THE MIRROR OF MATSUYAMA. A STORY OF OLD
JAPAN.Long years ago in old Japan there lived in the Province of
Echigo, a very remote part of Japan even in these days, a man and
his wife. When this story begins they had been married for some
years and were blessed with one little daughter. She was the joy
and pride of both their lives, and in her they stored an endless
source of happiness for their old age.
What golden letter days in their memory were these that had
marked her growing up from babyhood; the visit to the temple when
she was just thirty days old, her proud mother carrying her, robed
in ceremonial kimono, to be put under the patronage of the family's
household god; then her first dolls festival, when her parents gave
her a set of dolls' and their miniature belongings, to
