But however beautiful they were, some flowers would be bought and some would not. When beautiful flowers remained unsold, he would stop at the river's mouth on his way home and throw the flowers into the water. And he would call "Here, these flowers are for the princess of the Dragon Palace!"
One day he was returning home from selling flowers when he found something terrible-- the river was flooded, and he was unable to cross it.
"This is a real fix-- what will I do?" he thought as he stood on the shore. Just then something came swimming up to where he stood. It was a turtle. Not just a turtle, but a big turtle. It looked like the turtle Urashima Taro had ridden on. Moreover, the turtle was looking back at its own shell, just as if it were telling the man to get on.
"Oh, is that it? Are you going to take me across to the other side?" he muttered to himself, and he climbed onto the turtle's back. Satisfied with that, the turtle slipped back into the river. It was a good ride, but before long the man noticed that he had come to some place he had never seen before. It might be China, or it might be India, or for all he knew it might be paradise. He asked, "Kame-san, Kame-san! Just what is this place?"
"This place?" the turtle said, turning its short neck back to look at the man. "This place is called the Dragon Palace."
"Ah, the Dragon Palace? That's a problem for me. You mean the Dragon Palace at the bottom of the sea, where long, long ago a man called Urashima Taro spent what he thought was two or three days, and it turned out he was there for a hundred years, right? Really, Kame-san, I thought you looked a lot like the turtle Urashima Taro rode on, and sure enough you are. But won't 20 or 30 years go by in Japan while I'm at the Dragon Palace? That would be a problem. That would be a real problem for me."
"It's not like that," the turtle replied. "The princess said you're always giving flowers, and so she wants to thank you. There's nothing to worry about."
Soon they were at the princess's residence at the Dragon Palace. There were large numbers of sea bream, flounders, octopi and jellyfish at the entrance waiting for the man. "Welcome," they all said, bowing their heads, and they led the man to the princess.
The princess said, "Thank you for all the beautiful flowers. Today, in thanks for the flowers, I've decided to give you a boy, and so I sent the turtle to get you. This is the boy here-- please take him to your home and take good care of him. This boy is able to do any thing that you wish. Here is the boy."
"Thank you very much," the man said, bowing his head. Then he took a careful look at the boy standing beside the princess. The more he looked, the dirtier the boy seemed to be. His nose was running and he was drooling-- an unsightly child in all regards.
"Does this child have a name?" the man asked.
"It's Toho," the princess said.
"In that case, please let me have Toho." The man took Toho, and they returned to Japan on the turtle's back.
When they got back the man felt that his own house was too small. And so he thought this would be a good test.
"Toho, Toho!" he said. "I don't like such a small house." He hadn't finished speaking before Toho closed his eyes tight and clapped his hands three times. Suddenly they were standing in front of a strikingly beautiful house.
"My, thank you," the man said appreciatively. "You do terrific work."
When he went inside, however, the man started to want some floor coverings. And so he called, "Toho, Toho!" and asked for them. When he had the floor coverings, he wanted a chest of drawers. When he had the chest, he needed clothes. On it went from one thing to another; whatever he wanted, he would ask Toho and receive it. Finally he got money-- a thousand ryo of the old gold coins. And he got clerks, and maids, and lived a life of luxury. He didn't go selling flowers any more. He loaned out money, received interest on the loans, and lived on that.
Time went by for about five years after that. The man had become the wealthiest man in the area, and so he was often invited as a guest to this home or that. And he often prepared fine meals and invited guests in himself.
There was, however, the matter of Toho. He stuck by the man, who had become a fine master, and never left his side for a minute. As time went by the man found Toho to be increasingly filthy and disgusting. It was a real embarrassment having the boy come everywhere he went.
"Toho, Toho," the man asked once when the runny nose was too much for him, "why don't you blow your nose?"
"I can't do that," Toho replied.
"Can you wipe off the slobber?"
"That's something I can't do."
The man felt that he no longer had any need for this Toho. "In that case," he said, "I'm sorry to have troubled you for this long time. Do you have a home you can go back to?"
Toho said, "I understand," and left the house.
The minute Toho departed, the house turned back into the poor hut it had originally been, and the clothes the man was wearing turned into the course rags he had worn long ago. It was like awakening from a dream. The man was astonished, but there was nothing he could do.