all the children except Howard — who all 

 unknown to them was perched in a tree 

 top near the window, where he could 

 hear every word they said — were seated 

 in the cocoonery to hear what Alice had 

 written about the pets. She read : 



''We learned many things about the 

 little creatures from Aunt Jane's talks 

 from books, and from our own observa- 

 tions. We found that our foreign friends 

 belonged to the family of the Bomhycidac 

 or spinners. There are several species, but 

 none so profitable as the mulberry spe- 

 cies to which ours belongs. By domesti- 

 cation this species has changed color 

 and lost all desire to escape. 



''The silk-worm exists in four states, 

 as Qgg, larva, chrysalis and moth. The 

 larva goes through several molts, during 

 which it is sick, and some of the more 

 delicate ones are apt to die. We found 

 the worms had six true legs and eight 

 'prolegs,' as they are called, and a little 

 horn-like process near the end of the 

 body. As the worms increased in size 

 they grew more and more interesting. 

 We quite enjoyed seeing them devour 

 the fresh leaves, but Auntie got very 

 tired changing them from tray to tray 

 and keeping their quarters clean. 



"When they got to be great fat fellows 

 we fancied we could see the sheep-like 

 look Aunt Jane spoke about. We found, 

 to our astonishment, that some of them 

 were so intelligent as to seem to know 

 Aunt Jane's voice. Of this we all feel 

 quite sure. We decided to name the 

 smartest ones and to watch them espe- 

 cially. They were strangers in a strange 

 land, so we concluded we must give them 

 Japanese names and try to make them 

 feel at home. 



"One little beauty we named 'O Kin,' 

 which means 'Miss Gold;' she was quite 

 yellowish. Another one we called 'O Clo,' 

 or 'Miss Butterfly.' A large one was 

 'Kewi,' and the finest one of all in the 

 lot we named 'Hokusai.' When we went 

 into the cocoonery we would say to them, 

 '0-hang-O,' or 'good morning.' 



"They were all very good about stay- 

 ing where they were put except 'Butter- 

 fly' and 'Hokusai.' We feared Hokusai 

 would come to grief. He kept tumbling 

 off his tray and seemed so infatuated 

 with a bright piece of carpet in one cor- 

 ner of the room, that he covered it with 



a lovely white veil and then began to 

 spin his cocoon. But when he had only 

 fairly commenced it we found him one 

 morning with a look of mortal agony on 

 his face, and a sting in his great fat side. 



"We laid him on the window sill and 

 in a few minutes he was dead — dead be- 

 fore we could catch the assassin spider, 

 who was drawing himself to the ceiling 

 as fast as ever he could, on a long, fine, 

 white rope of his own spinning. We 

 only wished the rope was strong enough 

 to hang him with." 



"Didn't we, though?" interrupted 

 John, with emphasis. 



"Aunt Jane seemed to feel so much 

 the death of poor 'Hokusai' that we chil- 

 dren determined to give him the honor of 

 a funeral. We were at a loss to know 

 how to conduct the services, because 

 'Hokusai' was a foreigner. We had al- 

 ready buried many pets, but they were all 

 American born. We thought 'Hokusai' 

 should have a Japanese interment. But 

 as none of us were familiar with the 

 funeral customs of the Japanese, we de- 

 cided to sing a translation of the only 

 Japanese song we knew. Edith said it 

 was mournful enough for the funeral ob- 

 sequies of a worm. We waited until 

 Howard had gone to the post-office, and 

 then we buried 'Hokusai,' singing: 



'Should the mountain cherry cease 

 In the spring-time of the year 

 With its mass of new-born bloom, 

 ■ Mortal man to cheer. Also 

 Would the heart of spring be gone 

 And its brightness fade away?' 



"John said he could not see the con- 

 nection between the cherry-tree ceasing 

 to bloom and the death of 'Hokusai ;' but 

 Edith told him the connection was close, 

 because both were Japanese, and that the 

 beauty of the spring was now gone to 

 'Hokusai,' as he had ceased to live. Be- 

 sides, that it was most appropriate that 

 the little stranger from the 'Land of the 

 Sun's Source' should have a real Japan- 

 ese song sung over his grave. As John 

 was not able to refute such strong argu- 

 ments, he made no farther criticisms, but 

 was good enough to spoil his knife cut- 

 ting the name 'Hokusai' upon a piece of 

 soapstone, which we placed as a tomb- 

 stone at the little grave under the cherry 

 tree." 



175 



