"Honorably deign to enter," said a little woman crouching at the door. Maru gave the woman four sen and the little party entered and joined a group of about twenty women and girls who were seated on mats in front of the story-teller. "Hear, now, the story of the good old man who made dead trees to blossom!" said the story-teller, waving his fan over his head and then clapping it in his hand three times to call attention to his words. Umé and Tei looked at one another and clasped their hands beneath their chins. "Just what we were respectfully speaking about in the morning hour!" murmured Tei. Umé nodded and would have said something in answer, but her grandmother said, "Hush!" "Once upon a time two men lived side by side in a little village," said the story-teller, looking at Umé. Umé again nodded her head. She knew the story perfectly well, but the Japanese children love to hear the same stories told over and over again. "One of these men was kind and generous," continued the story-teller. "The other was envious and cruel. Neither one of them had any children to pay them honor in their old age; but the kind man and his wife were always doing good. One day they found a dog which they took to their home and taught as they would have taught a child, to be obedient and faithful. "They named the dog Shiro, and fed him with the mochi cake which tastes best after the New Year is made welcome with much joy and ceremony." Umé and Tei nodded and smiled at one another. "But Shiro knew nothing about the New Year festival," went on the story-teller. "He was happy all the day long in following the good old man about and getting a kind pat from the gentle hand. "One day he began digging for himself in a corner of the garden. Scratch! went his two paws as fast as he could make the dirt fly, and the good old man took his spade and dug in the spot to find what could be hidden in the dirt. "He was rewarded by finding an honorable quantity of coins; enough to keep him and his wife comfortable for many months. "But the envious man, the unworthy neighbor, hearing of this good fortune, asked to borrow the dog. "'Yes, truly,' answered the other and sent Shiro home with his neighbor, although the obedient creature had always been driven away from the neighbor's gate with sticks and harsh words. "'Now you must find treasure for me,' said the bad man who knew nothing about kindness to animals, for he pushed the poor dog's nose into the earth so deeply that Shiro was nearly smothered. "The dog did truly begin scratching, but when the cruel man dug in that place, he found nothing but rubbish, which so enraged him that he killed the obedient animal and buried his body under a pine tree. "At last the good man, wondering why Shiro did not return, went to his neighbor and asked the reason. 'Ah, he was a bad dog!' answered the other. 'He would find nothing but rubbish in the ground for me, and so I killed him and he lies under the pine tree.'