Mr. Turtle gave a great start.
"I'm looking at myself—that's all," he said. He was so surprised that for once he actually answered a question politely.
His reply amused Peter Mink. And that ill-bred rascal laughed right in Timothy Turtle's face.
"Time must hang heavy on your hands, if you can't find anything pleasanter to do than that," he remarked—for Peter Mink never cared how rude he was. In fact he liked to make unkind remarks. "Aren't you afraid," he added, "that you'll wear out the surface of the creek, gazing into it? I shouldn't like that very well," said Peter Mink, "because then it couldn't freeze in winter, and you know[p. 86] it's great sport to hunt muskrats under the ice."
Well, Peter's speech alarmed Timothy Turtle. And yet he felt that he could not rest until he knew what was on his back. So he asked Peter Mink to meet him on the bank.
"I want you to help me," he said. "I have reason to believe that there's something written on my back. And you must tell me what it is."