caught just
now, and so kindly threw back into the water instead of killing it. It
was myself. My father the Sea-God had sent me to see whether you were
good or bad.

"We now know that you are a good, kind boy who doesn't like
to do cruel things; and so I have come to fetch you. You shall marry me,
if you like; and we will live happily together for a thousand years in
the Dragon Palace beyond the deep blue sea."

So Urashima took one oar, and the Sea-God's daughter took the other; and
they rowed, and they rowed, and they rowed till at last they came to the
Dragon Palace where the Sea-God lived and ruled as King over all the
dragons and the tortoises and the fishes.

Oh dear! what a lovely place it was! The walls of the Palace were of
coral, the trees had emeralds for leaves and rubies for berries, the
fishes' scales were of silver, and the dragons' tails of solid gold.
Just think of the very most beautiful, glittering things that you have
ever seen, and put them all together, and then you will know what this
Palace looked like. And it all belonged to Urashima; for was he not
the son-in-law of the Sea-God, the husband of the lovely Dragon
Princess?

Well, they lived on happily for three years, wandering about every day
among the beautiful trees with emerald leaves and ruby berries. But one
morning Urashima said to his wife: "I am very happy here. Still I want
to go home and see my father and mother and brothers and sisters. Just
let me go for a short time, and I'll soon be back again." "I don't like
you to go," said she; "I am very much afraid that something dreadful
will happen. However, if you will go, there is no help for it. Only you
must take this box, and be very careful not to open it. If you open it,
you will never be able to come back here."

So Urashima promised to take great care of the box, and not to open it
on any account; and then, getting into his boat, he rowed off, and at
last landed on the shore of his own country.

But what had happened while he had been away? Where had his father's
cottage gone to? What had become of the village where he used to live?
The mountains indeed were there as before; but the trees on them had
been cut down. The little brook that ran close by his father's cottage
was still running; but there were no women washing clothes in it any
more. It seemed very strange that everything should have changed so
much in three short years. So as two men chanced to pass along the
be