All the people came running to see this strange sight. “Look! look!” cried one. “See the flying tortoise!”
“Ho!” said another, who was one of the fishermen. “He has no wings; soon he will forget and open his mouth, and then down he will come and we shall have him for dinner.”
“I will not let go! You shall not have me for dinner!” cried Shelly-Neck.
Crash! Down he fell on the hard ground. When the fishermen picked him up he was dead and they did have him for dinner.
White-Wings and Gray-Back flew sadly away. “We did our best,” they said; “but a fool cannot be saved from his folly.”
THE GARDEN GATE
Early and late, early and late,
Little Boy swings on the garden gate.