The Japanese Twins | Page 9

every way you can," her Father answered. "You will belong to them, you see. Now, you must just be a good girl and mind your Father and Grandmother, and Mother, and your brothers."
"I'm just as old as Taro," said little Take, "and I think I know just as much. Why can't he mind me some of the time? I think it would be fair to take turns!"
"But Taro is a boy," said her Father. "That makes all the difference in the world. Japanese girls must always mind their brothers!"
"Must I mind Bot'Chan, too?" asked Take.
"Yes, Bot'Chan, too."
"Won't anybody ever mind me at all?" asked Take.
"When you get to be a mother-in-law, then you can have your turn," said her Father, smiling. "Your son's wife will obey you."
"Will my son obey me, too?" asked Take.
"No, you must obey him if he is the head of the house," her Father explained.
"It's a very long time to wait," sighed Take, "and nothing but a daughter-in-law to mind me at last."
Her under lip puckered a little and she frowned--a little frown-- right in the middle of her forehead.
"Tut, tut," said her Father. "Girls and women should always be gentle and smiling. You must never frown."
He looked quite shocked at the very idea of such a thing.
Take tried to look pleasant, and a funny thing is that when you make yourself look pleasant, you begin to feel so, too. Take felt pleasant almost right away.
They went into the house and hung the picture of the mother bird in the place of the crow, beside the spray of plum. When it was all done, this is the way the honorable recess looked.
Take looked at it for a while, and then she said, "I don't believe I shall feel sorry about minding Bot'Chan after all, because I love him so much."
"That's the way a little Japanese girl should feel," said her Father. "Now, come in and let us take a look at him."
They found Bot'Chan awake. Take knelt down on the mat in front of him, to see him better.
"Put your head down on the matting, Take," her Father said, and Take bowed her head to the floor.
Then the Father took the Baby in his arms and placed his tiny foot on Take's neck.
"That means that you must always do what he wants you to," he said.
"I will," said little Take. The Mother smiled at Take as she knelt on the floor with the Baby's foot on her neck.
Then she turned her face the other way on her little wooden pillow and sighed--just a very gentle little sigh, that nobody heard at all.
MORNING IN THE LITTLE HOUSE
MORNING IN THE LITTLE HOUSE
One morning when Bot'Chan was just one month old, his big brother Taro woke up very early. The birds woke him. They were singing in the garden. "See, see, see," they sang. "Morning is here! Morning is here!" Taro heard them in his sleep. He turned over. Then he stretched his arms and legs and sat up in bed, rubbing his eyes.
The candle in the tall paper lamp beside his bed had burned almost out, but it was light enough so he could see that Take, in her bed across the room, was still asleep, with her head on her little cushion.
Taro called very softly, "Take, Take, wake up!" But Take slept so soundly she did not hear him.
Father and Mother and the Baby were all asleep in the next room. He did not want to wake them, because it was still so early in the morning. So he crept softly along the floor to Take's bed, and whispered in her ear, "Wake up, wake up!" But she didn't wake up. Then Taro took a jay's feather which he had found in the garden the day before, and tickled Take's nose!
First she rubbed her nose. Then she sneezed. Then she opened her eyes and looked at Taro.
"Sh-sh," whispered Taro.
"But I haven't said a single word!" Take whispered back.
"You sneezed, though," said Taro. "That's just as bad. It will wake up our honorable parents just the same."
"Well, you shouldn't tickle my poor little nose, then," said Take.
"Your honorable nose was tickled so that you would wake up and hear the birds sing," said Taro. "It is much nicer than sleeping! Besides, do you remember what is going to happen to- day? We are going to take Bot'Chan to the Temple!"
A temple is something like a church, only they do not do the same things in temples that we do in our churches.
The Twins loved to go to the Temple, because they had a very good time when they went there. They liked it as much as you like Thanksgiving Day and the Fourth of July.
When Take remembered that they were going to take Bot'Chan to the Temple, she