Page:Farmers of forty centuries.djvu/413

pounds, for 9655 acres. The value of the product ranges from $120 to $200 per acre.

It is from this material that mats are woven in standard sizes, to be laid over padding, upholstering the floors which are the seats of all classes in Japan, used in the manner seen in Fig. 228 and in Fig. 229, which is a completely furnished guest room in a first class Japanese inn, finished in natural unvarnished wood, with walls of sliding panels of translucent paper, which may open upon a porch, into a hallway or into another apartment; and with its bouquet, which may consist of a single large shapely branch of the purple leaved maple, having the cut end charred to preserve it fresh for a longer time, standing in water in the vase.

“	Two little maids I've heard of, each with a pretty taste,
	Who had two little rooms to fix and not an hour to waste.
	Eight thousand miles apart they lived, yet on the selfsame day
	The one in Nikko's narrow streets, the other on Broadway,
	They started out, each happy maid her heart's desire to find,
	And her own dear room to furnish just according to her mind.
	When Alice went a-shopping, she bought a bed of brass,
	A bureau and some chairs and things and such a lovely glass
	To reflect her little figure—with two candle brackets near—
	And a little dressing table that she said was simply dear!
	A book shelf low to hold her books, a little china rack,
	And then, of course, a bureau set and lots of bric-a-brac;
	A dainty little escritoire, with fixings all her own
	And just for her convenience, too, a little telephone.
	Some oriental rugs she got, and curtains of madras,
	With ‘cunning’ ones of lace inside, to go against the glass;
	And then a couch, a lovely one, with cushions soft to crush,
	And forty pillows, more or less, of linen, silk and plush;
	Of all the ornaments besides I couldn't tell the half,
	But wherever there was nothing else, she stuck a photograph.
	And then, when all was finished, she sighed a little sigh,
	And looked about with just a shade of sadness in her eye:
	‘For it needs a statuette or so—a fern—a silver stork—
	Oh, something, just to fill it up!’ said Alice of New York.
	When little Oumi of Japan went shopping, pitapat,
	She bought a fan of paper and a little sleeping mat;
	She set beside the window a lily in a vase,
	And looked about with more than doubt upon her pretty face:
	‘For, really—don't you think so?—with the lily and the fan.
	It's a little overcrowded!’ said Oumi of Japan.”
(Margaret Johnson in St. Nicholas Magazine)