at the tortoise, which looked back at him with
wistful eyes full of meaning; and, though it could not speak, the young
fisherman understood it perfectly, and his tender heart went out to it.

'Poor little tortoise!' he said, holding it up and stroking it gently to
soothe its fears, 'you are all right with me. But remember, sweet little
one, you've had a narrow squeak of losing a very long life. How long is
it? Ten thousand years, they say;--that's ten times as long as a stork
can boast of. Now I'm going to take you right back to the sea, so that
you can swim away to your home and to your own people. But promise me
you will never let yourself be caught again.'

The tortoise promised with its eyes. So wistful and grateful were they,
that Urashima felt he could never forget them.

By this time he was down on the seashore, and there he placed the
tortoise in the sea and watched it swim away. Then he went home feeling
very happy about the whole thing.

Morning was breaking when Urashima pushed off his boat for his day's
fishing. The sea was calm, and the air was full of the soft, sweet
warmth of summer. Soon he was out skimming over the blue depths, and
when the tide began to ebb, he drifted far beyond the other fishermen's
boats, until his own was lost to their sight.

It was such a lovely morning when the sun rose and slanted across the
waters, that, when he thought of the short span of human life, he wished
that he had thousands of years to live, like the tortoise he had rescued
from the boys the day before.

As he was dreaming these thoughts, he was suddenly startled by a sweet
voice calling his name. It fell on his ears like the note of a silver
bell dropping from the skies. Again it came, nearer than before:

'Urashima! Urashima!'

He looked all around on the surface of the sea, thinking that some one
had hailed him from a boat, but there was no one there, as far as the
eye could reach.

And now he heard the voice again close at hand, and, looking over the
side of the boat, he saw a tortoise looking up at him, and he knew by
its eyes that it was the same tortoise he had restored to the sea the
previous day.

'So we meet again,' he said pleasantly. 'Fancy you finding me in the
middle of the ocean! What is it, you funny little tortoise? Do you want
to be caught again, eh?'

'I have looked for you,' replied the tortoise, 'ever since dawn, and
when I saw you in the boat I swam after you to thank you for saving