Little Turtle

“ Not knowing why her light had grown dim, or what had become of her, the Little Turtle went out to see what was the matter. He 117found the Moon lingering along the underground trail. There was just a little light and heat left to her, and barely a strip of her once glorious body—just as much as one sees of the new Moon nowadays.
Little Turtle brought her out and tried to mend her. But it was of no use. She would become better for a time and then relapse. Soon she would improve again until she was almost as strong as ever she had been ”

“ In a few moments, a small turtle appeared in sight, plodding leisurely along and drawing behind him the cart I had seen, which was very small and light.
I was assured by my little neighbor that the turtle liked the business very much; but, belonging to the S. P. C. A., I felt obliged to know the facts. I found that the turtle had his liberty nearly all the time, and a pond of water specially for his use; and that, when the haying season should end, he would be turned out to pasture in his native bog for the rest of the year. ”

“ Turtle. [Slowly.] Yes, I do learn a great many things on the land. Let me think—I am thinking—yes—I believe—yes—I know, I’m sure I know just what will save her life. I have it—a monkey’s heart—the very thing! I heard about it one day as I was resting upon the shore. A monkey’s heart can cure anything!
All the Fish. Wonderful!
Little Fish. Will you go and get one? O Turtle, you know we would go if we could leave our homes as you can. You will go, won’t you?
Turtle. I will go—at once.
123 Scene II—On the Seashore
Turtle. ”

“ QUEEN FLUTTERLIGHT
"No, indeed!" said the turtle. "Fairies are always young and beautiful in appearance, no matter how many years they have lived. And, as they never die, they're bound to get pretty old sometimes, as a matter of course."
"Of course!" agreed Twinkle. "Mama has told me about the fairies. But must you always be a mud-turtle?"
"That will depend on whether you are willing to help me or not," was the answer.
"Why, it sounds just like a fairy tale in a book!" cried the little girl. ”

“ I have a turtle now that will have a funny story to tell his friends, if he ever reaches his native home again. This is it: I once took him to school with me, and left him in a box, with the cover half open, on a table in the dressing-room. In about an hour I heard a suppressed laugh from one of the girls, and, looking up, I saw Mr. Turtle calmly walking into school. He wanted to learn something as well as the rest of us.
LITTLE CHICK.
[72]
RATHER BASHFUL!
FEEDING THE SWANS IN WINTER.
T is a cold day in February. ”

“ I heard him say: 'Those little Chickens caught cold in that damp place, and so I must give them some turtle eggs.' I saw your children eat those three eggs, and in two or three days they were well.
"So you see the Turtle is a useful creature in the world, even to Chickens. Why do you not leave me in peace? As I must stay here against my will, it is not right that your children should trouble me. Sometimes they take all my rice and I go hungry, for our master will not allow me to go outside of this fence to hunt food for myself. ”

“ "When we were little," the Mock Turtle went on, more calmly, though still sobbing a little now and then, "we went to school in the sea. The master was an old Turtle—we used to call him Tortoise—"
"Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?" asked Alice.
"We called him Tortoise because he taught us," said the Mock Turtle angrily, "really you are very dull!" ”

“ Not until he returned and stood before me with his feet planted a little apart, giving an impression of purposeful immovability to his wiry figure, did I note that his eyes belied the general jauntiness of his personality. They were cold, direct eyes, with a filmy appearance, rather like those of a morose and self-centered turtle which had lived in our fountain until the day the Rosser twins fell in, when it crawled out and emigrated. ”

“ Jellyfish. Oh, you’ve done no wrong. But our dear queen is very ill, and your heart is the only thing that will cure her. We cannot get your heart unless we kill you; so try and be brave about it.
[Jellyfish swims off.]
Monkey. [To himself.] I shall not give my heart to the queen. I must get away from here somehow. But how? I do not know the way. Only the turtle could take me back, and he won’t. What can I do? Here comes the turtle now.
Turtle. You look sad, Monkey. What is the matter?
Monkey. Dear me, Turtle, I was 128just thinking of something I have left at home that I need very much. ”

“ Though the savage little peccaries, when caught singly, are quickly despatched by the jaguar, yet when meeting it collected in a herd, they so fiercely assault it with their sharp tusks, that it is either pierced to death, in spite of the blows of its claws, or compelled to take to flight.
It catches fish as it does the manatee, suddenly thrusting forth its talons as they pass below it; while it scrapes up the turtle’s eggs in numbers. It even pounces on birds and lizards, in spite of their activity and means of escape ”

“ Our family don't break very easy, and as I said before, my shell was thick and tough for my age. It was the stone that broke, and probably saved my life, for if I had hit in a soft place in that marsh meadow I'd have gone down out of sight and never been able to dig out.
"As it was, I bounced some, and landed right side up close to one of those little haycocks, and had just about sense and strength enough left to scrabble under it before Mr. Eagle came swooping down after [28] me, for he saw what had happened and didn't lose any time. ”

“ As for Timothy Turtle, he never could understand why his neighbors objected to this little trick of his. He always said that it was more fun than almost anything else he could think of. And it isp. 5 true that he never seemed so happy as he did when he had caught some careless person and was biting him without mercy.
"Anybody that wants to may bite me," Timothy used to declare. But perhaps he never stopped to think that one might almost as well bite a rock as his hard shell. And anybody might better chew a piece of leather than try to take a mouthful out of his legs, or his neck, or his head. ”

“ So no one of the Beaver colony was glad when Timothy appeared in their pond one day and explained that he intended to be in the neighborhood at leastp. 44 a week. In the first place, the Beavers, as a whole, were a busy, cheerful family, who did not like disagreeable folk for company. And in the second place, they were spry workers; and they had little use for anybody as slow as Timothy Turtle, who never did any work at all. ”

“ But at last, here in the lake, they threw him into the water, that Turtle; then he sank, his back down and belly up, like a dead animal. But he riled up the water with his paws, and then when it was all muddy he poked his head out of his shell from the water and then he cried out, “Oh ho! as for you all, your earth kills you, but as for me my land does not kill me.” Then the birds heard him, that Turtle, by the noise of his screeching, and they rushed upon him, these warriors, and they chose one that was an expert diver. ”

“ Two or three men go out in a canoe in smooth water, when the Turtles delight to sleep on the surface, basking in the sun. No sooner is one discovered, than the ready diver plunges into the sea, and coming up silently behind the animal, suddenly seizes the hinder edge of the carapace before it awakes, and pressing down the posterior part of the body in the water, obliges the fore parts to remain upright. Thus the terrified Turtle, now thoroughly awakened, is prevented from diving until the canoe coming up, the bold fisherman and his prey are both taken on board. ”

“ The little white dove
Has returned to the ark with the bough;
And now the turtle-dove
Its desired mate
On the green banks has found. ”

“ They're snapping turtles, really, and they grow bigger than these common ones; but they're so handsome and hard to find we call them princes. Their shells are gray on top and smooth and polished, like satin; and then, underneath, oh, they're beautiful; sometimes plain ivory, and sometimes bright red; and they have lovely yellow and black splashes where the lower shell joins the upper. I wish you could see a baby turtle, Gladys. ”

“ Dog came over to have supper with the Hollow Tree people, and to tell them some news. This, of course, was after he had become good friends with the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, and enjoyed dropping in for a smoke and a little conversation, especially about Mr. Man's doings, which always interested the Hollow Tree people and their friends. ”

“ He drew in his head and his tail and his legs, until all they could see was his rounded upper shell, his shell side-walls, and the yellow edge of his flat lower shell. He would have liked to draw them in too, but of course he couldn't do that.
"I did hope," said the Mother Turtle, "that I might have one family without such a child in it. I cannot help loving even a slow child who is cross, if he is hatched from one of my eggs, yet it makes me sad—very, very sad." ”

“ No one knew what caused the newly hatched young of the great sea-turtles to crawl toward the ocean as soon as they had dug their way upward out of the sand within which their eggs are laid, but Dr. Davenport Hooker, of Yale, found that the young turtle is attracted toward the ocean by the blue color of the water. If it sees the ocean through red, yellow or green glass it does not crawl toward it, but if a piece of blue glass, or even blue paper, be placed anywhere within range of its vision the turtle at once scuttles toward it with great excitement. ”

“ Defenseless in his undignified position, Emilius suffered our well-meant attentions in bitter silence. The hole was drilled, the turtle tipped over, grasped again by his peculiarly unattractive tail and borne triumphantly to the grassy bank behind the house, where, like any domestic animal, he was tethered to a tree.
"What next?" asked Joy-of-Life, who was already losing her heart to the unresponsive monster.
"Water," pronounced Sir Oracle. "Turtles won't feed except under water. They can't swallow if their heads aren't completely immersed. ”

“ The children cried aloud to their father, "Come, for the Turtle is running away!"
When Binama heard this cry, he and the birds with him, threw the sheaves of taro aside and gave chase to the runaway. But the Turtle had already reached the sea, and he hasted to dive. The birds called, "Show thyself now. Lift up thine head." This did the Turtle, and the angry birds cast great stones into the sea, and the left armlet which the Turtle wore was shattered. So he dived, but they called again, "Show thyself. Lift up thine head," and a stone fell upon the right armlet and brake it into small pieces. ”

“ Nor must it be thought that Nature was cruel to the turtles only to be generous to the other creatures. This very emergency had been amply provided for by the fact that each adult turtle during her annual visit to land deposited as many as one hundred eggs in the hole she carefully scooped in the sand, and had all her offspring survived the rivers would soon be overstocked, constituting a real menace to the perpetuation of the race. So long as the others took their toll, that generation was safe. ”

“ The man who sells the gold-fish, with fan-like tails as long as their bodies, has also turtles. These boys at last settle that of all the pretty things they have seen they would best like to spend their money on a young turtle. For their pet rabbits and mice died, but turtles, they say, are painted on fans and screens and boxes because turtles live for ten thousand years. Even the noble white crane is said to live no more than a thousand years In this picture they have carried home the turtle and are much amused at the funny way it walks and peeps its head in and out from under its shell. ”

“ Why, before the day was out we should all three be dead of fatigue and hunger! No, our only hope lies in our wings—and, alas! you cannot fly!'
'No, I cannot fly, of course,' answered the turtle, with a sigh. 'But you are so clever, and have seen so much of the world—surely you can think of some plan?' And he fixed his eyes eagerly on them. Now, when the ducks saw how ardently the turtle wished to accompany them their hearts were touched, and making a sign to their friend that they wished to be alone they swam out into the lake to consult together. ”

“ The Mother Turtle raised one of her forefeet until all five of its toes with their strong claws were pointing at him. She also raised her head as far as her upper shell would let her. "So you are the one," she said. "I thought you were when I heard you trying to make the others wait. It is too bad." ”

“ When grazing the turtles eat only the roots, the tops thus rising to the surface, where they indicate to the turtler the animal's whereabouts. The turtler, armed with a strong steel barb attached to a rope and loosely fitted to the end of a pole, carefully rows up to the unsuspecting animal, and with a strong thrust plunges the barb through its shell, withdraws the pole, and, grasping the rope, now firmly attached to the turtle's back, lifts the animal to the surface. ”

“ Perhaps the poor Spaniards of those days happened in the first instance upon an ancient bull, or a hawks-bill, and tapped the poison gland, or a loggerhead or a luth, and came ever after to entertain, with right good cause, a holy terror of turtle, irrespective of species.
An interesting phase in the life-history of the green turtle is the deception the female employs when about to lay eggs. Her "nests" are shallow pits in the sand. She may make several during a hasty visit to a favourite beach, while postponing the laying until the following day. ”