mouth as wide as he could and putting one of his feelers down
the TAI'S throat, he quickly and easily drew the hook out of the
sufferer's large mouth. He then washed it and brought it to the King.

Ryn Jin took the hook from his subject, and then respectfully returned
it to the Happy Hunter (the Mikoto or Augustness, the fishes called
him), who was overjoyed at getting back his hook. He thanked Ryn Jin
many times, his face beaming with gratitude, and said that he owed the
happy ending of his quest to the Sea King's wise authority and kindness.

Ryn Jin now desired to punish the TAI, but the Happy Hunter begged him
not to do so; since his lost hook was thus happily recovered he did not
wish to make more trouble for the poor TAI. It was indeed the TAI who
had taken the hook, but he had already suffered enough for his fault,
if fault it could be called. What had been done was done in
heedlessness and not by intention. The Happy Hunter said he blamed
himself; if he had understood how to fish properly he would never have
lost his hook, and therefore all this trouble had been caused in the
first place by his trying to do something which he did not know how to
do. So he begged the Sea King to forgive his subject.

Who could resist the pleading of so wise and compassionate a judge? Ryn
Jin forgave his subject at once at the request of his august guest. The
TAI was so glad that he shook his fins for joy, and he and all the
other fish went out from the presence of their King, praising the
virtues of the Happy Hunter.

Now that the hook was found the Happy Hunter had nothing to keep him in
Ryn Gu, and he was anxious to get back to his own kingdom and to make
peace with his angry brother, the Skillful Fisher; but the Sea King,
who had learnt to love him and would fain have kept him as a son,
begged him not to go so soon, but to make the Sea Palace his home as
long as ever he liked. While the Happy Hunter was still hesitating, the
two lovely Princesses, Tayotama and Tamayori, came, and with the
sweetest of bows and voices joined with their father in pressing him to
stay, so that without seeming ungracious he could not say them "Nay,"
and was obliged to stay on for some time.

Between the Sea Realm and the Earth there was no difference in the
night of time, and the Happy Hunter found that three years went
fleeting quickly by in this delightful land. The years pass swiftly
when any one is truly happy. But though the wonders of th