their food in these brass boxes. They cook in little ovens made of clay.

When it rains in Japan the people look very funny. The men wear rain coats made of rice straw. They also have big straw hats and paper umbrellas.

[Illustration: A Rain Coat.]

They wear blocks, three inches high, fastened to the soles of their shoes. These keep their feet dry. So on a rainy day everybody looks three inches taller.

In Japan they do not wear shoes in the house. When they go into their houses they take them off. Their shoes are made of wood or straw. Some of the people have shoes with gold braid.

[Illustration: Japanese Shoes.]

Perhaps you would like to know how they dress in Japan. Boys and girls dress very much alike. Both wear long gowns, like skirts, of blue or gray cotton or silk. These gowns are open at the neck. A sash is worn around the waist. The girls tie their sashes in a bow at the back.

The children of Japan are very strange looking, not at all like you. They are like the Chinese. Their skin is yellow, and their eyes are slanted. Their hair is black and straight.

You will wish to know what they eat in Japan. The food is much the same as in China. They eat a great deal of rice. They have fish, and they drink tea. They use chopsticks in eating, as the people in China do.

The people in Japan are very fond of flowers. Every house has a garden around it. The boys and girls walk and play in these gardens.

[Illustration: Interior of a Japanese House.]

Boys and girls in Japan have many nice toys. One of their toys is a little oven with real fire in it. Peddlers go round with these ovens and with sweet dough to bake in them. For five cents the boys and girls can get the use of an oven, and dough enough to bake little cakes. They often make cakes shaped like animals. The peddler makes the letters of the alphabet in dough. Then he bakes them in the oven for the boys and girls. With these cake letters they often learn their a, b, c.

The boys in Japan, like the boys in China, are very fond of kites. But in Japan they have fighting kites. They mix broken fine glass with glue, and rub it on their kite strings. When the strings become dry they are hard and sharp. Then the boys fly their kites. One boy tries to cross and cut the string of another boy's kite with the string of his own. The boy who cuts down a kite gets it as his prize.

In Japan they have a day like our Flag Day. On this day the boys have toy soldiers with swords and guns. They form these soldiers into armies, and have battles. Then the parents and teachers tell the boys about the great soldiers of their country, and the great battles they fought.

The girls have a day for themselves. They call it the "Feast of Dolls." Every girl has a set of dolls. On that day they take out their dolls and doll houses. Then the girls play with them, and show them to one another.

[Illustration: Japanese Girl and Doll.]

They have schools in Japan just as we have. The boys and girls must go to school until they are ten years old. Some of their lessons are very hard. They have forty-seven letters in their alphabet, instead of only twenty-six, as we have. Don't you think it must be hard for the boys and girls to learn to read?

They go to school very early in the morning. Before they enter the school they take off their shoes. When the teacher comes, they bow down their heads nearly to the ground and draw in their breath. This is their "good morning." The teacher also bows to the boys and girls.

Then the children sit on the floor. They put their books on their knees and begin their lessons. They have no pens or pencils. They use little brushes instead. They write in lines from the top to the bottom of the sheet of paper, instead of across from side to side as we do. This is the way, you remember, they write in China. The books in Japan are also like the books in China. The last page in our books would be the first page in books in China and Japan. So their books begin at what we would think the end. How queer this seems to us!

There are newspapers in Japan, but they are not much like ours. The lines run up and down just as Japanese writing does. They read back from what we would call the last page.

[Illustration: Japanese Carpenters at Work.]

A great many things that we use in America come from Japan. We get silk from Japan, and beautiful vases and mats and screens and basket work. The boys and girls in Japan help to make these things. For they are bright and learn quickly how to do very nice work.

ARABIA.

Have you ever heard of the Arabs? They are people with brown skin and dark eyes. They live in a country called Arabia. It is a very warm country. There is never any snow in Arabia. A great part of it is covered with sand. For miles and miles you would see nothing but sand. Often the sand is so hot that you could not walk on it in your bare feet. Those great tracts of sand are called deserts.

[Illustration: Arabs.]

In many parts of Arabia water is very scarce. It rains very seldom, and in some places there are no rivers. The people get water out of wells. They carry the water, in bottles made of leather. Glass bottles would not do. The heat is so great that it would go through the glass. Tins would make the water warm. But the leather bottles keep the water cool.

[Illustration: Arab Water Carrier.]

Some of the Arabs live in towns. They have walls around their towns. At some parts of the walls there are towers. Both walls and towers are made of earth.

In every large town they have an open market place with shops around it. In most of the shops they sell food. In a few of the shops they sell cotton cloth and other dry goods. Many of the shops are kept by women.

The streets are swept every day. Every family sweeps the street in front of its own door.

The houses in the towns are made of stone. They have flat mud roofs and small windows. The Arabs have no chairs or beds in their houses. They sit on mats or carpets spread on the floor. They also sleep on mats.

The chief room in an Arab house is the coffee room. It is a large room with a furnace or fireplace at one end of it for making coffee.

Many of the Arabs live in tents. They move about from place to place. Sometimes they cross the desert to come to the towns. They must often cross it to find water and grass for their horses and camels and sheep.

[Illustration: Arabs and Tent.]

The camel is very useful to the Arabs. Perhaps you have seen a camel. It is much larger than a horse. It has a great hump on its back. It has large feet with broad, flat soles;