128 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 



stove-pipe hat, iH ludicrous. They have taken a 

 great fancy to canes, and also to Turkish towels, 

 which they use as scarfs and small shawls, and near- 

 ly every one has a shirt, to which they add one or 

 more of the following things: Hat, shoes, stockings, 

 gloves, and necktie. The women dress in the native 

 way except for umbrellas; however, some have 

 adopted foreign dress, and wear high-heeled shoes, 

 small parasols, cloaks and dresses; and though some 

 of them look awkward with their hair done up in 

 foreign style, and with dresses, gloves, and shoes on, 

 still there are some that are quite at ease. 



I will send a photograph of a kago, or Japanese 

 palanquin, to the little girls you speak of in the Ju- 

 venile. I have traveled in one; and though they 

 are uncomfortably small for an adult, I was quite 

 comfortable, for I atn only eleven. Please give my 

 love to the little girls. Ada M. Krecker. 



Tokio, Japan, Oct. 4, 1883. 



Here is something further from our young 

 friend Ada: 



New Year's day is a great holiday In Japan. On 

 the 1st every house has a small pine-tree before the 

 door. Every person is out with his best, and mostly 

 new clothing. Every family tries to have a break- 

 fast of pounded rice cakes that have mashed beans 

 in the center. Oa the 16th the Japanese think the 

 door of heaven is opened, and all those in hell are 

 having a holiday, so any wrong action is not re- 

 proved. Just uow is the great kite-flying season in 

 Japan. The Japanese kites are of a very different 

 shape from the American kites. They are square, 

 and have sometimes singers attached to them. 

 Girls are playing battle-door and shuttle-cock. 



Tokio, Japan, Jan. 9, 1SS4. AdaM. Krecker. 



I am sure, friend Ada, we all feel very much 

 obliged for what you tell us about our Jap- 

 anese brothers and sisters. I do not know 

 but boys and girls might sit down cross-leg- 

 ged, or on their feet, as you say the women 

 do ; but for people no older than I am even, 

 it seems to me it would be very fatiguing. 

 Why, when I sit down to play with Huber 

 after dinner, that way, it makes me feel so 

 stiff that I can not walk straight for quite a 

 little time afterward. But then, I suppose 

 it is all in habit, although I think it would be 

 very hard for old people, say those who can 

 not sit easily without their easy-chairs. It 

 seems to me that palanquin woiild be a very 

 nice thing to ride In, if it were not for the 

 feeling that somebody had to be lugging you 

 around. However, if people wanted work 

 badly, and were stout and able, perhaps they 

 would enjoy the privilege of lugging you 

 around, provided the pay were satisfactory. 

 I am sorry our engraver didn't succeed in 

 having the lady with a book a little more life- 

 like. In your photograph she was quite a 

 beauty. One would imagine you must have 

 warm weather there, or that good-looking 

 young fellow would feel a trille chilly going 

 around bare-legged. It seems to me their 

 ideas of decorum in the presence of ladies is 

 a trifle different from ours. And about those 

 .Japanese kites, it is just wonderful to think 

 of their all getting a mania for kite^flying. 

 I know schoolboys sometimes all go on one 

 thing for awhile, and then something else. 

 What is it about the "singers"V That is 

 something I never heard of. Is it something 

 that the wind makes sing ? I may explain 

 to our readers, that we credited our friend 



xVda $1.00 for her letter and photograph. 

 And what do you suppose she picked out of 

 our list for the dollar? Why, it was the life 

 of our President Garfield ; and I don't know 

 that she could :have found anything better 

 to be sent clear to Japan. 



Ever>' girl or boy, under 15 years of 

 asre, who writes a letter for thi.s depart- 

 ment, CONTAINING SOME VALUABLE FJ\CT, 

 ) WN, ON BEES O ' ! OTHER 

 MATTERS, will receive one of David Cook's 

 excellent five-cent Sunday-school books. 

 Many of these books contain the same 

 that you find in Sunday-school 

 books costing from $1.00 to $1.50. It you 

 have had one or more books, give us the 

 names that we niav not senrJ the same 

 twice. We h.Tve ik.w iii sto.^k, six different 

 hooks, as follows: Silv,i- k',v>, Sl»-cr Off, 

 The Giant Killer, Tlir Kohv'F.uiiilv, Res- 

 cued from Egypt, and Ten Nights in a Bar- 

 Room. 



THE BABY OF THE HOUSEHOLD. 



ELL, little friends, Huber has been 

 sick. Is it not sad to see a baby 

 sick? For a few days he tried to 

 play, but he couldn't ; and finally he just lay 

 in his crib all day feverish, moaning plain- 

 tively. How anxiously we watched for his 

 little' smiles, and .tried to make him notice 

 us ! In the evening i held him a little, while 

 his mother fixed the crib for him, and all at 

 once he turned over and made a grab at 

 something. It was some letters he saw stick- 

 ing in my pocket. I tried to have him take 

 something else, but he whopped over and 

 grabbed the letters in both of his hands, and 

 then began to crumple them to hear them 

 rattle, and finally pushed them into his lit- 

 tle mouth, and tried to sing as he does about 

 his play. We all rejoiced, because we 

 thought he seemed better ; and pretty soon 

 he was really better, and would laugh and 

 coo and sing in his way. Didn't you ever 

 hear a baby eight months of age sing ? 

 Well, he does not sing any tune, but he just 

 made a noi.se like an old biddy in a spring 

 morning, when she feels happy. He always 

 sings when he eats his breakfast. AVell, 

 when he got so he could laugh right out loud 

 with a real boyish laugh, then we knew he 

 was Jt great deal better. 



My little friends, did you ever hear an 

 eight-months-old baby laugh out loud ? 

 How it seems to bubble fourth in that deli- 

 cious, childlike strain! IHs sister Blue 

 Eyes had fixed a shawl over her head in a 

 sort of comical way, and then she would run 

 toward him, and he would make his hands 

 lly, and feet too, and then just "ha ha" 

 right out. The whole family gathered 



