CHAPTER XIII
THE EMPEROR'S BIRTHDAY
"Let the Emperor live forever!" sang Umé, on the third day of the eleventh month.
This day is the Emperor's birthday, and all loyal Japanese pray that their ruler may see the chrysanthemum cup go round, autumn after autumn, for a thousand years.
Autumn is the loveliest month of all the year in Japan. Then the maples put on their glorious crimson and orange colors, and the chrysanthemums fling out their beautiful many-colored petals to the sun.
The Japanese say that the maples are the crimson clouds that hang about the sunset of their flower life.
From February until November different flowers reign, one after another, for a few short weeks. First comes the plum blossom, about which everyone writes a poem. Next the great double cherry blossoms make the island look like a lovely pink cobweb on the blue sea. After that, wistaria blossoms, five or six feet long, hang from trellises and flutter in the breeze; and so on, until at last the chrysanthemum, the royal flower, says "Sayonara," and the sun of the flower-year has set.
"The last flower is honorably the best," said Umé, as she hovered over the masses of color in the garden-beds.