"'It was a great pity to kill him,' said the good man. 'We should be kind to all animals, because it may be that the souls of our ancestors return and live in their bodies.' "'What is done cannot now be helped,' the bad neighbor answered. "So Shiro's master bought the tree, cut it down and took it home." Umé and Tei nodded again. The mystery was to begin in the story and they drew closer to the grandmother. "The spirit of the little dog spoke to his master in the night," said the story-teller, "and told him to make a tub from the pieces of the tree. It must be just such a tub as the mochi-makers use at New Year's time, and in the tub the old man must make mochi for Shiro. "So the good old man did as he was bidden, thinking to put some of the cakes before the tablet on the god-shelf as an offering to the spirit of the obedient dog. "But when he put the barley into the tub and began to pound it, the quantity of barley increased until there was all that the man and his wife could use for their needs for a long time. "This also, the envious neighbor saw, and he borrowed the tub as he had borrowed the dog, thinking to have as much barley meal for himself. "But although the tub overflowed with the grain, it was all worthless; so poor that no one could eat it. A second time the man was angered and he pounded the tub to pieces in his rage. "The patient old man gathered up the pieces and used them for fire-wood, saving the ashes as the spirit of Shiro directed him to do. "In his garden there was an old dead tree. The spirit of the dog bade him sprinkle some of the ashes upon the branches of this tree and he obediently did so. "Immediately, pop! The branches were suddenly covered with beautiful double cherry blossoms. "People from far and wide flocked to see the sight, and among them was a prince who begged the old man to do the same thing for one of his trees which had long been dead. "When his tree blossomed as the first had done, he was so pleased that he gave the old man many valuable gifts of silk and rice and sent him home, to be known as the 'old man who could make dead trees blossom.'" When the story-teller finished, he disappeared behind a red curtain and there was nothing for Umé and Tei to do but go home. "It is a good thing that the story was no longer," said Umé, "because Tara is going to help me build a toy garden for my dolls." Tara helped to build the garden, to be sure, but the two little girls waited upon him and listened to him, and not once forgot that in Japan girls and women must follow their brothers. They must never try to lead them. "Go and get the spade from the garden-house, Umé," Tara said to his sister. "Bring some small stones from the rockery," he told Tei, and both little girls obeyed without a word.