_ninghio_, or doll, with a sweet face,
slanting eyes, and such wonderful hair. Her name was O-Hina-San.

He told of the Feast of the Dead which he had seen in Tokio. He told of
the beautiful lanterns, the Lanterns of the Dead; and the pine torches
burning before each house. He told of the tiny boats made of barley
straw and filled with food that are set floating away on the river,
bearing two tiny lanterns to guide them to the Land of the Dead.

At last her husband handed the wife a small white box. "Tell me what you
see inside," he said. She opened it and took out something round and
bright.

On one side were buds and flowers of frosted silver. The other side at
first looked as clear and bright as a pool of water. When she moved it a
little she saw in it a most beautiful woman.

"Oh, what a beautiful picture!" she cried. "It is of a woman and she
seems to be smiling and talking just as I am. She has on a blue dress
just like mine, too! How strange!"

Then her husband laughed and said: "That is a mirror. It is yourself you
see reflected in it. All the women in Tokio have them."

The wife was delighted with her present, and looked at it very often.
She liked to see the smiling red lips, the laughing eyes, and beautiful
dark hair.

After a while she said to herself: "How foolish this is of me to sit and
gaze at myself in this mirror! I am not more beautiful than other women.
How much better for me to enjoy others' beauty, and forget my own face.
I shall only remember that it must always be happy and smiling or it
will make no one else happy. I do not wish any cross or angry look of
mine to make any one sad."

She put the mirror carefully away in its box. Only twice in a year she
looked at it. Then it was to see if her face was still such as would
make others happy.

The years passed by in their sweet and simple life until the baby had
grown to be a big girl. Her _ninghio_, her _tombo_, the image of Uzume,
even the cotton monkey, were put carefully away for her own children.

This girl was the very image of her mother. She was just as sweet and
loving, just as kind and helpful.

One day her mother became very ill. Although the girl and her father did
all they could for her, she grew worse and worse.

At last she knew that she must die, so she called her daughter to her
and said: "My child, I know that I must soon leave you, but I wish to
leave something with you in my place. Open this box and see what you
fi