The Japanese Twins | Page 4

they were studying
Japan. She generously loaned the book to be produced for PG.

The Japanese Twins
by Lucy Fitch Perkins

To the Dutch Twins and their friends

Also by Lucy Fitch Perkins
Geographical Series
THE DUTCH TWINS PRIMER. Grade I.
THE ESKIMO TWINS. Grade II.
THE DUTCH TWINS. Grade III.
THE JAPANESE TWINS. Grade IV.
THE SWISS TWINS. Grade IV.

THE FILIPINO TWINS. Grade V.
THE IRISH TWINS. Grade V.
THE ITALIAN TWINS. Grade V.
THE MEXICAN TWINS. Grade V.
THE SCOTCH TWINS. Grade VI.
THE BELGIAN TWINS. Grade VII.
THE FRENCH TWINS. Grade VII.
Historical Series
THE CAVE TWINS. Grade IV.
THE SPARTAN TWINS. Grade V.
THE COLONIAL TWINS OF VIRGINIA. Grade VI.
THE AMERICAN TWINS OF 1812. Grade VI.
THE PIONEER TWINS. Grade VI.
THE AMERICAN TWINS OF THE REVOLUTION. Grade VII.
THE PURITAN TWINS. Grade VII.
Each volume is illustrated by the author
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY
COPYRIGHT, 1912, BY LUCY FITCH PERKINS
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
The Riverside Press

CAMBRIDGE. MASSACHUSETTS PRINTED IN THE U.S.A.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION--THE JAPANESE TWINS AND BOT'CHAN.
I. THE DAY THE BABY CAME
II. MORNING IN THE LITTLE HOUSE
III. HOW THEY WENT TO THE TEMPLE.
IV. A RAINY DAY
V. TAKE'S BIRTHDAY.
VI. GOING TO SCHOOL
VII. TARO'S BIRTHDAY.
THE JAPANESE TWINS
THE JAPANESE TWINS AND BOT'CHAN
Away, away, ever so far away, near the western shores of the Ocean of
Peace, lie the Happy Islands, the Paradise of Children.
Some people call this ocean the "Pacific" and they call the Happy
Islands "Japan," but the meaning is just the same. Those are only their
grown-up names, that you find them by on the map, in the geography.
They are truly Happy Islands, for the sun shines there so brightly that
all the people go about with pleasant, smiling faces, and the children
play out of doors the whole year through without ever quarreling. And
they are never, never spanked! Of course, the reason for that is that they
are so good they never, never need it! Or maybe their fathers and
mothers do not believe in spanking.
I have even been told--though I don't know whether to think it's true or

not--that Japanese parents believe more in sugar-plums than in
punishments to make children good!
Anyway, the children there are very good indeed.
In a little town near a large city on one of the Happy Islands, there is a
garden. In the garden stands a house, and in that House there live Taro,
who is a boy, and Take (Pronounce Tah'- kay), who is a girl.
They are twins. They are Japanese Twins and they are just five years
old, both of them.
Of course, Taro and Take do not live alone in the house in the garden.
Their Father and Mother live there too, and their Grandmother, who is
very old, and the Baby, who is very young.
Taro and Take cannot remember when Grandmother and Father and
Mother happened, because they were all there when the Twins came;
and the Twins could not possibly imagine the world without Father and
Mother and Grandmother.
But with the Baby it was different. One day there wasn't any Baby at all,
and the next day after that, there he was, looking very new but quite at
home already in the little house in the garden, where Taro and Take
lived.
"Taro" means eldest son, and the Baby might have been called "Jiro,"
because "Jiro " means "second," and he was the second boy in the
family; but from the day he came they called him just "Bot'Chan." That
is what they call boy babies in Japan.
"Take" means "bamboo," and the Twins' Father and Mother named
their little daughter "Take" because they hoped she would grow up to
be tall and slender and strong and graceful like the bamboo tree.
Now, can you think of anything nicer in this world than being Twins,
and living with a Mother and Father and Grandmother and a Baby
Brother, in a dear little house, in a dear little garden, in a dear little,

queer little town in the middle of the Happy Islands that lie in the
Ocean of Peace?
Taro and Take thought it was the nicest thing that could possibly have
happened; though, as they hadn't ever lived anywhere else, or been
anybody but themselves for a single minute, I don't see how they could
be quite so sure about it.
This book is all about Taro and Take and the Baby, and what a nice
time they had living. And if you want to know some of the things that
happened on the very first day that the Twins and Bot'Chan ever saw
each other you can turn over to the next page and read about the day the
Baby came. That