastern part of the +city of Tokio. + +Jinrikisha runners could cover the distance between the Utsuki house and +Asakusa Temple in fifteen or twenty minutes, but Baby Yuki was two hours +on the way, because she toddled along so slowly and stopped so often to +watch the children who were playing in the streets. + +The baby slipped quietly out of the house while her mother was having +her honorable hair dressed. It takes a hair-dresser about two hours to +dress a Japanese lady's honorable hair, but fortunately it has to be +done only once in five or six days because the hair is never mussed at +night. + +The women in Japan keep their heads peacefully quiet all night, letting +their necks only rest upon the thin cushion of their wooden pillow. In +this way the soft rolls and puffs of their shining black hair are not +disturbed, and even the big pins do not have to be removed. + +Hair-dressers go from house to house as often as they are needed, and +when Baby Yuki saw one come into the room and begin taking down her +mother's hair, she began quietly taking her way along the stepping +stones to the gate. Once outside the gate she trotted along toward the +bridge over the moat. + +This moat ran around the old feudal castle where a daimyo used to live, +and Yuki-ko often went as far as the bridge with Umé or Tara when they +started off for school. Sometimes all three of the children went there +to look at the green lotus leaves or the beautiful lotus blossoms which +cover the water in July and August. + +But to-day Baby Yuki did not stop on the bridge. She crossed it and +clattered down the street to a far corner where a street-peddler was +selling toys. + +Japanese peddlers are always very pleasant people, and this one danced +and sang funny songs which the baby was only too glad to hear. + +Up one street and down another the man took his way, stopping wherever +he found a few little children to listen to him; and one or two children +from every group followed along with Yuki San, making a pretty sight. + +A foreign lady with a camera stopped her jinrikisha-man, saying, "That +is the very smallest child I ever saw standing on its own two feet and +walking with other children in the street. One of the older girls should +carry the baby on her back." + +Baby Yuki stood on the outside of the group, making a pretty picture all +by herself. She was so clean and sweet that the lady determined to +follow her and take several pictures. She dismissed her jinrikisha and +became a child with the others, following where the peddler led. + +At last they reached Asakusa street, which leads to Asakusa Temple. This +street is lined with booths on each side, and in each booth there is a +man selling toys, or candies, or paper parasols, or kites, or something +to tempt the rin and sen out of a child's pocket. + +Wherever there is a temple in a Japanese city there is also a toy-shop, +and where there is a toy-shop there is, of course, a toy which one must +surely buy. The children love to buy the toys and play with them in the +temple gardens. + +In the gardens of Asakusa Temple there are ponds filled with goldfish +and silverfish and carp. These fish are tame and will eat from the +children's fingers because children have fed them for years and years. + +Just outside the gateway to the temple, old women sit beside little +tables and sell saucers full of food for the fishes in the ponds and the +doves that live in the temple eaves. And where one person sells anything +many other people also sell something. They sell, the children buy, and +the doves and fishes are fed. + +"It is like the 'House that Jack Built,'" said the American lady. "This +is the pond that held the fish, that ate the cakes, that lay in the dish +and were sold in the booths with all kinds of toys, from dolls to kites, +for girls and boys." + + [Illustration: The Street of Shops and Asakusa Temple. _Page 91._] + +It does not take the little street of shops a long time to reach the +temple steps, in Asakusa; but it does take the little people a long time +to get through the street. + +Baby Yuki stopped to kotow to the first old woman she saw selling beans. +In that moment the toy-peddler and all the children seemed to disappear. +The baby looked around for them, and was frightened to find that she was +all alone. + +But before she had time to realize that she was lost, the foreign lady +had bought beans from the old woman and poured them into the baby's +hands, and the doves were flying down to pick up the beans as she +scattered them in the street. + +From feeding the doves it was but a step to other joys. The lady bought +a paper parasol at one of the booths, at another a doll and a Japanese +lantern on the end of a slender bamboo stick. She tied the doll to the +baby's back, tilted the parasol over her shoulder, gave her the lantern +to hold, and took her picture. + +Then she took the child's hand and they walked along together until they +came to an old woman who sat on the ground holding a tray of paper +flowers. + +The lady stopped to buy some of the flowers, and might have gone on +buying gifts--for there was no end to the toys for sale in that short +street--but the paper flowers had to be opened in a bowl of water. + +To find the bowl of water the big lady and the little girl had to pass +under the temple gate and walk off among the trees and fish-ponds till +they came to a tea-house. There they sat down to rest, and a maid +brought tea and cakes for them to eat, and a bowl of water for the +flowers. + +There are always picnics going on in the grounds of the temple, +especially at chrysanthemum time; but there was never a prettier picnic +sight than the one made by Yuki-ko San and her foreign friend as they +knelt on the mats, sipping their tea, and watching the tiny paper +flowers change into all sorts of shapes. + +Some of the flowers became beautiful potted plants, about an inch tall. +Others changed into trees, or birds, and one even took the shape of +Fujiyama, the lofty mountain. They seemed like fairy trees and birds, +and not until the last one had opened did Yuki San lift her little face +from the bowl of water. Then she spoke for the first time. "Yuki take +little birds home to O Chichi San," she said. + +"Mercy! the child is lost and I don't know how to find her people," said +the foreign lady. But the maid who served the cakes said, "She must have +a name-label around her neck." + +Fortunately she had, and not only the street where she lived, but also +the street and number of her father's shop, was written on it. + +It was so far to either place that the lady said very sensibly, "We will +take a carriage." So she called a jinrikisha-man, and off they went to +the father's shop. + +At a little distance from the silk shop, where the father sat waiting +for customers, the lady stopped her runner and put the little girl down +upon the ground. "Run to your O Chichi San," she said, pointing to the +shop, and then she watched the baby to see if she found the right +father. + +In the meantime someone else was hurrying to find her father. It was +Umé, who had been sent with one of the maids to tell the sad news that +Baby Yuki had wandered away from home and was surely lost. + +Just as Umé reached the silk shop and poured out her story, who should +toddle along with her hands full of toys, dropping one and then another +as she kotowed her fat little body over them, but the baby herself. + +Of course there was much talk, and many questions were asked of her; but +the child could only say that "Haha San with many hands" had given her +the toys and brought her to her father. + +"It was Benten Sama," said Umé. + +It is well known that Benten Sama has eight hands, and who but Benten +Sama would give Baby Yuki so many lovely gifts and bring her safely +through the city streets to her father's shop? + +As they took the baby home to her frightened mother, Umé said softly to +her father, "Yuki-ko San did as much in finding you as Fishsave did when +he found his father." + +And her father answered, "The tie between fathers and children is +honorably strong." + +But Umé was already thinking that probably Benten Sama would answer her +prayer. + +As they passed the foreign lady, who was still sitting in her jinrikisha +at the corner of the street, Umé looked longingly at the tan-colored +shoes she was wearing. + +"Red ones with black heels are prettier," she said to herself. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII + + THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY + + +"Let the Emperor live forever!" sang Umé, on the third day of the +eleventh month. + +This day is the Emperor's birthday, and all loyal Japanese pray that +their ruler may see the chrysanthemum cup go round, autumn after autumn, +for a thousand years. + +Autumn is the loveliest month of all the year in Japan. Then the maples +put on their glorious crimson and orange colors, and the chrysanthemums +fling out their beautiful many-colored petals to the sun. + +The Japanese say that the maples are the crimson clouds that hang about +the sunset of their flower life. + +From February until November different flowers reign, one after another, +for a few short weeks. First comes the plum blossom, about which +everyone writes a poem. Next the great double cherry blossoms make the +island look like a lovely pink cobweb on the blue sea. After that, +wistaria blossoms, five or six feet long, hang from trellises and +flutter in the breeze; and so on, until at last the chrysanthemum, the +royal flower, says "Sayonara," and the sun of the flower-year has set. + +"The last flower is honorably the best," said Umé, as she hovered over +the masses of color in the garden-beds. + +She looked like a beautiful blossom herself in her blue silk kimono. +Chrysanthemums in deep golden brown and palest pink were embroidered in +the silk. Her undergarment of pink showed at the throat; and about her +waist was a pink sash embroidered with blue. + +That sash was Umé's delight. It was tied in an immense bow behind, and +Tara had never been able to find the ends that he might pull them out +and so tease his sister a little. + +On her feet Umé wore black lacquer clogs and white stockings, with the +great toe in a room by itself. + +Her hair was carefully drawn up to the top of her head, where it was +tied with a broad piece of blue crêpe, and then formed into several +puffs at the back. A brilliant pink chrysanthemum pin was stuck through +the puffs in one direction and a butterfly pin in the other. + +Umé's pins and sashes were her dearest treasures! + +The finishing touch was given to her face and lips. Rice powder made her +skin look very white, and a touch of paint made her cheeks and mouth +very red, although they were quite red enough before. + +Her mother was wholly pleased with Umé's appearance, but Umé shook her +head over the clogs; she wished for something different. + +"It is time to make the honorable start to the gardens, Umé-ko!" called +her mother at last, and the little girl left the flowers and took her +seat in the waiting jinrikisha. + +Umé was going with her mother, first to make an offering at the temple, +then to look at the flowers in the gardens at Dango-Zaka. + +Tara was going with his father to see the Emperor review the troops. + +Yuki San was not forgotten. She was going with her grandmother to play +in the gardens at Asakusa once more. + +All wore their festival clothes, as was proper on the Emperor's +birthday. + +Tara and his father wore kimonos, but they were much darker in color +than Umé's; their sashes were narrower, and there were no bows in the +back. + +Yuki-ko was the really gorgeous one. Her kimono was of bright red silk, +her sash pale yellow. A gold embroidered pocket hung from the sash and +in the pocket she carried a charm to keep her safe from harm in case +something happened to her name-label. + +The "honorable start" was made at last and the three jinrikisha coolies +dashed through the gate, one behind the other, Tara and his father in +the lead. + +A fuzzy caterpillar was humping his way along the road outside the gate. +The three runners turned aside and left a large part of the road to the +caterpillar, although so much room was more than the fuzzy creature +needed. The men thought that perhaps the soul of an ancestor might be in +the little insect, and they feared to crush it. + +The city was in its gayest holiday attire. Red and white Japanese flags +adorned every house. Men dressed in uniform were hurrying through the +streets, soldiers were marching toward the parade grounds, and there +were crowds of happy people everywhere. + +After riding over the wooden bridge Tara and his father took their way +to the Emperor's review, while the other two jinrikishas turned toward +Asakusa Temple. + +Umé sat up very straight, making herself as tall as possible, and said, +as she watched her father being whirled down the street, "My son, it is +now my unworthy privilege--" then stopped, because her mother looked at +her in reproof. + +"It is my unworthy privilege to remind you that respectful children do +not thus mimic their parents in voice and word," said her mother +gravely. + +"I will ask to be forgiven when we are in the temple," said Umé +penitently. + +She was still serious when she dropped a rin into the grated box that +waits always for offerings in the temples. + +"May I write a prayer to the goddess Kwannon?" she asked, as the coin +clinked against others in the box. + +"Is there something you very much desire, Umé-ko?" asked her mother with +a smile. + +Umé nodded. "There is something I have asked from every one of the gods +and goddesses you have ever told me about," she said. "I have been +asking for it constantly ever since my last plum-blossom birthday." + +"Kwannon is the goddess of mercy; perhaps she will be merciful to you +and grant your wish, whatever it may be," said her mother. + +So Umé wrote her wish on a slip of paper and hung it where hundreds of +other prayers were hanging on a lattice in front of a shrine. + +Afterwards she went with her mother to the corner where the god Binzuru +was waiting to cure any sort of disease. + +Umé's mother had an ache in her back. She rubbed her hand gently over +the back of the god and then tried to rub her own back; but it was not +easy to reach between her shoulders and rub the pain away. After she +finished reaching, her back ached more than before. + +"We will go to the gardens at Dango-Zaka; there we shall forget our +aches in looking at the lovely flowers," she told Umé. + +Baby Yuki was already feeding the goldfish and did not care whether her +mother stayed at Asakusa Temple or not. + +So the two rode away through the city streets toward the district of +Dango-Zaka. Sometimes they mounted a hill from which they could look +over the city and see the flags fluttering in the breeze; sometimes they +crossed a canal crowded with heavily-laden scows; sometimes they passed +through business streets where people sat in their houses or shops with +the front walls all open to the sidewalk. The people sat and worked, or +ate their lunch, or sold their wares, as if they were all a part of one +great family with the people in the streets and had no secrets from +them. + +Wells and water-tanks stood at convenient distances along the streets, +and from their jinrikishas Umé and her mother saw crowds of women +washing rice and chatting with one another as they worked. + +At the chrysanthemum gardens there were many little gates, at each one +of which Umé paid four sen before they could enter and look at the +flowers in living pictures. + +The gardeners in Japan make all sorts of wonderful stories and pictures +with the chrysanthemums. + +Here you will see a ship filled with gods and goddesses. There you will +be astonished at the sight of a sail set to carry a junk over a +chrysanthemum sea. Somewhere else you will come upon an open umbrella, a +flag, a demon or a dragon; there is no end to the quaint fancies! + +It is hard to understand how these pictures can be made until one learns +that the gardeners have been at the business for several generations. +They say that, to have a thing well done, your children and +grandchildren must do it after you. + +To make the chrysanthemum pictures, they tie the branches of the plants, +and even the tiny flowers, to slender bamboo sticks; there is also a +delicate frame of copper wire through which the flowers are sometimes +drawn, and sometimes the gardeners use light bamboo figures of boats and +dragons and gods. + +The faces of the people in the flower pictures are paper or plaster +masks. It would really be too much to ask the gardeners to make +chrysanthemum expressions. Nowhere outside of Japan will you find such +curious pictures! + +It was very late when Umé and her mother reached home again. Now the +houses on both sides of the streets were hung with festoons of flags and +lanterns on each of which was the round red sun of Japan. + +The wide-opened shutters showed brightly lighted rooms in which the +families were entertaining friends or having tea and cakes; they sat on +the floors, which were covered with scarlet blankets in honor of the +Emperor. + +In the shops were tempting displays of fruits, fish and toys, and in the +distance Umé could see the fireworks which were being set off in the +palace grounds. + +Tara and his father were already at home, but the boy was far too +excited over the grand review of the Emperor's troops to listen to +anything his sister had to tell. + +"He is an honorably wonderful man, our most illustrious Emperor," said +Tara. "My admirable father told me that he never stood upon his own feet +until he was sixteen years old." + +"I think that is not so honorably wonderful," said Umé stoutly. But when +she took both of her own feet up at the same time, to try how it could +be done, she found herself suddenly upon the floor. + +"Did he walk upon his august head?" she demanded. + +"Umé," said her mother, "speak not so disrespectfully of the Son of +Heaven!" + +But Tara explained: "He was carried about all the time, and shown only +to very noble people once in a while. But when he became a man, he said +it should all be different. And he put down all the old nobility that +had kept him so honorably helpless, and then he made everything as it is +to-day in Japan. + +"Under the old rule, no one was allowed to leave the country and we knew +no other people except the Chinese. Now we know the whole world and can +teach the other nations many things." + +Just then old Maru entered the room with tea and cakes. The cakes looked +exactly like maple leaves. There were also candies made to look like +autumn grasses and chrysanthemums. + +Umé clapped her hands and danced about the room. + +"May the Emperor live forever!" she sang; and Tara wheeled and marched +like a soldier, shouting, "May Japan never be conquered!" + + + + + CHAPTER XIV + + DARUMA SAMA + + +Among the stories which O Ba San told to Umé and her brother was one +about Daruma Sama. + +Daruma Sama was a Japanese saint who lived many, many years ago. It was +his great desire to cross the sea on a leaf, but in order to do so it +was first necessary for him to pray long and sincerely to the gods. + +He knelt in prayer for many years, and at last his feet and legs fell +from his body because they had been idle so long a time. + +In all the toy-shops there are images of this saint with his large head +and big round body which has no trouble in sitting still. + +The Japanese children make their snow men in the image of Daruma Sama. +They give him a charcoal ball for each eye and a streak of charcoal for +his nose and mouth, and then they have a fine snow man. + +It was almost the end of the year before Tara had an opportunity to make +a Daruma. In Tokio snow rarely covers the ground for more than +twenty-four hours at a time, and sometimes there is a winter with almost +no snow at all. + +But one evening, only two days before the New Year Festival, the air was +so chilly that the veranda shutters were all tightly closed and the +shoji drawn together, while the family sat around the fireplace. + +Lift up the square of matting in the middle of a Japanese living-room +and you will find, sunk in the floor, a stone-lined bowl a few inches +deep. This is the fireplace. When the day is cold the maid puts a +shovelful of live coals into this bowl, places a wooden frame about a +foot high over it, and covers all with a quilt. Then the cold ones may +sit around the fire on the floor, draw the quilt over their knees and +into their laps, and soon become perfectly warm. + +Tara and Umé had heard many a delightful story as they sat snuggled +under the warm quilt on winter evenings. + +On this evening their father said suddenly, "The white snow-flakes will +fall to-night and cover the earth as the white plum blossoms cover the +trees." + +Tara sprang from under the quilt and ran to open the shutters so that he +might see for himself how the weather looked outside. + +He was so eager that his fingers slipped and pushed a hole through the +paper covering of the shoji. His mother looked sadly at the torn place. +"It was only this morning," she said, "that I put new papers on the +shoji to be in readiness for the New Year. Baby Yuki's fingers had made +many holes in the paper walls." + +In a moment Tara ran back into the warm room. "It is faithfully true,"' +he cried. "Even now white flakes are falling." + +In the morning it was as if they had moved to a different world. The +snow made the garden, with its trees and pond and bridge, look like +fairyland. + +"I will go to the garden-house for my stilts," said Tara, "then I can +walk about in the snow on my heron-legs as the white herons walk in the +mud of the rice-fields." + +Stilts are made of bamboo sticks, and are called "heron-legs," after the +long-legged snowy herons that strut about in the wet fields. Wooden +clogs will lift their wearers out of the mud of the streets in bad +weather; but the boys are always glad of an excuse to get out their +stilts. They walk on them so much that they become expert in their use +and can run and even play games on them. + +Umé looked rather sadly at the new white world outside. + +"The snow has come too soon," she said. + +"Why?" asked Tara. + +"Because I have no time for play," answered Umé. "There are gifts to +finish, and I must also help the honorable mother to make all clean and +sweet for the New Year." + +"Let the gifts honorably wait until the hour of the horse," said Tara, +"so that you may play with us this morning in the garden." + +But Umé went dutifully to her sewing. She was making a bundle +handkerchief for Tei out of a piece of bright colored crêpe with her +family crest embroidered on it. + +After that was finished she made a lucky-bag to hang on the New Year's +arch at the house door. + +The lucky-bag was made of a square of Japanese paper. Into it Umé put +several things which are known to bring good luck--a few chestnuts, a +bit of dried fish, and a dried plum. She tied them up in the paper with +a red and white paper string, and put the bag away until the arch should +be ready. + +New Year's Day is the most important time in the whole year in Japan. It +is the day when all the people, from the highest to the lowest, have a +holiday. For days, and even weeks, preparations are made to celebrate +the festival with proper ceremony. Never are the streets of the cities +and towns so filled with gayly dressed crowds of people hurrying here +and there, buying and selling, as during the last days of the dying +year. + +Every house is thoroughly cleaned from roof to veranda, the shoji are +covered with fresh papers, new kimonos and sashes are made, new hairpins +purchased, new mats are laid on the floors and the old ones are burned. + +On the last day of the old year every room is dusted with the feathery +leaves of a green branch of bamboo. Then the gateway is decorated with a +beautiful arch, one of the Japanese symbols of health, happiness and +prosperity. + +On each side of the gateway two holes are dug in which are planted small +pine trees. On the left is the tree which represents the father, on the +right is the mother-pine. Beside these are set the graceful stems of the +bamboo, the green leaves towering above the low roof and rustling in the +wind. From one bamboo stalk to the other is hung a thick rope of +rice-straw, beautifully plaited and knotted, to give a blessing to the +household and keep out all evil spirits. + +From this rope hang yellow oranges, and scarlet lobsters which with +their crooked bodies signify long life and an old age bent with years. +There are also fern leaves, a branch of camellia, a piece of seaweed, a +lucky-bag, flags, and strips of white paper which are supposed to be +images of men offering themselves to the gods. + +Everything about the pine-tree arch has a meaning, and signifies wishes +for health, strength, happiness, obedience, honor and a long life. + +Of course there must be a decoration inside the house as well. Tara and +Umé went to the shops with their father to choose one for the alcove +room, after the Daruma Sama was made and Umé's sewing finished. + +The children chose a harvest ship, a junk about two feet long, made of +straw with twigs of pine and bamboo in the bow and stern. It was loaded +with many bales of make-believe merchandise in which were little gifts, +and was sprinkled with gold-dust to make it look bright. There was a red +sun on one side of the boat and the sails were of scarlet paper. + +On the way home they passed a shop where foreign shoes were offered for +sale, and where some one at that moment was buying a pair of red shoes +for a little girl about as old as Umé. + +Umé held her father still to watch the child try them on her little +feet, and they certainly made the feet look very pretty. + +Umé's father smiled at the look in his daughter's eyes, but he soon drew +her away to a toy-shop out of sight of the little red shoes. There they +bought a ball for Baby Yuki and gifts for the mother and grandmother, +going home only when they could carry nothing more. + +If ever there is a time and place when enticing red shoes can be +forgotten, it is New Year's time among the shops in Japan. No one ever +thinks of staying indoors then, else he would miss the gayest, +liveliest, brightest time of the whole year. + +The shop-keepers have to fill their shelves with great quantities of new +things to match the New Year; there are new games, new kimonos, new +clogs, new toys for sale everywhere, and even the story-tellers brighten +up their old stories to make them seem like new. + +That last day before the New Year was a very busy one in the Utsuki +household. There were gifts to be put into dainty packages, the +pine-tree arch to be decorated, the last stitches to be taken in the new +kimonos, and the last bills to be paid--even the smallest one that might +possibly have been overlooked. + +There is a beautiful custom in Japan of beginning the year without a +debt. Every bill is paid and no one owes a single sen when the old year +dies and the new year dawns. + +When at last Umé said her honorable good-night to her father and mother +and went to her wooden pillow she was very tired. + +As she crept under the warm coverlet she whispered drowsily, "May Benten +Sama, or Kwannon, or one of the illustrious goddesses give me what I +have prayed for so long." Then she fell fast asleep. + + + + + CHAPTER XV + + NEW YEAR'S DAY + + +"So many honorable sounds!" murmured Umé drowsily, and she listened for +a moment without opening her eyes. + +It was New Year's morning, so early that the sun was only just rising. + +Umé could hear the clapping of many hands outside the house. "I, myself, +meant to welcome the illustrious sun with the hand-joy," she said to +herself, and sprang from her bed with wide-open eyes. + +It took but a moment to slip into a thick kimono and push open the +shoji. Someone had already opened the wooden shutters and Umé reached +the corner of the street in time to see the round red sun send his first +beams over the snow-covered roofs. + +She clapped her hands joyously and bowed a welcoming "Ohayo" to the +great ball of light. "Now I shall surely begin the year with good luck!" +she said to herself as she slipped back into the house. + +She closed the shoji and cuddled again between the soft quilts for +warmth. Then it occurred to her to wonder why she had not seen her +mother, who always rose very early, among the group that was greeting +the New Year sun. + +The air was filled with the sound of joy bells which were ringing from +all the temples. One hundred and eight strokes must they ring, twelve +times nine, to keep all evil spirits away from the city in this new +year. + +But there were other sounds which came from within the house. Was +it,--yes, it surely was the sound of a little new baby's cry. + +Again Umé was out of bed and pattering across the room to open her +shoji. Her father was standing before the alcove in the honorable guest +room, and he read the question in her face before Umé could ask it. + +"Yes," he said, "a new son has come to our unworthy house on this +morning of the New Year." + +Umé bowed her forehead to the floor, "Omedeto, O Chichi San," she said. +"I am most respectfully happy. May I go to see him and bid him honorable +welcome?" + +"After the breakfast is faithfully eaten, it may perhaps be permitted," +answered her father. Then he asked, "Was there not some gift you have +asked from the gods in the year that has passed?" + +"I have asked many times for a gift, but neither the gods nor the +goddesses have yet given it to me." + +"Have you ever asked the generous mother for it?" + +"No, O Chichi San." + +"Why have you not asked your insignificant father?" + +"O Chichi San, I feared you would not permit me to have what I most +wished." + +Her father looked at her gravely and took a package from his kimono +sleeve. He gave it to Umé, saying as he did so, "Your thoughtful mother +asked me to buy this in the foreign shop and give it to you this +morning." + +The package was tied with red and white paper string. Umé took it in +both hands, raised it to her forehead, bowed her thanks, and opened it. +Inside the package was a pair of red shoes with black heels! + +"O Chichi San, how worthily beautiful!" and Umé danced about the room, +clasping the pretty things to her heart. "This is what I have asked of +Benten Sama and Kwannon and of the other goddesses," she said with +shining eyes. + +Then she stood still and said wonderingly, "But I did not ask for a baby +brother, although he was more to be desired." + +"Your mother gives both the shoes and the baby brother to you," said her +father. + +"May I not go to her and give her many thanks truly?" asked Umé. + +"Your mother is ill," said her father. "It may be that she will never +speak to us again." + +"Oh, no!" cried Umé in great distress. She looked at the little red +shoes and suddenly dropped them to the floor. + +"Benten Sama may have them, if she will only make my honorable mother +well," she said. + +The pretty things which she had dreamed of, and longed for, and begged +of all the gods, suddenly became of no value to her except as an +offering to save her mother's life. + +She knelt at her father's feet and bowed her head to the floor. "Have I +your noble permission to go to Asakusa Temple and pray to the good +Kwannon that my mother may become well?" she asked. + +"Yes," her father answered, "and it may be that a gift of that which you +most treasure will be pleasing to the Goddess of Mercy." + +Umé looked down at the little red shoes, gathered them up and tucked +them into her kimono sleeve; then ran to ask old Maru to go with her to +the temple. + +The little girl had never before been to the temple on so sad an errand. + +"See," said old Maru as the jinrikisha-man took up his shafts, "the +gate-pine-tree is giving you an honorable message." + +Umé looked back as the old nurse continued, "When autumn winds blow the +leaves from the other trees and leave them sad and cheerless, the pine +holds its needles more green and vigorous than ever. We should be like +the pine, brave to conquer our troubles when they come." + +Umé tried to smile. "I will be obediently brave," she said. + +Old Maru nodded approvingly. "As the pine stands for strength and the +bamboo for uprightness, so the fern means hope and the seaweed good +fortune." + +Umé began to be a little cheerful. "I dreamed of Fujiyama, the sacred, +in the night," she said, "that means great happiness." + +"Yes," said old Maru comfortably, "everything points to good fortune +this morning. Let us hope that the merciful goddess will be gracious to +grant our prayer." + +The sound of the temple bells still filled the air. Everywhere the +streets and houses were decorated with paper lanterns and flags and +banners, each one white with a round red sun. The lanterns were strung +in rows across the streets and on the houses from the low eaves to the +veranda posts. At the temple they hung at every possible point from roof +to steps. + +Umé and Maru went reverently through all the ceremony of washing the +hands and mouth, ringing the bell, dropping the offering of coins in the +box and buying the rice-cakes. They left their clogs at the entrance +among several other pairs, for many sad hearts had come to the temple +with petitions on this early morning of the New Year. + +When Umé left the temple the pretty red shoes were lying at the feet of +the Goddess Kwannon, and the child's face looked full of hope. + +As they sat in the jinrikisha old Maru said, "One can never do too much +for the honorable mother." Then she added proudly, "No other nation in +the world can show such examples of filial love as Japan." + +"What do you mean?" asked Umé, who could listen to a story now that her +heart was lightened of its fear. + +"I mean the example of the four and twenty paragons," replied the nurse. +"The gods never gave me a son. If they had I should have prayed that he +might be like the paragon who, when he himself was very old, became a +baby so that his parents might not realize how old they had grown." + +"But I thought we Japanese liked to become very old," said Umé, puzzled. +"I always say 'Ohayo, old woman,' to the batter-cake woman at the +corner, and she is gratefully pleased." + +"That is true. But the paragon showed his filial affection by acting as +a baby," persisted old Maru. "It was a noble thing to do." + +"How many paragons were there?" asked Umé. + +"Four and twenty," replied the old woman. + +"Was one of them a little girl, and did she give up her red shoes?" +asked Umé. + +Old Maru looked doubtful. "It was a long time ago," she said. "I think +no red shoes had been made in the world at that time." + +But Umé was again thinking of her mother. "Tell the jinrikisha-man to +go faster," she urged. + +The man was trotting along, looking at every pine-tree arch. The +treeless streets, as far as one could see, were a bower of pine and +bamboo. Little children ran into the road, dressed in new kimonos and +sashes. Boys were making images of Daruma Sama in the snow, messengers +were bearing gifts from one house to another, and men dressed in uniform +were already going to pay their respects to their beloved Emperor. + +Some of the streets were almost impassable because of the number of +beautifully dressed girls who were playing battledore and shuttlecock. +The air was full of the bright fluttering toys as they were struck from +one player to the other, and the silver world was a very merry place as +Umé rode swiftly toward her home. + +"If only the honorable mother is augustly well, and the new baby +strong," she said wistfully, "our humble household might be the gayest +of them all." + +As they drew near to their own gateway, Umé clapped her hands. Tara and +his father were in the garden and an enormous kite was just rising into +the air. It was decorated with a great red sun and a bright red carp, +and had a long tail of red and blue papers flying behind it. Higher and +higher it rose, the tail turning and twisting in the wind. + +"I know my honorable mother is better!" cried Umé, beside herself with +joy. + +"The chestnuts did not go into the lucky-bag for nothing," said old Maru +contentedly. "I knew they would bring an answer to our prayer." + +But Umé did not hear her. She left the old woman picking her way +carefully along the snowy stepping-stones while she flew to her father. + +"Is my admirable mother better?" she asked breathlessly. + +"Yes," answered her father. "O Doctor San says she will soon be well." + +"It is because the gracious Kwannon was pleased with the red shoes," +said Umé softly. + + + + + PRONOUNCING VOCABULARY + AND DICTIONARY + + + Ä sä'k[.u] sä=, a temple in Tokio. + + B[=a]=, grandmother. + + B[)e]n't[)e]n Sä'mä=, a goddess of love and good fortune. + + chi chi= (ch[=e]'ch[=e]), father. + + ch[)o]p'st[)i]cks=, small sticks used in eating. + + cl[)o]gs=, a wooden shoe worn to lift the feet out of the mud. + + C[)o]n f[=u]'cius= (shius), a celebrated Chinese philosopher. + + Dä r[.u]'mä Sä'mä=, a Japanese god. + + [)E]n [=o] shi'mä= (sh[=e]), a small island on the east coast of + Japan. Shima means island. + + Fu ji ya ma= (f[.u]'j[=e] yä'mä), an extinct volcano, the highest + mountain of Japan. Yama means mountain. + + gei sha= (g[=a]'sh[.a]), a dancing girl. + + ge ta= (g[=a]'t[.a]), wooden clogs. + + g[=o]=, five. + + g[=o]'d[ow)]n=, a fireproof building used as a storehouse. + + hä'hä=, mother. + + i chi= ([=e]'ch[=e]), one. + + j[)i]n rïk'[)i] shä=, a two-wheeled carriage drawn by a man. + + j[)u][n=]k=, a flat-bottomed, sea-going sailing vessel. + + Kä mä'k[.u] rä=, a small town on the east coast of Japan. + + Ka mei do= (kä m[=a]'d[=o]), a temple in Tokio. + + ki mo no= (k[=e] m[=o]'n[=o]), a garment resembling a + dressing-gown, worn by men, women, and children in Japan. + + K[)i]n tä'r[=o]=, a Japanese hero. + + ki ri gi ri su= (k[=e] r[=e] g[=e]'r[=e] s[.u]), a singing + insect. + + k[=o]=, little. + + k[=o]'t[=o]=, a musical instrument somewhat like a harp. + + k[=o]'t[ow)]=, bow the forehead to the ground. + + Kwän'n[)o]n=, the goddess of mercy. + + Mä'r[.u]=, round, a name sometimes given to girls. + + ni= (n[=e]), two. + + Nä r[.u] h[=o]'d[=o]=, an exclamation. + + [=O]=, honorable, the Japanese honorific. + + [=O] B[=a] Sän=, honorable Grandmother Mrs. + + O hay o= ([=o] h[=i]'[=o]), "honorable early," good-morning. + + o mé dé to= ([=o] m[=a] d[=a]'t[=o]), "honorable + congratulation." + + [=O] yä'mä=, a mountain near Yokohama. + + r[)i]n=, a coin, one tenth of a sen, one twentieth of a cent. + + s[)a]n=, three. + + Sän=, Mr., Mrs., or Miss; a title of respect. + + sa ké= (sä'k[=a]), a liquor made from rice. + + Sä'mä=, Mr., Mrs., or Miss; a title of respect. + + s[)a]m'[)i] s[)e]n=, a musical instrument resembling a banjo. + + s[)e]n=, a coin worth one tenth of a yen, one half of a cent. + + shi= (sh[=e]), four. + + s[.u]'zu=, an insect. + + S[.u] gä wä'rä-n[=o]-M[)i]ch [)i] zä'né= (n[=a]), a Japanese + goddess. + + ta bi= (tä'b[=e]), stockings, with a place for the big toe. + + Tä'mä=, jewel; often used as a girl's name. + + Tä'rä=, a boy's name. + + Tei= (t[=a]), a girl's name. + + To ki o= (t[=o]'k[=e] [=o]), the capital of Japan. + + U mé= ([.u] m[=a]'), plum blossom; often used as a girl's name. + + Ut su ki= ([.u]t s[.u]'k[=e]), a family name. + + y[)e]n=, a coin worth about fifty cents. + + + + + Transcriber Notes: + +Passages in italics were indicated by _underscores_. + +Passages in bold were indicated by =equal signs=. + +Small caps were replaced with ALL CAPS. + +Throughout the document, the latin letter a with a dot above was +replaced with [.a]. + +The latin letter u with a dot above was replaced with [.u]. + +The latin letter a with breve was replaced with [)a]. + +The latin letter e with breve was replaced with [)e]. + +The latin letter i with breve was replaced with [)i]. + +The latin letter o with breve was replaced with [)o]. + +The latin letter u with breve was replaced with [)u]. + +The latin letter a with macron was replaced with [=a]. + +The latin letter e with macron was replaced with [=e]. + +The latin letter i with macron was replaced with [=i]. + +The latin letter o with macron was replaced with [=o]. + +The latin letter u with macron was replaced with [=u]. + +The latin letter n with a line below was replaced with [n=]. + +The latin letters ow with a curved line below was replaced with [ow)]. + +Throughout the dialogues, there were words used to mimic accents of the +speakers. Those words were retained as-is. + +The illustrations have been moved so that they do not break up +paragraphs and so that they are next to the text they illustrate. + +Errors in punctuations and inconsistent hyphenation were not corrected +unless otherwise noted. + +On page 31, a comma was added after "said". + +On page 42, a closing quotation was added after "are in full Blossom." + +On page 74 the hyphen in jinrikisha-men was replaced with a space. + +On page 94, "payer" was replaced with "prayer". + +On page 116, "moring" was replaced with "morning". + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Umé San in Japan, by +Etta Blaisdell McDonald and Julia Dalrymple + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 58378 *** |