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OF all the creatures that
walked or swam or flew, Timothy Turtle liked boys the least of all. He
said
that if they ever did anything except throw stones he had never caught
them at
it.
"It's a wonder" –
he often remarked – "it's a wonder that there's a stone left
anywhere
along this creek. I've lived here a good many years; and no boy ever
spied me
sunning myself on a rock in the water without trying to hit me."
Once in a great while some
youngster was skillful enough to bounce a stone off Mr. Turtle's back.
And when
the old so scamp flopped into the water he always heard a great
whooping from
the bank.
At such times as likely as
not Timothy had been awakened from a sound sleep. But when that jeering
noise
greeted his ears he knew at once what had struck him.
It was a good thing for him
that he had a hard back. Nevertheless it always made him angry to be
disturbed
when he was taking a nap. And some people said that if Timothy Turtle
ever
grabbed a boy by his great-toe, when he was in swimming, that youngster
would
limp for many a day thereafter.
But the boys went in
swimming just the
same. Black Creek
would have had to be alive with turtles to keep them out of it on a hot
summer's day. Indeed Farmer Green often said that he wished his son
Johnnie
would spend half the time in the hayfield that he wasted around the
creek.
When questioned by his
father, Johnnie said that there was an old turtle in Black Creek that
he wanted
to catch.
"What are you going to
do with him – make soup of him?" Farmer Green
inquired solemnly.
Johnnie shook his head.
"I want to cut my
initials on his shell and let him go," he explained. "Then if I catch
him again when I'm grown up I'll know him when I find him.... I'll put
the date
under my initials, too," Johnnie added.
Farmer Green laughed.
"When
you're grown up," he said,
"you'll have something else to do besides catching snapping turtles.
This
afternoon you may carve your initials on the hay rake and then take it
over to
the big meadow and play with it."
For a few moments Johnnie
Green couldn't help looking glum. He had intended to visit the
creek that very
afternoon. But now he knew that his father expected him to
work – to work
on one of the finest days of the whole summer!
"I'll let you off all
day to-morrow," Farmer Green said. "And you know there's that calf I
told you I'd give you if you helped me with the haying."
And
then Johnnie actually smiled.
Well,
the next morning was just as fine as the
afternoon before. And Johnnie Green set off early for Black Creek, with
his
pockets stuffed full of cherries, because he was afraid he
might get hungry.
He ate a few of them on the way to the creek. But when he reached that
delightful
place he found something that made him forget what he had in his
pockets. For
there near the top of the bank, too far from the water to escape him
– there
lay Timothy Turtle himself, taking a sunbath on the warm sand.