Maxwell's Tales

Terry liked his life at Grandmother's house. Nobody missed the tiny bits of food that he ate from the garden and he found plenty of worms and insects that he liked to eat in the flower garden and the yard.

A man who was a merchant and sold kitchen wares and household products to farmers and some elderly people stopped at Grandmother's house one morning. As he was driving his wagon out of her driveway, he saw Terry at the edge of the yard. He stopped his wagon, jumped out and picked Terry up and put him in his pocket. There Terry was again, in the darkness of someone's pocket. He didn't like it at all.

The man thought that Terry was cute and that maybe he could sell him to some little boy or girl. When his hand closed over Terry to pick him up, Terry drew in his head and his legs. Terry didn't think that there was anything he could do to help himself for the present, so he just relaxed and took a nap. When he awakened, the wagon was moving and Terry decided that they were on a country road on the way to another farmhouse. He was right. He heard the farmer's voice, his wife and some boys and girls. Before the merchant left the farm, Terry moved in his pocket and the man remembered that Terry was there. He offered to sell Terry to the children for fifty cents. They bought him and passed him around so everyone could look at him. Terry didn't like being passed around. They didn't throw him around though and he was very glad about that. The mother held him last and she set him down on the floor of the back porch. Terry just sat there with his head and legs tucked in and didn't move.

After the merchant left, the children went to school and the mother filled a jar lid with water and set it down by Terry. She also laid a bright, green lettuce leaf beside the water. After she went in the house, Terry drank some of the water and had a small bite of the lettuce. He felt better after that.

Terry stayed on the back porch all morning. When the farmer came to the house for lunch he noticed Terry and he told his wife, "I will take that turtle out to the pond after I eat."

Sure enough, after he ate his lunch, the farmer picked Terry up and put him in his pocket. Terry was getting used to riding around in people's pockets, but he still didn't like it at all. The farmer saddled his horse and rode him out in the pasture to a big pond. He carried Terry to the edge of the water and set him down. "Goodbye, little turtle," he said, "you will do fine here."

The man was right, Terry loved it there at the big pond. It reminded him of home and he began to explore his new surroundings.