THE FISHER-BOY URASHIMA.
ong, long ago there livedon the coast of the seaof Japan a young fishermannamed Urashima, a kindly ladand clever with his rod and line.
Well, one day he went out inhis boat to fish. But instead ofcatching any fish, what do youthink he caught? Why! a greatbig tortoise, with a hard shelland such a funny wrinkled oldface and a tiny tail. Now Imust tell you something whichvery likely you don’t know; andthat is that tortoises always livea thousand years,—at least Japanesetortoises do. So Urashimathought to himself: “A fish woulddo for my dinner just as well asthis tortoise,—in fact better. Whyshould I go and kill the poorthing, and prevent it from enjoyingitself for another nine hundredand ninety-nine years? No, no!I won’t be so cruel. I am suremother wouldn’t like me to.”And with these words, he threwthe tortoise back into the sea.
The next thing that happenedwas that Urashima went to sleepin his boat; for it was one ofthose hot summer days whenalmost everybody enjoys a napof an afternoon. And as he slept,there came up from beneath thewaves a beautiful girl,who got into the boat and said:“I am the daughter of the Sea-God,and I live with my fatherin the Dragon Palace beyondthe waves. It was not a tortoisethat you caught just now,and so kindly threw back into thewater instead of killing it. It wasmyself. My father the Sea-Godhad sent me to see whether youwere good or bad.
“We now know that you are agood, kind boy who doesn’t liketo do cruel things; and so I havecome to fetch you. You shallmarry me, if you like; and wewill live happily together for athousand years in the DragonPalace beyond the deep blue sea.”
So Urashima took one oar, andthe Sea-God’s daughter took theother; and they rowed, and theyrowed, and they rowed till at lastthey came to the Dragon Palacewhere the Sea-God lived and ruledas King over all the dragonsand the tortoises and the fishes.
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