"I don't know, I'm sure," Taro said. "I can't think. But, anyway, we're lucky that it didn't happen. We're here--and we're ourselves!""Let's go into the garden this minute and see if we can find Bot'Chan's tree," said Take. "He's so new that maybe we can find the very spot where he grew.""The fairies would surely hide the place so we couldn't find it," said Taro; "but we can try. Let's go softly; then maybe they won't hear us."They tiptoed out into the garden. How I wish you could see their garden! There are all sorts of wonderful places in it! It isn't very large, but it has in it a little bit of a toy mountain, and a tiny lake with little weeny goldfish in it, and a little stream of water, like a baby river, that runs into the lake.
And, best of all, there is a curved bridge, painted red, just big enough for the Twins to walk over, if they are very careful and don't bounce! The Twins' Grandfather made this garden for their Father to play in when he was a little boy, so they all love it dearly.
There are iris plants and lilies beside the tiny lake, and a funny little pine tree--a very little pine tree, just a few feet high--grows out of some rocks on the side of the mountain.
The Twins crossed the tiny red bridge and crept up the stepping-stones on the mountain-side until they reached the little pine tree.
"Do you s'pose it could be the pine tree?" Take whispered.
"Maybe; it's so small--just the right size for Bot'Chan," Taro whispered back.
The Twins looked carefully all around the pine tree, but its trunk was gnarled and old. It is hard to believe that so little a tree could be so old, but the Japanese know how to keep a tree small, like a toy tree, even if it has been growing for a hundred years.
This tree wasn't a hundred years old, because their Grandfather had set it out when the Twins' Father was a little boy, and the Twins' Father wasn't anywhere near a hundred years old.
"I don't believe a darling little pink baby could ever grow here," said Take, when she had looked all around the pine tree.
"Let's look at the plum tree."
They ran to the plum tree that stood at the other end of the garden. They looked all about it.
On the south side of the plum tree, in the sunshine, there was a long branch near the ground; and on the branch--what do you think?--there was a whole row of tiny pink buds, almost ready to burst into bloom!
"Oh, Taro, Taro, look here!" Take cried. "Here's the Baby's very own branch; I'm sure of it, for there aren't any other buds on the whole tree that are as near out as these!""Let's cut off this spray and carry it into the house to put in the vase," said Taro.
"Oh, yes, and I'll show Mother how beautifully I 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!