The Japanese Twins | Page 7

can arrange it-- just
the way I was taught to do it," Take answered. "Nothing could be nicer
for a baby's flower than a dear little branch like this with pink buds on
it!"
"I'll break it for you," said Taro. "I'm strong." He broke the branch
carefully, just where Take told him to. He took great pains not to tear
the bark or hurt the tree.
Then they carried it into the house. In one corner of the room there was
a little alcove. There is one in every Japanese house. It is called the
"honorable recess," and it is where their most beautiful things are
placed. There is always a picture--or perhaps two or three of
them--hanging like long banners on the wall at the back of the
"honorable recess." These banner pictures are called kakemono. There
is also a small table with a vase on it standing near. In this vase there
are always flowers, or a beautiful branch with green leaves. In Japan
the little girls are taught to arrange flowers just as carefully as they are
taught to read, so that the "honorable recess" may be kept beautiful to
look at.

Take filled the vase with water. She fitted a little forked stick into the
top of the vase, and stuck the plum branch through the crotch of the
forked stick, so it wouldn't fall over. She twisted it this way and that
until it looked just right. Then she called Taro to see it.
On the wall of the recess was the picture of a black crow perched on the
branch of a pine tree, in a rainstorm. His shoulders were all hunched up
to shed the rain, and he didn't look happy at all. He looked funny and
miserable.
The Twins looked at the honorable recess a long time. Their Father
came and looked too. Then Taro said, "I don't think that crow in the
rainstorm looks right hanging up beside the plum branch. The crow
looks so sorry, and we are all so glad."
"I think just the same," said Take.
"So do I," said their Father. "How would you like to go out to the Kura
and see if we can find a real happy picture to hang up there?"
Taro and Take jumped up and down and clapped their hands for joy,
they were so glad to go out to the "Kura."
The "Kura" is a little fireproof house in the garden. You can see the
corner of the roof sticking out from behind the mountain in the picture.
In it Taro and Take and their Father and Mother and Grandmother keep
all their greatest treasures. That is why Taro and Take were so glad to
go there.
Nearly everybody in Japan has just such a safe little house in the garden.
Maybe you can guess the reason why. It isn't only because of fires. It's
because of earthquakes too.
Every once in a while--almost every day, in fact--the earth trembles and
shakes in the Happy Islands. The houses are built mostly of wood and
paper, and if the earthquakes tumble them over, they sometimes catch
fire, but if the nicest things are safe in the Kura, it doesn't matter so
much, if the house is burned up, you see.

There are always plenty of fires for boys to see in Japan.
Taro had seen ever so many, before he was five years old, and the
Twins had both felt ever so many earthquakes. They were so used to
them that they didn't mind them any more than you mind a
thundershower.
All of Taro's kites were kept in the Kura. The big dragon kite had a box
all to itself; Take's thirty-five dolls were there, too;--but, dear me,--here
I am telling you about kites and dolls, when I should be telling you
about the picture of the crow, and what they did with it!
First the Twins' Father took it down off the wall and rolled it up. Then
he took it in his hand, and he and Taro and Take all went out into the
garden.
When they reached the Kura, the Father unlocked the door, and all
three stepped inside.
It was not very light, but the air was sweet and spicy. On the shelves
about the room were many beautiful boxes of all sizes and shapes.
The Father reached up to a high shelf and took down three boxes, that
looked just alike on the outside. He opened the first and took out a roll
neatly wrapped and tied with a silk string. It was this picture of a
Japanese lady who has run out quickly to take her washing off the line
because of a shower of rain.
He held it up high so the Twins could