Page:Zodiac stories by Blanche Mary Channing.pdf/67

50 "I thought not! And now I want you to do me a kindness, my little sisters. I want you to stand on the step there, just where you are, and let me make a picture of you. Will you?"

Cherry-Bloom smiled at Plum-Blossom, and Plum-Blossom smiled at her. They looked perfectly pleasant and obliging.

"Good little sisters!" said the artist approvingly. "I will go and get my drawing materials; wait."

Poor, unsuspecting artist! He did not know those two bright little Japanese! So he was surprised when, returning a few minutes later with his easel unstrapped, his sketching-block uncovered, and his pencils and brushes in hand, he found not a trace of his models!

He stepped quickly back into the ruin to see if they had gone indoors again; he ran to the big fishes and looked down their wide mouths, which seemed to be laughing in his bewildered face.