The Tale Of Timothy Turtle Part 7

"I should think," Mr. Crow told Timothy, "you'd want Johnnie Green to return."

"Why?" Timothy snapped out his question in an angry tone, as he lay there upside down and stared at old Mr. Crow, who sat in a tree near-by.

"Well," Mr. Crow answered, "who'll set you on your feet again if he doesn't?"

"Don't you worry about me!" Timothy Turtle sneered. "I'll right myself as soon as there's a freshet. If there's a big enough rain the creek will rise as high as I am now. And n.o.body could keep me on my back in the water."

Old Mr. Crow actually snickered.

"You might have to wait till next spring for a freshet," he said cheerfully. "And what would you eat meanwhile?"

Having had a hearty meal of fish just before leaving the creek, Timothy Turtle hadn't once thought of _eating_. And naturally Mr. Crow's question troubled him. So he frowned frightfully. And he snapped his hooked jaws together, for he had to take something in his jaws and bite it, if it was no more than the air.

"I suppose"--Mr. Crow remarked--"I suppose you would call that _taking the air, eh_?" And there was a merry twinkle in his eye.

"Go away!" Timothy Turtle growled.

But his guest declined to leave.

"There's likely to be some fun here," he thought, "and I don't intend to miss it."

If Timothy Turtle was surprised, Mr. Crow certainly was not, when a little later Johnnie Green and another boy whom he called "Red" (on account of his hair) came hurrying up to the spot where Timothy Turtle lay.

Upon the ground they dropped a number of things, such as pieces of rope, an old grain-sack, and an axe.

"Goodness!" said Mr. Crow to himself, as he looked on. "I'm glad I'm not Timothy Turtle. It appears to me that he's going to have a terrible time."

And Timothy himself seemed to think the same. He made savage pa.s.ses at Johnnie and Red whenever they came near him. But they took good care to keep beyond his reach.

On the whole their captive behaved in a most foolish manner. Instead of drawing his head as far as he could into his sh.e.l.l, he thrust his neck out as far as it would go.

And that was exactly what the boys wanted him to do. Before Timothy Turtle--who was somewhat slow-witted--before he realized what their plan was, Johnnie Green and his friend Red had slipped one noose around his head and another around his body. And after turning their captive right side up they staked him out upon the sand so that he could not move.

"There!" Johnnie Green cried when they had Timothy Turtle where they wanted him. "That's the way the Redskins do with their enemies."

And his friend the red-haired boy danced something that might have been an Indian war dance.

Anyhow, neither old Mr. Crow nor Timothy Turtle had ever seen anything like it.

XVI

JOHNNIE GREEN'S INITIALS

Timothy Turtle found himself in a very uncomfortable position, staked out as he was on the bank of Black Creek, with one rope about his body and another about his neck.

And even then Johnnie Green was not satisfied. Though his friend Red insisted that their captive could do them no harm (saying, "How can he bite when he can't move his head?") Johnnie Green replied that he would "fix him" so there couldn't possibly be any accident. And taking the old grain-sack he had brought back with him, he wrapped it carefully around Timothy's head, till he looked for all the world as if he had the earache.

"There!" Johnnie Green said, when he had finished. "He'll have to bite through that bag before he bites us; and I guess he'll find he has a pretty big mouthful."

Then he pulled out his jackknife and felt its sharp edge with his thumb.

"Lemme do it for you!" Red begged him, holding out his hand for the knife.

But Johnnie Green had no such idea.

"No!" he said firmly. "I've got to cut my initials myself."

"He might get loose and grab you," the red-haired boy remarked hopefully.

But Johnnie Green told him that he would risk that.

"Which way are you going to cut them?" Red asked him.

"What do you mean?" Johnnie inquired.

"Are you going to make 'em read when he's going or coming?" Red explained.

"I hadn't thought of that," Johnnie Green replied. "But I guess _going_ would be better. Then if he stands up you can read 'em just the same, without any trouble."

So Johnnie kneeled down beside Timothy Turtle. It took him some time to decide just where he would carve his initials on Timothy's sh.e.l.l. And he had about decided that the best place to put his mark on Mr. Turtle's back would be exactly in the middle of it, when he cried all at once, "Look, Red! Look!"

"Wha.s.samatter?" the red-haired boy wanted to know.

"This is the queerest thing I ever heard of!" Johnnie exclaimed. "Here are my initials already cut!"

Red could not believe him, until he had peered at Timothy's sh.e.l.l himself. And then he saw that what Johnnie had said was true.

"There's a date, too," Johnnie pointed out. And he read it aloud.

"That's more'n thirty years ago," he declared.

But the red-haired boy laughed boisterously.

"Shucks!" he jeered. "Somebody's been playin' a joke on you. Somebody knew you were lookin' for this old turtle and put your initials and that old date on him just to puzzle you."

Johnnie Green didn't know exactly what to think. But probably he was no more upset than was Timothy Turtle, who was not having a good time at all.

"I don't care if some one did catch this turtle first," Johnnie said at last. "I'm going to carve my mark on him just the same."

So he began to cut "J. G." in the exact center of the back of Timothy Turtle, much to that old fellow's rage.

And when Johnnie Green had finished the letters he cut the date below them.

"What you goin' to do with him now?" Red asked Johnnie then.