beautiful things.

6. They are very fond indeed of flowers, which they grow very well.
Their gardens are lovely. When the flowers are in bloom the Japs troop
in thousands to see them. It is pretty to watch the delight of fathers
and mothers and children at the form, colour, and scent of the flowers.

7. The Japs are very clever workmen. I have often stood and watched them
at work. They always try to beat their own best. Good work of any kind
gives them joy; bad work gives them pain.

8. I have bought Jap fans for Kate and May. On these fans there are
pictures of a snow-clad mountain shaped like a sugar loaf. There is no
more beautiful mountain in all the world.

[Illustration: {Snowy mountain}]

9. This mountain began as a hole in the ground. Melted rocks boiled up
out of the hole and built up the mountain. In time the rocks grew cool
and hard. Some Japs believe that it was formed in a single night!

10. Steam still comes out of a crack in the side of the mountain. This
shows that any day melted rocks may boil forth again. About two hundred
years ago the mountain threw out so much ash that it covered a town
sixty miles away.

11. Sometimes the earth shakes and opens in great cracks. When the earth
"quakes" houses tumble down, and the tops of tall trees snap off. Very
often lives are lost.