The Japanese Twins [3]
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 see it. "Ho, ho," laughed Taro. "The lady has lost her clog, she is in such a hurry!" "She's just as wet as the crow," Take said, "and I don't believe she feels a bit happier!" "She'll be wetter still before she gets her washing in, won't she?" the Father said. "The clouds seem to have burst just over her head! And, dear me,--how the wind is blowing her about! No, she won't do beside the plum branch." He opened another box