3 182202465 1721 s$J%*mf- m^W Jfe*'^^*^ *'* WWW;: -'W

A JAPANESE HOME. 25
a tiny tea-pot, tinier cups, and little metal sockets.
There is no such thing as a saucer or handle to these
cups, for such foreign
additions are unknown in
Japanese tea-drinking. In the maid's other hand is
a stand, laid with white paper, and piled with cut
sponge-cake and amber-colored sugar jelly. Kneeling
and bowing, she pours and hands out the little
each set in its socket.
cups,
The grandmother is a well-preserved old lady of
sixty-nine ; the mother a lady of probably thirty-five.
They come forward and make the usual salutation
hands, knees, and forehead on the floor, or rather the
face laid on the two prone palms. Then, sitting up,
they engage in conversation. The old lady is extremely
merry and loquacious, the mother is rather
dignified and a little inclined to reserve, but handsome
and with the atmosphere of high birth and
breeding. She is a native of Higo, a province which
with Echizen shares a good reputation for
women.
beautiful
The other members of the family who are at home
the head of the house with his man-servant being
away traveling are two sons and two daughters.
of the
Of the boys, Taro is twelve and Kozo is four ;
Kind is ten and time* is six.
daughters,
Supposing that under the leading of Mrs. Rai who,
like most good housekeepers, is fond of letting her
friends see her household, we wander through the
rooms and garden, this is probably what some of
us would see, think, or tell. We should be im-
pressed with the fact that neatness and simplicity