THE RAIN. 224

Ralph said, “Rick, if we could only get to a good warm stove-fire,
and not one of those little brazier things, wouldn't it be nice? If
we have a rain at home, we can warm up good. Oh Rick, do you
remember Nan Smith we saw in the rain near our house, when the
wind took her umbrella and turned it inside out, and Bob Gray
laughed at her?”
Did Rick remember?
He had not ceased to laugh
about it to that day,
and Ralph’s words set him
to giggling again. x
“Oh we had the fun at XN
home, didn’t we, Ralph?”
“Yes, Rick,” said the
shivering Ralph. “And
didn’t they have nice

  
 

stoves in Concord, too?
Good, I tell you.”

The boys were decid- .
edly out of sorts with BOB GRAY LAUGHED AT HER.
Japan and its little braziers.

“T ’spose, Rick,” said Ralph, “we must go into a paper-walled
room and sit down on our legs like a Japanese, and hold out our
hands over a few coals, and try to catch a little heat in them.”  _

“Have a kotatsu, a kotatsu, boys?” inquired the doctor cheerily.

“ What’s that, doctor, the Japanese for cigar?” asked Ralph.
“The Rogers brothers never smoke.”

“TI am glad they don’t; but they sometimes get chilly and there’s
‘a remedy for it. Come this way, please.”

“Does ko-ko-tadstool mean a cup of tea?” inquired Rick.