The Pink Fairy Book, part 3 · page 21 2101He saw the smoke curling through the roof, and the thatch where green plants had thickly sprouted.102He heard the children shouting and calling, and from a window that he passed came the twang of the koto, and everything seemed to cry a welcome for his return.103Yet suddenly he felt a pang at his heart as he wandered down the street.104After all, everything was changed.105Neither men nor houses were those he once knew.106Quickly he saw his old home; yes, it was still there, but it had a strange look.107Anxiously he knocked at the door, and asked the woman who opened it after his parents.108But she did not know their names, and could give him no news of them.109Still more disturbed, he rushed to the burying ground, the only place that could tell him what he wished to know.110Here at any rate he would find out what it all meant.111And he was right.112In a moment he stood before the grave of his parents, and the date written on the stone was almost exactly the date when they had lost their son, and he had forsaken them for the Daughter of the Sea.113And so he found that since he had deft his home, three hundred years had passed by.114Shuddering with horror at his discovery he turned back into the village street, hoping to meet some one who could tell him of the days of old.115But when the man spoke, he knew he was not dreaming, though he felt as if he had lost his senses.116In despair he bethought him of the box which was the gift of the princess.117Perhaps after all this dreadful thing was not true.118He might be the victim of some enchanter’s spell, and in his hand lay the counter-charm.119Almost unconsciously he opened it, and a purple vapour came pouring out.120He held the empty box in his hand, and as he looked he saw that the fresh hand of youth had grown suddenly shrivelled, like the hand of an old, old man.121He ran to the brook, which flowed in a clear stream down from the mountain. and saw himself reflected as in a mirror.122It was the face of a mummy which looked back at him.123Wounded to death, he crept back through the village, and no man knew the old, old man to be the strong handsome youth who had run down the street an hour before.124So he toiled wearily back, till he reached the shore, and here he sat sadly on a rock, and called loudly on the turtle.125But she never came back any more, but instead, death came soon, and set him free.126But before that happened, the people who saw him sitting lonely on the shore had heard his story, and when their children were restless they used to tell them of the good son who from love to his parents had given up for their sakes the splendour and wonders of the palace in the sea, and the most beautiful woman in the world besides.1 2← previousThe Pink Fairy Book, part 2next →The Pink Fairy Book, part 4↑ back to The Pink Fairy BookThis page in Markdown → https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg5615/3/page/2/