"I have the most honorably best time in the whole year when the Dolls' Festival comes," she cried. It was not to be wondered at. Then all the dolls and toys and games that little girls love to play with are set out on the shelves in the honorable guest room; and for three days they have a holiday from school and play all the day long. The doll-shops are always merry with children waiting to buy dolls and crowded with dolls waiting to be bought. But there were so many interesting things to see in the streets that Tei and Umé were a long time in reaching the doll-shop. Once they stopped to watch the firemen who ran past them on their way to a fire. The fire-stations in Tokio are tall ladders which are made to stand upright in the street, with a tub at the top in which the watchman sits. This tub looks like a crow's-nest on the mast of a vessel. Beside it is a big bell which the watchman strikes when he sees a fire anywhere. The firemen run through the streets headed by a man carrying a large paper standard, which they place near the burning house. They are very helpful in saving the women and children, but as they dislike to desert their standard they are not always of much use in putting out the fire. House-owners give the firemen a great many presents to keep them faithful to their duty. As the two little girls watched the men running to the fire with a little box of a hand-engine, and with the beautiful standard in the lead, they thought it a fine sight. "Tara says he is going to be a fireman when he grows up," said Umé. "He says it is because a fireman gets so many presents." Tei shook her head. "It is a sad thing when a fire burns a thousand houses as it did in our city last year," she said. "I do not like to think of it." "We need have no fear," said Umé lightly. "Our fathers have extra houses packed away in their godowns." "That is true," said Tei, "but many others are not so wisely fortunate." Just then they reached the doll-shop and the fires were forgotten. "Oh, the lovely dolls!" cried Umé clapping her hands. There were a hundred bright kimono sleeves pushing and reaching toward the shelves of dolls in the shop. There were fifty little Japanese girls chattering together about the smiling face of one and the beautiful silk kimono of another. The click of wooden clogs, the clank of Japanese money, and the merry talk of the children, all trying to be heard at the same time, made it a jolly affair. The doll chosen by Tei was the one which was being admired by two other little girls at the same moment. It was a boy baby with pink cheeks and black eyes and a little fringe of very black hair; and it was dressed in a lovely red silk kimono covered with yellow chrysanthemums. "It is very like the new brother at home," said Tei, as she counted out the sen and gave them to the doll-shopman.