ne day at lunch break, after the children had finished eating, Totto-chan was skipping across the Assembly Hall when she met the headmaster. It is perhaps odd to say she met the headmaster when he had been with them all through lunch, but she met him because he was coming from the opposite direction.

"Oh, there you are," said the headmaster. "I've been wanting to ask you something."

"What is it?" asked Totto-chan, delighted to think she could give the headmaster some information.

"Where did you get that ribbon?" he asked, looking at the bow she had in her hair.

The expression on Totto-chan's face when she heard that couldn't have been a happier one. She had been wearing the bow since the day before. It was something she had found herself. She went up closer so the headmaster could see the ribbon better.

“It was on my aunt's old school uniform," she said proudly. "I noticed it when she was putting it in a drawer and she gave it to me. Auntie said I was very observant.”

"I see," said the headmaster, deep in thought.

Totto-chan was very proud of the ribbon. She told him how she had Bone to see her aunt and was lucky to find her aunt airing some clothes. Among them was the old- fashioned, long, purple pleated skirt she had worn when she was a schoolgirl. As her aunt was putting it away, Totto-chan noticed something pretty on it.

"What's that?"

At Totto-chan's question, her aunt paused. The something pretty turned out to be this ribbon that was attached to the waistband at the back.

"It was supposed to make you look pretty from the back," said Auntie. "In those days everyone wanted to put a piece of handmade lace there or a wide ribbon tied in a big bow.

She noticed how longingly Totto-chan gazed at the bow as she listened, stroking it and feeling it, and said, "I’ll give it to you. I shan't be wearing it again."

She took some scissors and cut the thread attaching it to the skirt and gave it to Totto-chan. That was how she got it. It really was a beautiful ribbon. It was wide and of very good silk, and had roses and all sorts of designs woven into it. Wide and stiff when it was tied, if made a bow as big as Totto-chan's head. Auntie said the fabric was imported.

While she was speaking, Totto-chan jiggled her head occasionally so the headmaster could hear the rustling sound the ribbon made. When he had heard her story, the headmaster looked a little distressed.

"So that's it," he said. "Yesterday Miyo-chan said she wanted a ribbon just like yours, so I went to all the ribbon shops in Jiyugaoka, but they didn't have anything like it. So that's it. It's imported, is it?"

His face was more like that of a troubled father importuned by his daughter than of a headmaster.

"Totto-chan, I'd be truly grateful if you'd stop wearing that ribbon to school. You see, Miyo-chan keeps pestering me about it. Would you mind very much?"

Totto-chan thought it over, her arms folded. Then she answered quickly, “All right. I won't wear it here any more."

"Thank you," said the headmaster.

Totto-chan was rather sorry, but the headmaster was in trouble, so she had agreed. Another reason was that the thought of a grown-up man--her beloved headmaster- searching high and low in all the ribbon shops, made her feel sorry for him. That was the way it was at Tomoe. Without realizing it, everyone got in the habit of understanding one another's problems and trying to help, irrespective of age. It became the natural thing to do.

The following morning, when Mother went into Totto-chan's room to clean up after Totto-chan had left for school, she found the ribbon tied around the neck of Totto- chan's favorite teddy bear. She wondered why Totto-chan had suddenly given up wearing the ribbon she had been so thrilled about. Mother thought the gray teddy bear looked slightly embarrassed about being dressed so gaily all of a sudden.