There are newspapers in Japan, but they are not much like ours.  The lines run up and down just as Japanese writing does.  They read back from what we would call the last page.

[Illustration:  Japanese Carpenters at Work.]

A great many things that we use in America come from Japan.  We get silk from Japan, and beautiful vases and mats and screens and basket work.  The boys and girls in Japan help to make these things.  For they are bright and learn quickly how to do very nice work.

ARABIA.

Have you ever heard of the Arabs?  They are people with brown skin and dark eyes.  They live in a country called Arabia.  It is a very warm country.  There is never any snow in Arabia.  A great part of it is covered with sand.  For miles and miles you would see nothing but sand.  Often the sand is so hot that you could not walk on it in your bare feet.  Those great tracts of sand are called deserts.

[Illustration:  Arabs.]

In many parts of Arabia water is very scarce.  It rains very seldom, and in some places there are no rivers.  The people get water out of wells.  They carry the water, in bottles made of leather.  Glass bottles would not do.  The heat is so great that it would go through the glass.  Tins would make the water warm.  But the leather bottles keep the water cool.

[Illustration:  Arab Water Carrier.]

Some of the Arabs live in towns.  They have walls around their towns.  At some parts of the walls there are towers.  Both walls and towers are made of earth.

In every large town they have an open market place with shops around it.  In most of the shops they sell food.  In a few of the shops they sell cotton cloth and other dry goods.  Many of the shops are kept by women.

The streets are swept every day.  Every family sweeps the street in front of its own door.

The houses in the towns are made of stone.  They have flat mud roofs and small windows.  The Arabs have no chairs or beds in their houses.  They sit on mats or carpets spread on the floor.  They also sleep on mats.

The chief room in an Arab house is the coffee room.  It is a large room with a furnace or fireplace at one end of it for making coffee.

Many of the Arabs live in tents.  They move about from place to place.  Sometimes they cross the desert to come to the towns.  They must often cross it to find water and grass for their horses and camels and sheep.

[Illustration:  Arabs and Tent.]

The camel is very useful to the Arabs.  Perhaps you have seen a camel.  It is much larger than a horse.  It has a great hump on its back.  It has large feet with broad, flat soles; and it can walk or run over the sand without sinking.

The camel can carry a very heavy load.  It gives milk which is good to drink.  Its hair is made into cloth.  Its flesh is good meat.  It can bear thirst and heat far better than a horse can.  It can travel and carry a load in the desert for three or four days without drinking.  This makes it very useful to the Arabs.