The Tale of Timothy Turtle

by Arthur Scott Bailey

"But I like to look at you," old Mr. Crow assured him solemnly. "You make me think of somebody I've known for a good many years."

"Ah! An old friend!" Timothy exclaimed.

"Well—not a friend, exactly," Mr. Crow explained. "He lives in the South, where I spend the winters. You look like him, in many ways."

"And his name?" Timothy Turtle said.

"Mr. Alligator!"

Timothy Turtle grunted.

"Humph!" he said. "I've never heard of him."

"That's not strange," old Mr. Crow told him. "He stays all the time in the South and you stay all the time in the North. You couldn't very well meet, you see."

"Your tail is a good deal like his," Mr.[p. 24] Crow continued. "And when you walk you have a trick of raising yourself sometimes on your hind legs, with your head and tail stretched out—a trick that reminds me of him."

For once Timothy seemed pleased.