d. This she did every year. The
lover-husband stayed on his side of the river, and the wife came to him
on the magpie bridge, save on the sad occasion when it rained. So every
year the people hope for clear weather, and the happy festival is
celebrated alike by old and young.

THE TRAVELS OF TWO FROGS.

Forty miles apart, as the cranes fly, stand the great cities of Ozaka and
Kioto. The one is the city of canals and bridges. Its streets are full of
bustling trade, and its waterways are ever alive with gondolas, shooting
hither and thither like the wooden shuttles in a loom. The other is the
sacred city of the Mikado's empire, girdled with green hills and a
nine-fold circle of flowers. In its quiet, clean streets, laid out like a
chessboard, walk the shaven monks and gowned scholars. And very beautiful
is Kioto, with pretty girls, and temple gardens, and castle walls, and
towers, and moats in which the white lotus blooms.

* * * * *

Long, long ago, in the good old days before the hairy-faced and
pale-cheeked men from over the Sea of Great Peace (Pacific Ocean) came to
Japan; before the black coal-smoke and snorting engine scared the white
heron from the rice-fields; before black crows and fighting sparrows,
which fear not man, perched on telegraph wires, or ever a railway was
thought of, there lived two frogs--one in a well in Kioto, the other in a
lotus-pond in Ozaka.

Now it is a common proverb in the Land of the Gods (Japan) that "the frog
in the well knows not the great ocean," and the Kioto frog had so often
heard this scornful sneer from the maids who came to draw out water, with
their long bamboo-handled buckets that he resolved to travel abroad and
see the world, and especially the _tai kai_ (the great ocean).

"I'll see for myself," said Mr. Frog, as he packed his wallet and wiped
his spectacles, "what this great ocean is that they talk about. I'll
wager it isn't half as deep or wide as well, where I can see the stars
even at daylight."

Now the truth was, a recent earthquake had greatly reduced the depth of
the well and the water was getting very shallow. Mr. Frog informed his
family of his intentions. Mrs. Frog wept a great deal; but, drying her
eyes with her paper handkerchief, she declared she would count the hours
on her fingers till he came back, and at every morning and evening meal
would set out his table with food on it, just as if he were home. She
tied u