"O Maru San has put an honorable stillness upon her august tongue," he would say with a laugh.
"O Maru San" means "Honorable Miss Round," and when Tara said it, Umé knew he was making fun of her.
Little Japanese girls and boys do not like to be ridiculed. So, when Tara spoke that way, it usually ended in Umé's saying, "Don't call me that name, Tara. My secret was only about the tea-party that Tei and I are going to have in the garden."
And soon Tara would know just what kind of cakes they were going to have; because in Japan the cakes are made to suit the season, if one wishes to have an elaborate party.
Then, although it says in the book of "The Greater Learning for Women," that at the age of seven, boys and girls must not sit on the same mat nor eat at the same table, Tara was often invited to Umé's tea-parties.
Now, although they stayed all night at the inn at Enoshima and there was plenty of time to find out Umé's secret, she did not tell it, and Tara finally concluded that it was something more important than a tea-party.
In the early morning they stood once more upon the seashore, to watch the sun rise out of the ocean.
The children forgot everything else in looking at the beautiful sight. "It is like our noble flag!" said Tara.
Japan is called "The Land of the Rising Sun," and the emblem of the country is a round red sun on a white ground.
The children long remembered the beauty of that morning. In front of them the great sun rose in a cloudless sky; behind them Fuji lifted his noble head, and the blue sea stretched on either side as far as they could see.