FIFTH READER THE STORY OF THE WILLOW MORE than two hundred years ago, the Dutch merchants brought from China a number of remarkable specimens of porcelain. Among these were tea-sets of a bluish white ground, with landscapes and figures in dark blue. A prominent object in the design was a willow tree; and the Chinese willow pattern soon became the favorite. Many old people can remember that, when they were little children, they used to sit at their grandmothers' tables and study the blue cups and saucers and plates, wondering what the pictures meant, or inventing stories of their own to suit them. Most children, no doubt, fancied that China was a strange country, where trees and birds, houses and people, were altogether different from our own. A bright lady wrote: "The color of the country is a kind of dirty blue, With chaotic land and water here and there appearing through; Interspersed with funny bridges, and paths that seem to glide To very funny houses upon the other side. There are frightful flowers growing upside down and inside out, Trees with caterpillars laden, some with roots and some with out." |