"Oh, Taro," cried Take, "look at my new house!"Taro didn't think much of dolls, but he liked that house just as much as Take did. When he saw the little stove with its play kettles, he said: "Why don't you have a real fire in it?""Do you think we could?" Take said.
Of course they were never, never allowed to play with fire, but because it was Take's birthday the Mother said, "Just this once Iwill sit here beside you and you may have three little charcoal-embers from the tobacco-ban to put in the stove."The tobacco-ban is a little metal box with a place for a pipe and tobacco. It always had a few pieces of burning charcoal in it so that the Father could light his pipe any time he wanted to. The Mother sat down beside the tobacco-ban.
She let Taro take a pair of tongs, like sugar-tongs. He put three pieces of charcoal in the tiny stove. Take put water in the kettle. Soon the water began to boil! Real steam came out of the spout.
"I can make real tea!" cried Take.
She got some tea leaves and put some in each tiny cup. Then she poured the boiling water into the cups. She put the cups of tea before the Emperor and Empress.
"Now you'd better have your own breakfast," the Mother said. She put the fire out in the little stove and the Twins sat down before their tiny breakfast-tables.
While they were eating, Taro had a splendid idea. "I know what I'll do. I'll make you a little garden for your house!" he said.
"Oh, that will be beautiful!" cried Take, The moment they had finished eating, they ran into the garden.
Out by the well the maids were drawing water.
"I need some water, too," Taro said.
They let Taro draw a pail of water himself. Here is a picture of him doing it.
Then he found a box-cover--not very deep--and filled it with sand. He set a little bowl in the sand and filled it with the water, for a pond. Then he broke off little bits of branches and twigs and stuck them up in the sand for trees. He made a tiny mountain like the one in their garden and put a little bridge over the pond. He put bright pebbles around the pond. When it was all done, they put the garden down beside the toy house. They put Glory in the garden, beside the tiny pond.
But a horrible accident happened! Glory fell over again, and this time she fell into the pond! At least her head did. Her legs were too long to go in. She might have been drowned if Take hadn't picked her out in a hurry.
Just as Take was wiping Morning Glory's face, her Mother came in dressed for the street. She had Bot'Chan on her back. He was awake and smiling.
Take ran and squeezed his fat legs. "You are the best doll of all," she said.
"You take your doll, and I'll take mine," the Mother said, "and let us go for a walk."Take had put on one of her very gayest kimonos that morning because it was her birthday, so she was all ready to go. Her Mother helped her strap Glory on her back and the two started down the street.
There were other mothers and other little girls with dolls on their backs in the street, too. They were all going to one place,--the Doll Shop! Each little girl had some money to buy a new doll.
Such chattering and laughing and talking you never heard! And such gay butterfly little dresses you never saw! nor such happy smiling faces, either.
At the Doll Shop there were rows and rows of dolls, and swarms and swarms of little girls looking at them. Take saw a roly-poly baby doll, with a funny tuft of black hair on his head. "This is the one I want, if you please," she said to the shopkeeper. She gave him her money. He gave her the doll.
"Glory," she said over her shoulder, "this is your new little brother!" Glory seemed pleased to have a little brother, and Take promised that she should wear him on her back whenever she wanted to. Take bought a little doll for Bot'Chan, too, with her own money. It was a funny little doll without any legs. He was fat, and when any one knocked him over, he sat up again right away.
She called him a "Daruma."
Bot'Chan seemed to like the Daruma. He put its head in his mouth at once and licked it.
Just then Take saw O Kiku San. O Kiku San was Take's best friend, and her home was not far from the little house where the Twins lived. O Kiku San had been to buy a doll, too. She had her new doll on her back. It was a large doll, with a red kimono.
She ran to speak to Take. "Won't you come into my house on your way home?" she asked.
"May I, Mother?" said Take.
Her Mother said, "Yes," so the little girls ran together to OKiku San's house.
Other little girls,came, too, to see O Kiku San's dolls. She had just as many dolls as Take. She had five shelves, too, and she had an Emperor and Empress doll. But she had no little house to play with.
"Come home with me and see my new house, all of you," Take said when the little girls had looked at O Kiku San's dolls.
So they marched in a gay procession to the little house in the garden. All the other girls' brothers had had a very lonesome day, but Taro had had fun all the afternoon with the little garden. He had made a little well, and a kura to put in the garden He made them out of boxes. The little girls looked at Take's dolls. They thought the doll-house the most beautiful toy they had ever seen, and when they saw the garden, you can't think how happy they were!
"We wish our brothers would make gardens like that for us," they said.
Taro felt proud and pleased to have them like it so much, but all he said was, "It is very polite of you to praise my poor work!"Then the Mother brought out some sweet rice-cakes. The maids brought out tiny tables and set them around. Take brought a doll teapot and placed it with toy cups on her little table. Then she made real tea, and they had a party! For candy they had sugared beans and peas. They gave some of everything to the dolls. It was nearly time for supper when the little girls bowed to Take and her Mother, said "Sayonara" very politely, and went home.
Take sat up just as late as she wanted to that night. It was eight o'clock when she went to bed. She hugged each one of the thirty-five dolls when she said good night to them.
"Sayonara, Sayonara," she said to each one; "good-bye for a whole year, you darling dolls!"Then she took her dear old Glory and went happily to bed.
