Fatty Discovers Mrs. Turtle's Secret
Written by: Arthur Scott Bailey,
1915
Recorded by: Patricia Thornton-Houser
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After his adventure with the goshawk
Fatty Coon did not go near the tree-tops for a long time. Whenever
he left home he would crawl
down the old poplar
tree in which he lived; and he wouldn't climb
a single tree until he came home again. Somehow, he felt safer
on the ground. You see, he hadn't forgotten
the
fright he had had, nor how the goshawk's claws
had hurt
his back.
It was just three days
after his scare,
to be exact,
when Fatty Coon found himself on the bank
of the creek
which flowed
slowly into Swift River. Fatty had been looking for frogs,
but he had had no luck
at all. To tell the truth, Fatty was a little too young to catch
frogs easily, even when he found one; and he was a good deal too
fat, for he was so plump
that he was not very spry.
Now, Fatty was hiding
behind some tall rushes,
and his sharp little eyes were looking all about him, and his
nose was twitching
as he sniffed
the air. He wished he might find a frog. But not one frog appeared.
Fatty began to think that some other coon
must have visited
the creek just before him and caught them all. And then he
forgot all about frogs.
Yes! Frogs passed completely
out of Fatty Coon's mind.
For whom should he spy
but Mrs. Turtle!
He saw her little black head first, bobbing
along through the water of the creek. She was swimming toward
the bank where Fatty was hidden.
And pretty soon she pulled herself out of the water and waddled
a short distance
along the sand
at the edge
of the creek.
Mrs. Turtle stopped then;
and for a few minutes she was very busy about something. First
she dug
a hole
in the sand. And Fatty wondered
what she was looking for. But he kept very quiet.
And after a time Mrs. Turtle splashed
into the creek again and paddled
away. But before she left she scooped
sand into the hole she had dug. Before she left the place
she looked all around, as if to make sure that no one had seen
her. And as she waddled slowly to the water Fatty could see that
she was smiling as if she was very well pleased about something.
She seemed to have a secret.
Fatty Coon had grown very
curious,
as he watched Mrs. Turtle. And just as soon as she was out
of sight he came out from his hiding place in the tall reeds
and trotted
down to the edge of the creek. He went straight
to the spot where Mrs. Turtle had dug the hole and
filled it up again. And Fatty was so eager
to know what she had been doing that he began to dig in the very
spot where Mrs. Turtle had dug before him.
It took Fatty Coon only
about six seconds
to discover
Mrs. Turtle's secret. For he did not have to paw
away much of the sand before he came upon--what do you suppose?
Eggs! Turtles' eggs! Twenty-seven round, white eggs, which Mrs.
Turtle had left there in the warm sand to hatch.
THAT was why she looked all around to make sure that no one saw
her. THAT was why she seemed so pleased. For Mrs. Turtle fully
expected
that after a time twenty-seven little turtles would hatch from
those eggs-- just as chickens
do--and dig their way out of the sand.
But it never happened
that way at all. For as soon as he got over his surprise
at seeing them, Fatty Coon began at once to eat those twenty-seven
eggs. They were delicious.
And as he finished
the last one he couldn't help thinking how lucky he had been.
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