"Long ago there lived in a small fishing village, by the southern shores of Japan, a young fisherman named Urashima Taro. We will call him Taro in our story.

One bright day, while he was walking along the seashore with his fishing pole, Taro saw a group of children jumping and running about. All of the children seemed very excited.

They were shouting with glee and seemed to be standing over some object lying on the beach. When Taro came nearer to the children, he saw that they were tormenting a little turtle. They threw stones at it, and then each one took his turn kicking the poor turtle."