Among the Pond People
Page 10
THE SLOW LITTLE MUD TURTLE
When the twenty little Mud Turtles broke their egg-shells one hot summerday, and poked their way up through the warm sand in which they had beenburied, they looked almost as much alike as so many raindrops. TheMother Turtle who was sunning herself on the bank near by, said to herfriends, "Why! There are my children! Did you ever see a finer family? Ibelieve I will go over and speak to them."
Most of the young Mud Turtles crawled quickly out of the sand and brokenshells, and began drying themselves in the sunshine. One slow littlefellow stopped to look at the broken shells, stubbed one of his fronttoes on a large piece and then sat down until it should stop aching."Wait for me!" he called out to his brothers and sisters. "I'm coming ina minute."
The other little Turtles waited, but when his toe was comfortable againand he started toward them, he met a very interesting Snail and talked awhile with him. "Come on," said the Biggest Little Turtle. "Don't let'swait any longer. He can catch up."
So they sprawled along until they came to a place where they could sitin a row on an old log, and they climbed onto it and sat just closeenough together and not at all too close. Then the Slow Little Turtlecame hurrying over the sand with a rather cross look in his eyes andputting his feet down a little harder than he needed to--quite as thoughhe were out of patience about something. "Why didn't you Turtles waitfor me?" he grumbled. "I was coming right along."
"GOOD MORNING," SAID SHE. "I BELIEVE YOU ARE MY CHILDREN?" _Page 85_]
Just then the Mother Turtle came up. "Good morning," said she. "Ibelieve you are my children?"
The little Mud Turtles looked at each other and didn't say a word. Thiswas not because they were rude or bashful, but because they did not knowwhat to say. And that, you know, was quite right, for unless one hassomething worth saying, it is far better to say nothing at all.
She drew a long Mud Turtle breath and answered her own question. "Yes,"she said, "you certainly are, for I saw you scrambling out of the sand alittle while ago, and you came from the very place where I laid my eggsand covered them during the first really warm nights this year. I wastelling your father only yesterday that it was about time for you tohatch. The sun has been so hot lately that I was sure you would dowell."
The Mother Turtle stretched her head this way and that until there washardly a wrinkle left in her neck-skin, she was so eager to see themall. "Why are you not up here with your brothers and sisters?" she askedsuddenly of the Slow Little Turtle, who was trying to make a place forhimself on the log.
"They didn't wait for me," he said. "I was coming right along but theywouldn't wait. I think they are just as mea----"
The Mother Turtle raised one of her forefeet until all five of its toeswith their strong claws were pointing at him. She also raised her headas far as her upper shell would let her. "So you _are_ the one," shesaid. "I thought you were when I heard you trying to make the otherswait. It is too bad."
She looked so stern that the Slow Little Turtle didn't dare finish whathe had begun to say, yet down in his little Turtle heart he thought,"Now they are going to catch it!" He was sure his mother was going toscold the other Turtle children for leaving him. He wanted to see whatthey would do, so he looked out of his right eye at the ten brothers andsisters on that side, and out of his left eye at the nine brothers andsisters on that side. He could do this very easily, because his eyeswere not on the front of his head like those of some people, but one oneach side.
"I have raised families of young Turtles every year," said the MotherTurtle. "The first year I had only a few children, the next year I hadmore, and so it has gone--every year a few more children than the yearbefore--until now I never know quite how many I do have. But there isalways one Slow Little Turtle who lags behind and wants the others towait for him. That makes him miss his share of good things, and then heis quite certain to be cross and think it is somebody else's fault."
The Slow Little Turtle felt the ten brothers and sisters on his rightside looking at him out of their left eyes, and the nine brothers andsisters on his left side looking at him out of their right eyes. He drewin his head and his tail and his legs, until all they could see was hisrounded upper shell, his shell side-walls, and the yellow edge of hisflat lower shell. He would have liked to draw them in too, but of coursehe couldn't do that.
"I did hope," said the Mother Turtle, "that I might have one familywithout such a child in it. I cannot help loving even a slow child whois cross, if he is hatched from one of my eggs, yet it makes mesad--very, very sad."
"Try to get over this," she said to the Slow Little Turtle, "before itis too late. And you," she added, turning to his brothers and sisters,"must be patient with him. We shall not have him with us long."
"What do you mean?" asked the Slow Little Turtle, peeping out frombetween his shells. "I'm not going away."
"You do not want to," said his mother, "but you will not be with us longunless you learn to keep up with the rest. Something always happens topond people who are too slow. I cannot tell you what it will be, yet itis sure to be _something_. I remember so well my first slow child--andhow he--" She began to cry, and since she could not easily get herforefeet to her eyes, she sprawled to the pond and swam off with onlyher head and a little of her upper shell showing above the water.
The Slow Little Turtle was really frightened by what his mother hadsaid, and for a few days he tried to keep up with the others. Nothinghappened to him, and so he grew careless and made people wait for himjust because he was not quite ready to go with them, or because hewanted to do this or look at that or talk to some other person. He was avery trying little Turtle, yet his mother loved him and did not like itwhen the rest called him a Land Tortoise. It is all right, you know, tobe a Land Tortoise when your father and mother are Land Tortoises, andthese cousins of the Turtles look so much like them that some peoplecannot tell them apart. That is because they forget that the Tortoiseslive on land, have higher back shells, and move very, very slowly.Turtles live more in the water and can move quickly if they will. Thisis why other Turtles sometimes make fun of a slow brother by calling hima Land Tortoise.
One beautiful sunshiny afternoon, when most of the twenty little Turtleswere sitting on a floating log by the edge of the pond, their mother waswith some of her friends on another log near by. She looked often at herchildren, and thought how handsome their rounded-up back shells were inthe sunshine with the little red and yellow markings showing on theblack. She could see their strong little pointed tails too, and theirwebbed feet with a stout claw on each toe. She was so proud that shecould not help talking about them. "Is there any sight more beautiful,"she said, "than a row of good little Turtles?"
"Yes," said a fine old fellow who was floating near her, "a row of theirmothers!" He was a Turtle whom she had never liked very well, but nowshe began to think that he was rather agreeable after all. She was justnoticing how beautifully the skin wrinkled on his neck, when she heard asplash and saw two terrible great two-legged animals wading into thepond from the shore.
"Boys!" she cried, "Boys!" And she sprawled off the end of her log andslid into the water, all her friends following her. The Biggest LittleTurtle saw these great animals coming toward him. He sprawled off theend of his log and slid into the water, and all his brothers and sistersfollowed him except the Slow Little Turtle. "Wait for me," he said. "I'mcoming in just a----"
Then one of these great animals stooped over and picked him up, and heldhim bottom side uppermost and rapped on that side, which was flat; andon the other side, which was rounded; and stared at him with two greateyes. Next the other great animal took him and turned him over andrapped on his shells and stared at him. The poor Slow Little Turtle drewin his head and tail and legs and kept very, very still. He wished thathe had side-pieces of shell all around now, instead of just one on eachside between his legs. He was thinking over and over, "Something hashappened! Something has happened!" And he knew that back in the pondhis
mother would be trying to find him and could not.
The boys carried him to the edge of the meadow and put him down on thegrass. He lay perfectly still for a long, long time, and when he thoughtthey had forgotten about him he tried to run away. Then they laughed andpicked him up again, and one of them took something sharp and shiny andcut marks into his upper shell. This did not really give him pain, yet,as he said afterward, "It hurts almost as much to think you are going tobe hurt, as it does to be hurt."
It was not until the sun went down that the boys let the Slow LittleTurtle go. Then he was very, very tired, but he wanted so much to getback to his home in the pond that he started at once by moonlight. Thiswas the first time he had ever seen the moon, for, except when they arelaying eggs, Turtles usually sleep at night. He was not quite surewhich way he should go, and if it had not been for the kindness of theTree Frog he might never have seen his brothers and sisters again. Youknow the Tree Frog had been carried away when he was young, before hecame to live with the meadow people, so he knew how to be sorry for theSlow Little Turtle.
The Tree Frog hopped along ahead to show the way, and the Turtlefollowed until they reached a place from which they could see the pond."Good night!" said the Tree Frog. "You can find your way now."
"Good night!" said the Turtle. "I wish I might help you some time."
"Never mind me," said the Tree Frog. "Help somebody else and it will beall right." He hopped back toward his home, and for a long timeafterward the Turtle heard his cheerful "Pukr-r-rup! Pukr-r-rup!"sounding over the dewy grass and through the still air. At the edge ofthe pond the Slow Little Turtle found his nineteen brothers and sisterssound asleep. "I'm here!" he cried joyfully, poking first one and thenanother of them with his head.
The Biggest Little Turtle moved without awakening. "I tell you I'm nothungry," he murmured. "I don't want to get up." And again he fell fastasleep.
So the Slow Little Turtle did not disturb him, but cuddled inside histwo shells and went to sleep also. He was so tired that he did notawaken until the sun was high in the sky. When he did open his eyes, hisrelatives were sitting around looking at him, and he remembered all thathad happened before he slept. "Does my shell look very bad?" he cried."I wish I could see it. Oh, I am so glad to get back! I'll never be slowagain, Never! Never!"
His mother came and leaned her shell lovingly against his. "If you willonly learn to keep up with your brothers and sisters," she said "Ishall not be sorry that the boys carried you off."
"You just wait and see," said the Slow Little Turtle. And he was as goodas his word. After that he was always the first to slip from the log tothe water if anything scared them; and when, one day, a strange Turtlefrom another pond came to visit, he said to the Turtles who had alwayslived there, "Why do you call that young fellow with the marked shell'The Slow Little Turtle?' He is the quickest one in his family."
The pond people looked at each other and laughed. "That is queer!" theysaid. "After this we will call him 'The Quick Little Turtle.'"
This made him very happy, and when, once in a while, somebody forgot andby mistake called him "The Quick Slow Little Turtle," he said he ratherliked it because it showed that a Turtle needn't keep his faults if hedid have them.