a-god. I am a
waiting-maid to his lovely daughter, the Princess."

The turtle went to announce the arrival of Uraschima Taro to the
Princess, and soon returning, led him to her presence. She was so
beautiful that when she asked him to remain in the palace he gladly
consented.

"Do not leave me, and you shall always be as handsome as you are now,
and old age cannot come to you," she said.

So it happened that Uraschima Taro lived in the marvelous palace at
the bottom of the sea with the daughter of the sea-god. He was so
happy that the time passed by unheeded. How long he dwelt there he
could not have told. But one day he thought of his parents; then he
remembered that they must be troubled by his absence. The thought of
them kept coming to him continually, and the longing to see them grew
so strong that at last he told the Princess he must go to visit them.
She begged him not to leave her and wept bitterly.

"If you go, I shall never see you again," she sobbed.

But he told her that he must see his father and mother once again;
then he would return to the palace in the sea, to be with her always.
When she found that she could not persuade him to remain, she gave him
a small gold box, which, she told him, he must on no account open.

"If you heed my words," said she, "you may come back to me. When you
are ready, the turtle will be there to bring you; but if you forget
what I have told you, I shall never see you again."

Uraschima Taro fondly assured her that nothing in the world should
keep him from her, and bade her farewell. Mounting the turtle's back,
he soon left the palace far below. For three days and three nights
they swam, and then the turtle left him on the familiar sands near his
old home.

He eagerly ran to the village and looked about for some of his
comrades. All of the faces were strange, and even the houses seemed
different. The children, playing in the street where he had lived, he
had never seen before. Stopping in front of his own house, he regarded
it with a sinking heart. There was the sound of music from a window
above, and a strange woman opened the door to him. She could tell him
nothing of his parents, and had never heard their names. Every one
whom he questioned looked at him curiously. At last he wandered from
the village and came to the burying ground. Searching about among the
graves, he soon found himself beside a stone bearing the dear names he
sought. The date showed him that his