How the tortoise got its shell.

 

How the Tortoise got his shell.

Once upon a time long, long ago when the world was young and all the animals spoke the same language there lived a tortoise. He lived in a beautiful land with lovely green grass, crystal clear rivers and streams and really tasty plants.  The sun shone even when it was raining and it was lovely and warm except in the winter. In winter it was really cold and windy so all the animals went to sleep and didn’t wake up again until the springtime. This was called hibernation.

The animals were very cute though as they never went into hibernation until Saint Stephens day because they all wanted to celebrate Christmas. Christmas day was filled with joy and happiness and all the animals were getting very excited but there was one animal that wasn’t happy. Can you guess who it was? Yes your right it was the tortoise, he was feeling very sad and very cold.

You see his friends had lovely feathers or fur to keep them warm and some of them had little shells to tuck into so they could shelter from the rain and the wind. Tortoise began to feel really jealous.

Tortoise had invited a couple of his friends to Christmas dinner, Snail and Polly, but it didn’t make him feel any better in fact if anything it made him feel worse. Eventually there was a knock at the door of his little grass house and Snail crawled in.

“Hello tortoise Merry Christmas, how are you on this fine evening” shouted Snail in a loud happy voice,

“Fine I suppose but what’s it got to do with you. Mind your own business” replied the tortoise in a grumpy voice. He was very rude.

Well Snail felt hurt by the tortoise’s horrible words and said to himself, “I’m not staying here to be insulted” so he turned around and crawled back outside, as he left the little grass house he slammed the door.

“Good riddance to bad rubbish” said the tortoise. That wasn’t a very Christmassy thing to say was it?

Shortly after the snail had left there was another knock on the door of the little grass house and in walked Polly (I suppose you’ve guessed that Polly was a parrot and your right).

“Happy Christmas friend tortoise, how are you this fine evening” and she handed tortoise a present.  Tortoise grabbed the present, he never even said thank you. He ripped off the paper and threw the present to the floor.

“I’ve already got that” said the tortoise in a grumpy voice, “Its rubbish”,

Polly gave a loud squawk and said “How dare you, you rude tortoise, I’m not staying here to be insulted. Eat your dinner on your own you rude thing” and with that she turned around walked out and slammed the door of the little grass house.

Poor old tortoise, he sat on the floor and began to cry.

“I wish I hadn’t been rude to my friends, but all I want is a shell like snail so I could tuck myself in and keep warm. I’m so very cold and lonely” said the tortoise.

Polly and snail had felt so insulted by tortoise that they went straight to the queen of the fairies and reported tortoise for being so rude and ungrateful and asked her if she would go to the house of the tortoise and tell him off. As she arrived at his house she could hear crying coming from within. The queen of the fairies peeped through the window and she heard what the tortoise had said.

She felt sorry for the tortoise and decided rather than tell him off she would try to do something to help him, after all he didn’t mean to be so grumpy because he really liked his friends and hadn’t meant to upset them.

The following morning, Saint Stephens day, the tortoise decided to go for one last walk before he settled down to hibernate. He walked through the thick oozy mud that seemed to be everywhere for it had rained through the night. The queen fairy crept out from behind a tree and when tortoise wasn’t looking she gently poured the sticky mud all over the tortoise’s back and waved her magic wand.

When the tortoise woke up in the spring after his long sleep he was covered with a thick hard shell were the mud had hardened. The tortoise let out a squeal of delight, now his dream had come true, he had his shell. He ran off very, very, slowly to find his friends and he apologised for being so grumpy. They forgave him and they all lived happily ever after.

To this day all the tortoises and their cousins the turtles have a shell that keeps them nice and snug and warm. And that is how tortoise got his shell; of course there are other theories.