The boy travellers in the Far East : adventures of two youths ... - Library

JAPANESE UMBRELLAS. 155
practical way that a noseless dog can bite. As they walked away fi'om the
shop where they found him, he kept up a continual snarling, which led to
the remark by Fred that a noseless dog was very far from noiseless.
As they had been kept in b}' the rain, Frank thought he could not do
better than send to his sister a Japanese picture of a party caught in a
rain-stoian. lie explained that the rain in Japan was C[uite as wet as in any
other country, and that umbrellas were just as necessary as at home. He
added that tlie Japanese umbrellas were made of paper, and kept the rain
off very well, but they did not last a long time. You could buy one for
lialf a dollar, and a very pretty one it was, and it spread out farther than
the foreign umbrella did. The sticks were of bamboo, and they were
covered with several thicknesses of oiled paper carefully dried in the suu.
They were very much used, since nearly everybody carried an umbrella,
in fair weather as well as in foul ; if the umbrella was not needed against
the rain, it was useful to keep off the heat of the sun, which was very se-
vere in the middle of the day.
The letters were ready in season for the mail for America, and in due
time they reached their destination and carried pleasure to several hearts.
It was evident that the boys were enjoying themselves, and at the same
time learning much about the strange countrj^ they had gone to see.
CAUGHT IN THK EAIN.