the next morning urashima went out as usual in his boat. the weather was fine and the sea and sky were both blue and soft in the tender haze of the summer morning. urashima got into his boat and dreamily pushed out to sea, throwing his line as he did so. he soon passed the other fishing boats and left them behind him till they were lost to sight in the distance, and his boat drifted further and further out upon the blue waters. somehow, he knew not why, he felt unusually happy that morning; and he could not help wishing that, like the tortoise he set free the day before, he had thousands of years to live instead of his own short span of human life.