There was a large pond in the middle of a jungle. All
kinds of animals came to drink water from it. A small
turtle had been living by the pond for many years. And
he had become good friends with two cranes who lived
there too.
They used to play together, and tell each other
stories. The cranes would fly to far away lands and when
they returned to the pond, they would tell the turtle
stories about all that they saw. The turtle, of course,
could not go with them because he could not fly. But he
loved to hear the cranes’ stories.
Then
one year it did not rain at all. Slowly, the pond
started to dry up. The turtle and the cranes were
worried. One day the turtle said to the cranes ‘There is
very little water left in the pond. We must find some
water soon. You can fly to far away lands, why don’t you
search for a bigger pond with more water. And then we
can go there’.
The
cranes thought that was a very good idea. So they flew
off in search of a pond. Soon they found a large lake
near the blue mountain. They flew back and told the
turtle about it. They were all very happy, but there was
one problem. The blue mountains were very far away, and
there was no way the turtle could walk to it.
So they
all sat down to think. ‘I wish you could fly like us’
said one crane. They all sat thinking. Then the turtle
shouted, ‘I have a great idea. I will fly with you’. The
cranes said ‘o-ho, come on, you can’t fly. This is no
time to joke, we are trying to think’.
The
turtle replied, ‘I am not joking my friend, I am
serious. This is what we’ll do. Both of you tightly hold
onto the ends of a stick between your strong claws. I
will hold onto the stick with my mouth. So when you fly
off, I will fly off with you."
The
cranes thought that was a very clever idea indeed. But
they warned the turtle, "You must remember not to speak
at all as you fly.’
So off
they went flying together. As they were flying over a
village, a little girl saw them. She had never seen
anything like this before. She shouted out to her
friends ‘Come, look at a flying turtle’. At first
everyone thought she was joking, but soon the whole
village was out on the street and shouting ‘Flying
Turtle’ ‘F-L-Y-I-N-G T-U-R-T-L-E’.
The
cranes and the turtle could see the large crowd below.
They wondered what they had gathered for. It was just
then that they heard the shouts of ‘Flying Turtle’
‘F-L-Y-I-N-G T-U-R-T-L-E’. The turtle was very pleased,
to hear such a big crowd cheering him. After all, this
was all his idea. He started to say, ‘They are shouting
about m...,’ . But just as he opened his mouth to speak,
the stick slipped out of his mouth. "Me eeeee - eee -
eeeeeeee..." The screaming turtle fell to ground and
died.
The
cranes were very sad about losing their friend. As they
sat by the blue mountain lake one of them said ‘I wish
our friend turtle had not opened his mouth.’ The other
crane nodded, ‘I wish he had paid more attention to what
he was doing, and not worried about what people were
saying.’
（Illustrated by
Amarjeet Malik）
Discussion/讨论：
1. Why did the cranes and
the turtle leave the pond?
2. What did the cranes
warn the turtle?
3. Why did the turtle fall
to the ground and die?
4. What is the moral of
the fable?
5. Do you care much about
what people are saying about you?
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