Their Mother gave them each a paper umbrella in case of rain. She hung a little brocaded bag, with a jar of rice inside it, on the left arm of each Twin. This was for their luncheon. Then she gave them each a brand- new copy-book and a brand-new soroban. Asoroban is a counting-machine.
It is a frame with wires stretched across it and beads hung on the wires. The Twins felt very proud to have sorobans and copy-books.
"Now trot along," the Mother said.
The Twins knew the way. They marched down the street, feeling more grown up than they ever had felt in all their lives. Their Mother watched them from the garden-gate.
When they turned the corner and were out of sight, she went back into the house. She picked up Bot'Chan and hugged him. "Don't grow up yet, dear Sir Baby Boy," she said.
Taro and Take met other little boys and girls, all going to school, too. They all had umbrellas and copy-books and sorobans.
The children got to the school-house before the teacher.
They waited until they heard the clumpty-clump of his wooden clogs. Then all the children stood together in a row. Taro and Take were at the end. The moment the teacher came in, the children bowed very low.
"Ohayo," they called. "Please make your honorable entrance." They drew in their breath with a hissing sound. In Japan this is a polite thing to do. The teacher bowed to the children. Then each child ran to his little cushion on the floor and sat down on it.
Taro and Take did not know where to go, because they had not been to school before.
The teacher gave them each a cushion. Then he placed beside each of them a cunning little set of drawers, like a doll's bureau. In the little bureau were India ink and brushes. The teacher sat down on his cushion before the school.
He told the children where to open their books. Taro and Take couldn't even find the place, but O Kiku San, who sat next, found it for them.
The teacher gave Taro and Take each a little stick. "Now I will tell you the names of these letters," he said, "and when I call the name of each one, you can point to it with the little stick.
That will help you to remember it."
He began to read. Taro and Take punched each letter as he called it. They tried so hard to remember that they punched a hole right through the paper! But you might have punched something, too, if you had thousands of letters to learn! That's what Taro and Take have to do, while you have only twenty-six letters. They were glad when the teacher said, "Now we will learn how to count."Taro and Take took out their new sorobans. The teacher showed them how to count the beads. They thought it as much fun as a game.
Then they tried to make some letters in their copy-books with a brush. That's the way they write in Japan.
Taro's and Take's letters were very big and queer-looking, and the paper got so wet that the teacher said, "Children, you may all carry your copy-books outdoors and hang them up to dry, and you may eat your rice out of doors."The children took their copy-books and their bags of rice and ran out. The Twins found a nice shady place to eat their luncheon.
O Kiku San ate her rice with Taro and Take. They had a real picnic.
At half-past three all their lessons were finished, and the Twins ran home. Their Mother was waiting for them on the porch, with Bot'Chan in her arms.
"See what we made for you!" the Twins cried. They gave her the letters they had made that morning.
"You have made them beautifully, for the first time," she said.
She put the blistered papers with the staggery letters away in the cupboard to keep. "I will show them to Father when he comes home," she said.
