THE LITTLE HARE OF OKI
A Japanese Fairy Tale
RETOLD BY B. M. BURRELL
Alice lived in New York, but she still had the nurse who had taken care of her when she was a tiny baby in far-away Japan. Nurse wore the picturesque kimono and obi of her native land, and looked so different from other people that friends often wondered how Alice could feel at home with her. Love, however, is the same the world over, and no one loved Alice better than did her little Japanese nurse.
When Papa and Mama were at dinner, and Alice and Nurse had the library all to themselves till bedtime, the little girl would often pull two chairs up to the fire and say coaxingly:
“There is just time for a story!” And Nurse would smile her funny Japanese smile and begin:
“Long, long ago, when the great Japanese gods ruled from high heaven,—”