poured out some batter, and cooked a little cake on one side
until it was brown. Then she turned it over with the cake-turner,
and browned it on the other side. Then she put it on a plate and
put the sauce on it.
My, my! but it was fun!
The first cake she made she gave to her Father.
He ate it all up. Then he said, "Honorable daughter, the cake is
the very best I ever had of the kind. I am sure your honorable
brother would like one too."
The Japanese are so very polite that they often call each other
"honorable" in that way. They even call things that they use
"honorable," too!
So Take said very politely, "Honorable Brother, would you like
one of my poor cakes?"
It would be impolite in Japan to call anything good that you had
made yourself. It would seem like praising your own work. That
was why Take called them "my poor cakes."
"I should like a cake very much," Taro said.
Take poured out the batter. She watched it carefully, to be sure
it did not burn. When it was just brown enough she gave it to
Taro.
Taro ate it all up. Then he said to Take, "Honorable Sister, I
should like to eat six."
The Father laughed. "If you stay here to eat six cakes, we shall
not see the dolls' garden," he said. "Take must have one cake
for herself, and then we will go on."
Take baked a cake for herself and ate it She called it a "poor"
cake aloud, but inside she thought it was the very best cake
that any one ever made!
When she had finished, she and Taro and the Father bowed
politely to the old woman.
"Sayonara," they said. That means "good-bye."
The old woman bowed. "Sayonara," she called to them.
The Twins and their Father walked on. They soon found the dolls'
garden. In it were many tiny pine trees like theirs at home.
There were little plum trees, and bamboos, and a tiny tea-house
in it. There was a pond with a little bridge, too.
"Oh!" cried Take, "if it only had little bells on the plum
trees, this would be the very garden I sang about to Bot'Chan;
wouldn't it?"
She stooped down and peeped under the little trees.
"Let's play we are giants!" she said to Taro.
"Giants roar," said Taro.
"You roar," said Take. "It wouldn't be polite for a lady giant
to roar!"
"Giants are different. They don't have to be polite," Taro
explained.
"Well, you can roar," said Take, "but I shall play I'm a polite
lady giant taking a walk in my garden! My head is in the clouds,
and every step I take is a mile long!"
She picked up her kimono. She turned her little nose up to the
sky, and took a very long step.
Taro came roaring after her.
But just that minute Take's clog turned on her foot, and the
first thing she knew she was flat on her stomach on the bridge!
She forgot that lady giants didn't roar.
Taro was roaring already.
Their Father was ahead of them. He jumped right up in the air
when he heard the noise. He wasn't used to such sounds from the
Twins. He turned back.
"What is the matter?" he said.
He picked Take up and set her on her feet.
"We're giants," sobbed Take.
"Her head was in the clouds," said Taro.
"It is well even for giants to keep an eye on the earth when
they are out walking," the Father said. "Are you hurt?"
"Yes, I'm hurt," Take said; "but I don't think I'm broken
anywhere."
"Giants don't break easily at all," her Father answered. "I
think you'll be all right if we go to your castle!"
"My castle!" cried Take. "Where is it?"
"Right over there through the trees." He pointed to it.
The Twins looked. They saw a high tower.
"Would you like to climb to the top with me?" their Father said.
"Oh, yes," Taro cried. "We aren't tired."
"Or broken," Take added.
So they went into the tower and climbed, and climbed, and
climbed. It seemed as if the dark stairs would never end.
"I believe the tower reaches clear to the sky!" said Take.
"I don't believe it has any top at all!" said Taro.
But just that minute they came out on an open platform, and what
a sight they saw! The whole city was spread out before them.
They could see gray roofs, and green trees, and roadways with
people on them. The people looked about as big as ants crawling
along. They could see rivers, and blue ponds, and canals. It
seemed to the Twins that they could see the whole world.
In a minute the Father said, "Look! Look over there against the
sky!"
The Twins looked. Far away they saw a great lonely mountain-peak.
It was very high, and very pale against the pale blue sky. The
top of it was rosy, as if the sun shone on it. The shadows were
blue. Below the top there were clouds and mists. The mountain
seemed to rise out of them and float in the air.
The Twins clasped their hands.
"It is Fuji!" they cried, both together.
"Yes," said the Father. "It is Fuji, the most beautiful mountain
in the world."
By and by Take said, "I don't feel a bit like a giant any more."
And Taro said, "Neither do I."
For a long time they stood looking at it. Then they turned and
crept quietly down the dark stairs, holding tight to their
Father's hands.
They went back to Mother and Grandmother and Bot'Chan under the
cherry trees.
"We must take the Baby home," said the Mother as soon as she saw
them. "It's growing late."
"Oh, mayn't we stay just a little longer?" Take begged.
"Please," said Taro.
"If we go now, we can go home by boat," said the Father.
"I didn't believe a single other nice thing could happen this
day," sighed Take. "But going home by boat will be nicer than
staying. Won't it, Taro?"
But Taro was already on his way to the landing.
There was a pleasure-boat tied to the wharf. The whole family
got on board; the boatman pushed off and away they went over the
blue waters and into the river, and down the river a long way,
through the city and beyond. They passed rice-fields, where men
and women in great round hats worked away, standing ankle deep
in water. There were fields where tea-plants were growing. There
were little brown thatched roofs peeping out from under green
trees. There were glimpses of little streets in tiny villages,
and of people riding in a queer sort of basket hung from a pole
and carried on the shoulders of two men.
At last they came to a landing-pace near their home. They were
glad to see the familiar roofs again.
Taro and Take raced ahead of the others to their own little
house in the garden.
At the door they found ever so many clogs. There were sounds of
talking inside the house.
"What do you suppose is going to happen now?" Take asked Taro.
"I don't know--but something nice," Taro answered, as he slipped
tiff his clogs and sprang up on the porch.
They slid open the door.
"Ohayo!" came a chorus of voices.
The room was full of their aunts and cousins!
Taro and Take were very much surprised, but they remembered
their manners. They dropped on their knees and bowed their heads
to the floor.
"Where are your Father and Mother, and Grannie and Bot'Chan?"
said all the aunts and cousins. "They are late."
"We came back by the boat, and it stopped at ever so many
places," said Taro. "That's why we are late."
Soon their Father and Mother and Grandmother came in. Then there
was great laughing and talking, and many polite bows.
Bot'Chan was passed from one to another. Everybody said he was
the finest baby ever seen, and that he looked like his Father!
And his Mother! And his Grandmother! Some even said he looked
like the Twins!
Everybody brought presents to the baby. There were toys, and
rice, and candied peas and beans, and little cakes, and silk for
dresses for him, and more silk for more dresses, and best of all
a beautiful puppy cat. Here is his picture! [The picture shows a
portly little toy animal with curly whiskers, large round ears,
and a fierce expression.] The Twins thought Bot'Chan could never
use all the things that were given him but they thought they
could help eat up the candied things.
Bot'Chan seemed to like his party. He sucked his thumb and
looked solemnly at the aunts and cousins. He even tried to put
the puppy cat in his mouth. Natsu took him away at last and put
him to bed. Then everybody had tea and good things to eat until
it was time to go home.
It took the Twins a long time to get to sleep that night.
Just as she was cuddling down under her warm, soft mats, Take
popped her head out once more and looked across the room to
Taro's bed.
"Taro!" she whispered.
Taro stuck his head out, too. She could see him by the soft
light of the candle in the tall paper lamp beside his bed.
"Don't you think it's about a week since morning?" she said. "So
many nice things have happened to-day!"
"There never could be a nicer day than this," said Taro.
"What was the nicest of all?" Take asked. "I'll tell you what I
liked the best if you'll tell me."
Then Taro told which part of the day he liked the best, and Take
told which she liked the best. But I'm not going to tell whether
they said the little horse, or the tiny garden, or the cherry
trees, or the animals, or the boat-ride--or the party. You can
just guess for yourself!
A RAINY DAY
A RAINY DAY
When the Twins woke up the next morning it was cold, and the rain
was beating on the roof. They couldn't look out of the window to
see it, because there were no glass windows in their house. There
were just the pretty screens covered with white paper.
Taro slid one of the screens back and peeped out into the garden.
"It's all wet," he said to Take. "We can't play outdoors to-day."
"We'll have a nice time in the house, then," said Take. "I can
think of lots of things to do."
"So can I, if I try," Taro said.
"Let's try, then," Take answered.
They thought all the time they were dressing. They put on three
kimonos because it was cold. It made them look quite fat.
"I've thought of one," Take called just as she was putting on the
last kimono.
"I have, too," Taro said.
"You tell me and I'll tell you," Take begged.
"No, not until after breakfast," Taro answered. "Then first we'll
play one and then the other."
After breakfast Mother was busy waiting upon Father and getting
him off to his work. Then she had to bathe the Baby. So the twins
went to Grandmother for help.
"O Ba San" (that means "Honorable Grandmother"), Take said to
her, "it is rainy and cold, and Taro and I have thought of nice
games to play in the house. Will you get the colored sands for
us?"
"I know what you're going to do!" cried Taro.
Grandmother brought out four boxes. In one box was yellow sand.
In another was black sand. The other two were filled with blue
and red sand. Grandmother brought out some large pieces of paper.
"Thank you, O Ba San," the Twins said.
They spread the paper on the floor. Taro had one piece, and Take
had another.
"I'm going to make a picture of a boat on the sea," said Taro.
He took some of the blue sand in his right hand. He let it run
through his fingers until it made a blue sea clear across the
paper.
"And now I'm going to make a yellow sky for a sunset." He let the
yellow sand run through the fingers of his left hand.
"I'll put some red clouds in it," he said. Then he let red sand
run through his fingers.
When that was done he took some black sand. He made a boat.
This was the way his picture looked when it was done, only it was
in colors. The sail of the boat was blue.
"Oh, Taro, how beautiful!" Take said. "Mine won't be half so
nice, I'm sure. I'm going to make--I'm going to make--let's see.
Oh, I know. I'll make the pine tree beside the pond."
She took some blue sand and made the little lake. Then she took
the black sand and made the trunk of the tree and some branches.
She spilled a little of the black sand. It made black specks.
"Oh, dear!" she cried. "I've spilled."
Taro looked at it. "Put the green leaves over the spilled place," he said.
"It isn't the right place for leaves," Take said.
She took some blue sand in one hand and some yellow in the other.
She let them fall on the paper together. They made the green part
of the tree.
"I know what I'll do about the black that spilled," she said.
"I'll call it a swarm of bees!"
This is Take's picture. You can see the bees!
"I think your picture is just as good as mine," said Taro.
"Oh, no, Honorable Brother! Yours is much better," Take answered
politely.
They showed them to Grannie when they were all finished. Grannie
thought they were beautiful.
"Now, Taro, what's your game?" Take said when the sand was all
put away.
"I have to go out into the garden first for mine," Taro said.
"Put on your clogs and take an umbrella, and don't stay but a
minute," Grannie said.
Taro put on his clogs and opened his umbrella, and ran into the
garden.
Take couldn't guess what he wanted. She watched him from the door.
Taro ran from one tree or vine to another. He looked along the
stems and under the leaves. He looked on the ground, too. Soon he
jumped at something on the ground, and caught it in his hand.
"I've got one," he called.
"One what?" Take called back.
"Beetle," Taro said.
Then he found another. He brought them in very carefully, so as
not to hurt them.
In the house he put them into a little cage which he made out of
a pasteboard box. Then he got more paper and a little knife.
"Oh, Taro, what are you going to make?" Take asked.
"If you and grannie will help me, I'll make some little wagons
and we'll harness the beetles," Taro said.
"Won't it hurt them?" Take asked.
"Not a bit; we'll be so careful," Taro answered.
So Take ran for thread, and Taro got Grannie to help him. Grannie
would do almost anything in the world for the Twins. And pretty
soon there were two cunning little paper wagons with round paper
wheels!
Taro tied some thread to the front of each little wagon. Then he
opened the cage to take out the beetles.
One of the beetles didn't wait to be taken out. He flew out
himself. He was big and black, and he flew straight at Take! He
flew into her black hair!
Maybe he just wanted to hide. But he had big black nippers, and
he took hold of Take's little fat neck with them.
Take rolled right over on the floor and screamed. Her Mother
heard the scream. She came running in. The maids came running too
to see what was the matter.
"Ow! Ow!! Ow!!!" squealed Take. She couldn't say a word. She just
clawed at her neck and screamed.
Everybody tried to find out what was the matter.
"I know--I know!" shouted Taro.
He shook Take's hair. Out flew the beetle!
Taro caught him. "He isn't hurt a bit," he said.
"But I am," wailed Take.
Mother and Grannie bathed Take's neck, and comforted her; and
soon she was happy again and ready to go on with the play.
She and Taro harnessed the beetles with threads to the little
wagons. But Take let Taro do the harnessing.
"You can have that one, and I'll have this," Taro said; "and
we'll have a race."
He set the beetles on the floor. They began to crawl along,
pulling the little carriages after them.
Taro's beetle won the race.
They played with the beetles and wagons a long time until Grannie
said, "Let them go now, children. Dinner will soon be ready."
The Twins were hungry. They unharnessed the beetles and carried
them to the porch. They put them on the porch railing.
"Fly away home!" they said. Then they ran to the kitchen to see
what there was for dinner. They sniffed good things cooking.
Take went to the stove and lifted the lid of a great kettle. It
was such a queer stove!
Here is a picture of Take peeping into the kettle. It shows you
just how queer that stove was.
"It's rice," Take said.
"Of course," said Taro. "We always have rice in that kettle.
What's in this one?"
He peeped into the next kettle. It was steaming hot. The steam
flew out when Taro opened the lid, and almost burned his nose!
That kettle had fish in it. When it was ready, Grannie and Mother
and the Twins had their dinner all together. Bot'Chan was asleep.
After dinner Grannie said, "I'm going for a little nap."
"We shall keep very quiet so as not to disturb you and Bot'Chan,"
Taro said.
When the little tables were taken away, the Mother said, "Come,
my children, let us sit down beside the hibachi and get warm."
The "hibachi" is the only stove, except the cook-stove, that they
have in Japanese houses. It is an open square box, made of metal,
with a charcoal fire burning in it. In very cold weather each
person has one to himself; but this day it was just cold enough
so the Twins loved to cuddle close up to their Mother beside the
big hibachi.
The Mother put on a square framework of iron over the fire-box.
Then she brought a comforter--she called it a "futon"--from the
cupboard. She put it over the frame, like a tent. She placed one
large cushion on the floor and on each side of the big cushion
she put a little one.
She sat down on the big cushion. Taro sat on one side and Take
sat on the other, on the little cushions. They drew the comforter
over their laps--and, oh, but they were cozy and warm!
"Tell us a story, honored Mother," begged Taro.
"Yes, please do!" said Take.
"Let me see. What shall I tell you about?" said the Mother. She
put her finger on her brow and pretended to be thinking very
hard.
"Tell us about 'The Wonderful Tea-Kettle,'" said Take.
"Tell us about 'The Four and Twenty Paragons,'" said Taro.
"What is a Paragon?" asked Take.
"A Paragon is some one who is very good, indeed,--better than
anybody else," said the Mother.
"Are you a Paragon?" Take asked her Mother.
"Oh, no," cried the Mother. "I am a most unworthy creature as
compared with a Paragon."
"Then there aren't any such things," said Take, "because nobody
could be better than you!"
The Mother laughed. "Wait until I tell you about the Paragons.
Then you'll see how very, very good they were," she said.
"Once there was a Paragon. He was only a little boy, but he was
so good to his parents! Oh, you can't think how good he was! He
was only six years old. He was a beautiful child, with a tender,
fine skin and bright eyes. He lived with his parents in a little
town among the rice-fields. The fields were so wet in the spring
that there were millions and millions of mosquitoes around their
home. Everybody was nearly bitten to death by them. The little
boy saw how miserable and unhappy his parents were from the
mosquito-bites. He could not bear to see his dear parents suffer;
so every night he lay naked on his mat so the mosquitoes would
find his tender skin and bite him first, and spare his father and
mother."
"Oh, my!" said Take. "How brave that was! I don't like mosquito-bites
a bit!"
"You don't like beetle-bites any better, do you?" Taro said.
"Well," said Take, "I'd rather the beetle should bite me than
Mother."
"Well, now, maybe you'll be a Paragon yourself sometime," the
Mother said.
"There weren't any women paragons, were there?" asked Taro.
"Oh, yes," said the Mother. "Once there was a young girl who
loved her father dearly, and honored him above everything in the
world, as a child should. Once she and her father were in a
jungle, and a tiger attacked them. The young girl threw herself
upon the tiger and clung to his jaws so that her father could
escape."
"Did the tiger eat her up?" said Taro.
"I suppose he did," the Mother answered.
"Was it very noble of her to be eaten up so her father could get
away?" Take asked,
"Oh, very noble!" said the Mother.
"Well, then," said Take, "was it very noble of the father to run
away and let her stay and be eaten up?"
"The lives of women are not worth so much as those of men," her
Mother answered.
Take bounced on her cushion. "I don't see how she could honor a
man who was so mean," she said.
Take's mother held up her hands. She was shocked. "Why, Take!"
she said. "The man was her father!"
"Tell us another," said Taro.
"Please, honored Mother, don't tell me about any more Paragons,"
said Take.
Her Mother was still more shocked.
"Why, little daughter," she said, "don't you want to hear about
the Paragon that lay down on the cold, cold ice to warm a hole in
it with his body so he could catch some fish for his cruel
stepmother to eat?"
"No, if you please, dear Mother," said Take, "because all the
Paragons had such horrid parents."
"My dear little girl," the Mother said, "you must not say such
dreadful things! We must honor and obey our parents, no matter
what kind of persons they are."
"Well," said Take, "we love and honor you and our Father--you
are so good and kind." She put her hands on the matting in front
of her, and bowed to the floor before her Mother.
Taro saw Take do this, and he wanted to be just as polite as she
was; so he rolled over on his cushion and bowed to the floor,
too.
"Now, tell us about the 'Lucky Tea-Kettle,'" begged Take.
Their Mother began: "Once upon a time--"
But just as she got as far as that they heard a little sound from
Bot'Chan's cushion in the corner, and the covers began to wiggle.
"There's Bot'Chan awake," said the Mother. "I must take care of
him now. The 'Lucky Tea-Kettle' must wait until another time."
And just at that minute bright spots of sunshine appeared on the
paper screen, and the shadows of leaves in pretty patterns
fluttered over it.
"The sun is out! The sun is out!" cried the Twins.
They ran to the door, put on their clogs, and were soon dancing
about in the bright sunshine.
TAKE'S BIRTHDAY
TAKE'S BIRTHDAY
Taro and Take loved their birthdays the best of all the days in
the year.
They had two of them. Most twins have only one birthday between
them, but Japanese twins have two.
That is because all the boys in Japan celebrate their birthdays
together on one day, and all the girls celebrate theirs together
on another day.
So, you see, though they were twins, Taro and Take didn't have
the same birthday at all.
Take's birthday came first. She knew days beforehand that it was
coming, for every once in a while she would say to her Mother,
"How many days is it now?" and her Mother always knew she meant,
"How many days is it to my birthday?"
One morning when she woke up, Take said, "Only six days more."
The next morning she said, "Only five days more." One morning she
jumped out of bed very early and said, "Oh, it's to-day! To-day!
It begins this very minute."
Taro didn't get up early that day. When he heard Take singing,
"It's to-day," he just buried his nose under the bedclothes and
pretended to be asleep!
He remembered Take's last birthday, and he remembered that boys
seemed to be in the way that day. They weren't asked to play with
the girls, and they wouldn't have done it anyway, because the
girls spent the whole day playing with dolls! Taro didn't think
much of dolls.
Before breakfast, her Father took Take out to the Kura. He
reached up to the high shelf and brought down the big red box
that held the dolls. It was as big as a trunk. Then he reached
down another box and carried them both into the house.
Although it was so early in the morning, the Mother had already
put fresh flowers in the vase, in honor of Take's birthday.
The bedding had been put away, and on one side of the room there
were five shelves, like steps against the wall. Take knew what
they were for.
"Oh," said Take, "everything is all ready to begin! May I open
the boxes right now?"
Her Mother said, "Yes." She even got down on her knees beside the
boxes and helped Take open them. They opened the red box first.
It was full of dolls! A whole trunkful of dolls. Thirty-five of
them!
The first doll Take took out was a very grand lady doll, dressed
in stiff silk robes, embroidered with chrysanthemums.
"Here's the Empress," she cried; she set the Empress doll up
against the trunk. Then she ran to get her dear everyday doll.
She called her everyday doll "Morning Glory," and sometimes just
"Glory" for short. Glory was still asleep in Take's bed.
"Why, you sleepy head!" Take said. "Don't you know you are going
to have company to-day? Where are your manners, child?"
She took Glory to the trunk and put her down on her knees before
the Empress. "Make your bow," she said. Glory bowed so low that
she fell over on her nose!
"Oh, my dear child!" said Take. "I must take more pains with you!
Your manners are frightful! You will wear out your nose if you
bow like that!"
She reached into the box and carefully lifted out the Emperor
doll. He was dressed in stiff silk, too. He sat up very straight
against the trunk beside the Empress.
Take made Morning Glory bow to the Emperor, too. This time Glory
didn't fall on her nose.
These dolls had belonged to Take's Grandmother. She had played
with them on her birthdays, and then Take's Mother had played
with them on her birthdays, and still they were not broken or
torn; they had been so well cared for.
They were taken out only once in the whole year, and that time
was called the "Feast of Dolls."
Take's Mother had covered the five steps with a beautiful piece
of silk. Take placed the Emperor and Empress in the middle of the
top step. Then she ran back to the trunk to get more dolls.