howing her train pass on the cord around her neck to the man at the gate--whom she now knew quite well-Totto-chan walked out of the station at Jiyugaoka.

Something very interesting was going on. A young man was sitting cross-legged on a mat behind an enormous pile of what looked like pieces of tree bark. Five or six people stood around looking down at him. Totto-chan decided to join them, since the man was saying, "Now watch me carefully, watch me carefully. When the man saw Totto-chan stop, he said, "The most important thing for you is health. When you get up in the morning and want to know whether you are well or not, this piece of balk will tell you. Ever, morning all you have to do is chew a bit of this bark. If it tastes bitter, it proves you are not well. If it doesn't taste bitter, you know you're all right. You're not ill. This bark that tells you whether you're ill or not only costs twenty sen! Will that gentleman over there care to try a piece!"

He handed the bark to a rather thin man, who timidly bit it with his front teeth. The man tilted his head slightly and considered it.

"It does seem... a tiny bit... uh.., bitter."

The young man leaped up, exclaiming, "Sir, you must be suffering from some disease. You'll have to be careful. But don't worry, it's not very serious yet. You said it just seemed a little bitter. Now what about the lady over there. Would you mind chewing this, please!" A woman with a shopping basket took a larger piece of bark and chewed it vigorously. She announced cheerfully, "Why, that wasn't bitter at all!"

"Congratulations, madam," said the man. "You must be very healthy, indeed." Then he said, raising his voice, “Only twenty sen! Twenty sen! That's all it costs to find out every morning whether you are healthy or not. A real bargain!"

Totto-chan wanted to try a bite of the grayish bark, too, but was too shy to ask. Instead, she asked, "Will you still be here when school's over?"

"Sure," said the man, glancing at the young school child.

Totto-chan ran off, her bag flapping against her back. She didn't want to be late since there was something she had to do before school began. She had to ask the children something the moment she got to her classroom.

"Can anybody lend me twenty sen?"

But nobody had twenty sen. One of those long packers of caramels only cost ten sen, so it wasn't very much money, really, but nobody had it.

"Shall I ask my parents?" asked Miyo-chan.

At times like these it was very convenient that Miyo-chan happened to be the daughter of the head-master. Miyo-chan's house adjoined-the Assembly Hall, so it was just as if her mother lived at the school.

"Daddy says he'll lend it to you," she told Totto-chan at lunchtime, "but he wants to know what it's for."

Totto-chan made her way to the office.

"So you want twenty sen," he said, taking off his glasses. "What do you want it for?"

"I want to buy a piece of bark that tells you whether you're sick or whether you’re well," she replied quickly. The headmaster's curiosity was aroused.

"Where are they selling them?"

"In front of the station," she replied, in a great hurry.

"All right," said the headmaster. "Buy one if you want. But let me have a bite, won't you?"

He took a purse out of his jacket pocket and placed twenty sen in Totto-chan's palm.

"Oh, thank you so much!" said Totto-chan. "I'll get the money from Mother and pay you back. She always gives me money for books. If I want to buy anything else I have to ask first, but health bark is something everybody needs so I'm sure she won't mind."

When school was over, Totto-chan hurried to the station, clutching her twenty sen. The man was still there, extolling his product in a loud patter. When he saw the twenty sen in Totto-chan's hand, he broke into a broad grin.

"Good girl! Your mother and father will be pleased."

"So will Rocky," said Totto-chan.

"Who's Rocky?' asked the man, as he picked out a piece of bark for Totto-chan.

"He's our dog. He's a German shepherd."

The man stopped and thought for a minute, then said, "A dog ... well, I suppose it'll work with a dog, too. After all, if it's bitter he won't like it and that'll mean he's ill."

The man picked out a piece of bark about one inch wide and six inches long.

"Here you are. Bite some every morning and if it's bitter, you're sick. If not, you're as fit as a fiddle!"

Totto-chan went home carefully carrying the precious bark wrapped in newspaper. The first thing she did when she got there was to take a small bite. It was dry and rough, but not bitter. In fact it didn't taste of anything at all.

"Hooray! I'm healthy!"

"Of course you are," said Mother, smiling. "What on earth's the matter?"

Totto-chan explained. Mother tried biting a piece of the bark, too.

“It's not bitter.”

"Then you're healthy, too, Mother!"

Then Totto-chan went over to Rocky and held the bark to his mouth. First Rocky sniffed it. Then he licked it.

"You've got to bite it," said Totto-chan. "Then you'll know whether you're sick or not."

But Rocky made no attempt to bite it. He just scratched the back of his ear with his paw. Totto-chan held the tree bark closer to his mouth.

"Come on, bite it! It would be terrible if you weren't well."

Rocky reluctantly bit a tiny piece off the edge. Then he sniffed it again, but he didn't look as if he particularly disliked it. He just let out a big yawn.

"Hooray! Rocky's healthy, too!"

Next morning, Mother gave Totto-chan twenty sen. She went straight to the headmaster's office and thrust out the tree bark. For a moment the headmaster looked at it as if to say, "What's this!" Then he saw the twenty sen Totto-chan had brought him, clutched carefully in her hand, and remembered.

"Bite it," said Totto-chan. "If it's bitter, it means you're ill."

The headmaster bit some. Then he turned the bark over and studied it carefully.

"Does- it taste bitter?" asked Totto-chan, concerned, looking at the headmaster's face.

“It hasn't any taste at all."

As he returned the bark to Totto-chan, he said, "I'm fine. Thank you.”

"Hooray! The headmaster's healthy! I'm so glad."

That day Totto-chan got everybody in the school to bite a piece of bark. Not a single child found it bitter, which meant they were all healthy. Totto-chan was very glad.

The children all went and told the headmaster they were healthy, and to each child the headmaster replied, "That's good."

The headmaster must have known all along. He was born and bred in the heart of the country in Gumma Prefecture, beside a river from which you could see Mount Haruna. He must have known that the bark would not taste bitter, no matter who chewed it.

But the headmaster thought it was nice for Totto-chan to be so glad to find that everyone was healthy. He was happy that Totto-chan had been brought up to be the kind of person who would have been worried and concerned about anyone who might have said the bark tasted bitter.

Totto-chan even tried pushing the tree bark into the mouth of a stray dog walking near the school. She almost got bitten, but that didn't daunt her.

"You'll know whether you're sick or not," she shouted at the dog. "Come on, bite it! 'Cause if you're healthy, then that's fine."

She succeeded in getting that dog she didn't know to bite a piece. Skipping around the dog she cried,

"Hooray! You're healthy, too!"

The dog bowed its head, as if thanking her, and ran off.

Just as the headmaster guessed, the bark-seller never showed up in Jiyugaoka again.

Even, morning, before she left for school, Totto-chan took the precious piece of bark from her drawer--it now looked as if an energetic beaver had been at it--and chewed some of it, calling out as she left the house, "I'm healthy!"

And, thankfully, Totto-chan was in fact healthy.