"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 father and mother had died soon
after he left them; and then he discovered that he had been away from
his home three hundred years.
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