Then she strapped the doll on her back and the two little girls went home slowly, talking of the wonderful baby brother who had come to Tei's house the week before. "The house has to be very quiet, because the honorable baby is not yet well," said Tei. "He has been very ill. I could not have gone with you to the city streets on your birthday if the baby had been well. Every one was glad to have me out of the house, so that it might be kept very still." CHAPTER IV THE DOLLS' FESTIVAL When Umé and Tei reached home, carrying their dolls on their backs, they found Yuki on the veranda. "My geta! Yuki's geta!" the baby called as soon as she saw her sister coming down the garden path; and she stood on one clog and held up the other little white-stockinged foot. Small as she was, Yuki-ko could slip her feet into her wooden clogs without any help when she could find them; but Saké, the dog, generally found them first and as there was never a bone for him to hide, he liked to hide the tiny shoes. Now, as usual, one of the clogs was missing from the flat step where the baby had last left it. "Perhaps it is under the plum tree, O Yuki San," said Umé, and ran to find it, but it was not there. "What a pity that Saké makes us so much trouble!" she said to Tei. "It is plain to be seen that the good dog Shiro was no ancestor of his." "What good dog Shiro?" asked Tei. "The dog of the man who made the dead trees to blossom," answered Umé as she looked under the quince bushes; but the missing clog was not there. Several days later the gardener found it buried under the bush of snow blossoms; but Umé gave up looking for it when she did not find it in any of Saké's favorite places. "It is such a long time since I heard the story of the good man who made trees blossom, that I have nearly forgotten it," said Tei; but Umé was talking to Yuki. "Be happy, little treasure-flower," she said to the baby. "You shall have a new pair of clogs; and you may come with us now and help serve tea to the honorable dolls." Baby Yuki forgot her clogs at once. She knelt upon the floor and held up her tiny hands for the tea-bowl. "Oh, Umé! She is too little to whip the tea," said Tei when she saw that her cousin meant to give the baby a bowl of tea powder and a bamboo brush with which to whip it into foam. "I will watch her," answered Umé. "It may be that the dolls forget all they learn about the tea-ceremony when they are shut up in the godown for a whole year. While I am teaching Yuki San, they may learn it all over again by most carefully watching us." Tei laughed. "The illustrious dolls always behave most honorably well," she said. "Perhaps it is because they do not forget from year to year, but spend all their time in remembering." Just then there was a happy little gurgle from the baby. Umé turned quickly to see what she was doing. "O Yuki San! Yuki San!" she cried, running to the rescue.