oyal emissaries burnt it on the summit at sunrise. So to this day
people say there is smoke to be seen rising from the top of Mount Fuji
to the clouds.

THE MIRROR OF MATSUYAMA

A STORY OF OLD JAPAN.

Long years ago in old Japan there lived in the Province of Echigo, a
very remote part of Japan even in these days, a man and his wife. When
this story begins they had been married for some years and were blessed
with one little daughter. She was the joy and pride of both their
lives, and in her they stored an endless source of happiness for their
old age.

What golden letter days in their memory were these that had marked her
growing up from babyhood; the visit to the temple when she was just
thirty days old, her proud mother carrying her, robed in ceremonial
kimono, to be put under the patronage of the family's household god;
then her first dolls festival, when her parents gave her a set of
dolls' and their miniature belongings, to be added to as year succeeded
year; and perhaps the most important occasion of all, on her third
birthday, when her first OBI (broad brocade sash) of scarlet and gold
was tied round her small waist, a sign that she had crossed the
threshold of girlhood and left infancy behind. Now that she was seven
years of age, and had learned to talk and to wait upon her parents in
those several little ways so dear to the hearts of fond parents, their
cup of happiness seemed full. There could not be found in the whole of
the Island Empire a happier little family.

One day there was much excitement in the home, for the father had been
suddenly summoned to the capital on business. In these days of railways
and jinrickshas and other rapid modes of traveling, it is difficult to
realize what such a journey as that from Matsuyama to Kyoto meant. The
roads were rough and bad, and ordinary people had to walk every step of
the way, whether the distance were one hundred or several hundred
miles. Indeed, in those days it was as great an undertaking to go up to
the capital as it is for a Japanese to make a voyage to Europe now.

So the wife was very anxious while she helped her husband get ready for
the long journey, knowing what an arduous task lay before him. Vainly
she wished that she could accompany him, but the distance was too great
for the mother and child to go, and besides that, it was the wife's
duty to take care of the home.

All was ready at last, and the husband stood in the porch with his