Poor Urashima could not think what to do. He began to think that the Dragon Palace must be a part of Fairyland, where a day is the same as a year on earth, and he wished to return to it. But how could he find the way?
He could not remember how he had come.
Suddenly he thought of the box that the princess had given him, and forgetting that he had promised not to open it, he pulled open the lid, hoping to learn the way back.
There was nothing in the box but a fleecy white cloud that floated softly up into the blue sky.
Then, too late, he remembered what the princess had said, and he called and called the cloud to come back. He even ran along the beach trying to catch it.
But soon he could not call, for his breath came shorter and shorter, his hair turned white, and his back became weak and bent.
Finally he fell down on the beach, crushed by the weight of his four hundred years.
—Charlotte Chaffee Gibson.