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A BOY BABY'S LIFE. 71
our mothers prepare for their babies. No pincushion
was there all stuck full of rows of pins ; there are
no pins in Japan. No Japanese baby ever cried
because a pin was sticking
into its flesh. Linen
is not woven or worn in Japan. But nice clothes
were ready for the coining stranger: garments of
silk and of cotton, all made in the funniest way;
soft and loose wrapper-like clothes, such as all
Japanese
children wear, were all
ready and waiting.
They had neither button, buckle, strap, nor pin;
yet they were as pretty and cunning as you can
imagine.
And don't the
Japanese mothers, and nurses, and
brothers, and sisters, think their babies the prettiest
darlings in the world? Don't they think their
dresses just the nicest and most proper too? Indeed
they do! They say as often as our parents
say " Why this : is a remarkable child " " Our
!
baby is the prettiest baby I ever saw "
! or,
" He
is an unusually smart baby." Certainly all of Mr.
Rai's relations said these things about " the Morning
Sun boy."
Now these Japanese mamma, papa, brothers, and
sisters did n't look, as we should, to see or guess the
color of the baby brother's eyes and hair, for Japanese
babies have hair and eyes always of one color.
We always ask about our baby acquaintances :
" What is the color of the eyes and hair ? Are they
brown, blue, black, or gray ? Is his hair red, black,
golden, or white?" But no one asks these questions
in Dai Nippon. Japanese babies have black hair