"What is the matter?" asked the Mud Turtle. Then he began to slap the water with his short, stout tail, and say "Ouch!"
Two naughty young Water-Boatmen had swum quietly up on their backs, and stung the Turtles on their tails. Then they swam away, pushing themselves quickly through the water with swift strokes of their hairy oar-legs.
"Ah-h-h!" exclaimed the Snapping Turtle, and he backed into the mud, knowing that fine, soft mud is the best thing in the world for stings.
"Ah-h-h!" exclaimed the Mud Turtle, "if I could only reach my tail with my head, or even with one of my hind feet!"
"Reach your tail with your head?" asked the Water-Adder in her sweetest voice. "Nothing is easier." And she wound herself around the willow branch in another graceful position, and took the tip of her tail daintily between her teeth.
"Humph!" said the Snapping Turtle, and he pulled his tail out of the mud and swam away.
"Ugh!" said the Mud Turtle, and he swam away with the Snapping Turtle.
"What a rude person she is!" they said. "Always trying to show how much more clever she is than other people. We would rather be stupid and polite."
After a while the Snapping Turtle said, "But then, you know, we are not stupid."
"Of course not," replied the Mud Turtle, "not even queer."