Father came and looked too. Then Taro said, "I don't think that
crow in the rainstorm looks right hanging up beside the plum
branch. The crow looks so sorry, and we are all so glad."

"I think just the same," said Take.

"So do I," said their Father. "How would you like to go out to
the Kura and see if we can find a real happy picture to hang up
there?"

Taro and Take jumped up and down and clapped their hands for
joy, they were so glad to go out to the "Kura."

The "Kura" is a little fireproof house in the garden. You can
see the corner of the roof sticking out from behind the mountain
in the picture. In it Taro and Take and their Father and Mother
and Grandmother keep all their greatest treasures. That is why
Taro and Take were so glad to go there.

Nearly everybody in Japan has just such a safe little house in
the garden. Maybe you can guess the reason why. It isn't only
because of fires. It's because of earthquakes too.

Every once in a while--almost every day, in fact--the earth
trembles and shakes in the Happy Islands. The houses are built
mostly of wood and paper, and if the earthquakes tumble them
over, they sometimes catch fire, but if the nicest things are
safe in the Kura, it doesn't matter so much, if the house is
burned up, you see.