The three little girls walked back to the school-room together and Umé said, "I have asked my mother to take me to Nikko some time."
"There are beautiful temples there," said Tei. "The mad pony of the illustrious Iyeyasu is there in a stable which has wonderful carvings over the doorway. It was there we saw the three monkeys your honorable mother spoke about one day."
Umé drew her breath in a long sigh. "I have always wished to see those monkeys," she said.
"After you have seen them," said Tei, "you will never again wish to see evil, hear evil, nor speak evil."
The little girls drew away from one another and fell into the three positions. They made a cunning picture as they stood, Umé with her fingers over her ears, Tei with her mouth covered, and the third little girl covering her eyes.
The teacher stood in the doorway and smiled--"The little dumb monkey, the little deaf monkey, and the monkey that will not see any evil!" he said.
The three little monkeys bowed to the ground and ran laughing for their lunch boxes.
"What do you think Tara is doing in his school this minute?" asked Tei, as they began eating rice-cakes.
"He is perhaps having military drill," said Umé. "Or he maybe is hearing about Iyeyasu; that when he went into battle he wore a handkerchief over his head, but after the victory he put on his helmet."
Tei sighed. "I wish there were not so many things to learn about our great heroes," she said.
Umé laughed. "Let not the honorable teacher hear you say such a thing," she said, "else we shall have another history book given us, with the example of brave and loyal Japanese women to read in it."
No country in the world has so many books of history for the children to learn as Japan. It was not strange that Tei sometimes found it wearisome. There was all the history of Old Japan to be learned, as well as all about the New Japan, and even Umé was never sorry when the noon hour arrived and they were dismissed from school.
They bowed low to the teacher, and the teacher bowed low to them, and they clattered toward home with a great chattering of soft voices.
But the voices were all hushed when Umé told her playmates that she had visited Benten Sama's temple at Enoshima in the time of great heat.