Saturday, November 1, 2014

Tales From The Frog Pond - Stories For Children - Terry the Turtle


Terry the Turtle


Terry the turtle moved in slow motion. Every step was precise and he thought very carefully about everything he was going to do before he did it. Terry wanted to know exactly where the next step was going to go before he planted his foot down. He was a very cautious turtle.

Terry was not only cautious, he was beautiful.

Terry was a North American Painted Turtle, with colorful red markings on the underside of his shell and on his legs as well as bright yellow streaks on his head.

Terry watched the boy run down the hill towards him and he felt the vibrations through his feet. When the boy got closer, Terry pulled his head back a little into his shell just to be safe. He didn't know what this boy wanted.

"Wow, a turtle!" shouted the youngster. "Come here, Jim, look at this!"

Dave was curious and he didn't see many turtles on land. Most of the turtles he saw on the farm were swimming in the pond, but this turtle was different. The  markings were unusual and this turtle was a different color. His face and his head were a different shape.

"Let's show it to Mom," said Jim.

"Do you think we should?" asked Dave.

"Sure. Just be careful and don't let it bite you."

"Why me? You pick it up and don't let it bite you," was Dave's reply.

"If I pick it up and take it back to the house, it's my turtle," said Jim.

"Fine," was the answer, "if you get bit it's your own fault."

Carefully, Jim picked up the turtle by the edges of his shell, taking care to keep his fingers away from the turtle's head. He didn't have to worry. Terry pulled his head back into his shell as far as he possibly could. Being picked up by a boy was very scary.

Jim and Dave ran back up to the house and into the kitchen where Mom was washing dishes.

"Look what we found," said Jim. "It was down by the pond. Can we keep it?"

Mom turned around and dried her hands.

"What are you going to do with a turtle?" she asked.

"It will be a pet," said Jim. "We can get a box and keep it in our room."

"I saw it first," said Dave. Suddenly he wanted a turtle of his own for a pet.  Maybe they could find another turtle and they would each have one. They could have turtle races.

"What do you need to do to keep it alive?" asked Mom. "What do turtles eat?"

The boys looked at each other. Neither of them knew much about turtles.

"We'll find out," said Dave.

"If you keep the turtle, you have to share," said Mom. "I don't want you two fighting over a turtle. Agreed?"

"Deal," said Jim. "Right Dave?"

With a nod, Dave headed for the book shelf. This was before the Internet was available with all kinds of information on everything you could imagine. Google hadn't been invented yet. If they wanted to know about turtles, they would have to find a book about turtles.

"Look in the Encyclopedia," said Jim, and Dave pulled the huge book off the book shelf. He opened the large volume on the dining room table and Jim watched over his shoulder as his brother searched through the pages until he found turtles.

"What does it say?" asked Jim. "What do they eat? What do we need to feed him?"

"Well, they like the water, but we knew that, right?" Dave pointed to a chapter in the book.

"Look here. There are pictures of different kinds of turtles. Here's one that looks like ours. It says this one is a painted turtle. It's markings are just like the one we found."

"But what do they eat?" asked Jim.

"It says here they like fish, insects, tadpoles, frogs, crayfish, snails, and vegetation," Dave replied. "But this is most important. It says they cannot swallow their food out of the water."

"What? How can we feed him, then?"

Dave grabbed the turtle and headed back to the kitchen.

"Mom, we have a problem," said Jim, following right behind him. "This turtle can't swallow his food unless he's in the water. What will we do?"

Mom smiled. "Well, let's think about this, ok?" She took the turtle out of Dave's hands and held him up to look at him closer.

"Looks like he's a painted turtle all right. See the stripes along the side of his head? It looks like someone painted them on with a paint brush. Isn't he pretty?"

Terry was glad they thought he was pretty, but he wished they would put him down so he wouldn't feel so insecure hanging in the air. He hoped they wouldn't  drop him.

"He has yellow streaks on his head and red patches on his legs," observed Jim. "He's beautiful."

"Do you boys have enough money saved in your allowance to buy a big aquarium so he can swim?" asked Mom. "He's going to need a lot of water and he's going to need a log to crawl up onto so he can get out of the water. Either that or he will need a big rock to climb on."

Jim and Dave looked at each other.

"I have two dollars," said Dave.

"And I have three." added Jim.

"Well, I think a big aquarium is going to cost a lot more than all of us put together can come up with," said Mom. "And then where would we put a big aquarium like that?"

Jim looked at the turtle and Dave looked at Mom.

"Maybe it would be a good idea to take this pretty little guy back to the pond where he can be happy and swim all day," said Mom.

Dave looked at Jim. "What do you think?"

Jim looked at Dave. "I think maybe Mom is right."

Together the two boys took Terry out of the kitchen, back down the big hill to the pond where they had found him. Together they walked carefully to the edge of the pond and Dave gently set Terry down near the water.

The little turtle watched the boys from inside his shell and when they had backed up a few feet, he poked his head out and looked around.

He was glad to be back home at the pond.

Terry slowly - very slowly - stepped into the water and slid off the edge of the bank.

Ah, that felt good to be back where he belonged. He knew where to find food here, the water felt good on his shell, and it was comforting to be home.

The boys turned and walked back to the house. They knew they had made the right decision. They didn't see Terry wave good-bye.

Turtles live a long life, and the boys saw Terry often when they visited the pond. They would know it was him from the markings on his shell.

Dave and Jim are grown men now with children of their own. Turtles live a  long time, and it could very well be that Terry is still happily living in the pond with his friends the frogs. If you see him there, wave to him and say hi.




The End


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