The Three Little Turtles

By Kirk Porter, Grade 4

Ted Turtle replied, "I guess so."

"But don’t we need somethin’ to build 'em with?"

"Yeah but we got all the supplies just sittin’ around here so all we have to do is whip up some houses," Ted said back.

"Then let’s get to work!" all three turtles chorused at the same.

Surprisingly, Fred Turtle was the first one to start building his house. He gathered tiny pebbles and stacked them on one another.  Then, he wearily sat down and went to bed.

Meanwhile, Ted Turtle put together a house of twigs. He gathered some twigs, stuck together his house, got a very long extension cord for the record player, remembered record players weren’t invented yet, so he fired up the coal furnace, and went to bed after a hard day’s night of working like a dog.

But, as Fred and Ted slept, Jed called a Pittsburgh steel mill and got the people that handled deliveries to mail him a steel house (It arrived in 6 to 8 weeks). The week after Jed’s house arrived, Coyote stuck his fat nose around the corner of a boulder, and said, "MMMMMMMM! Turtle soup. First, I’ll eat the turtle with the pebble house." So he sneaked up and said, "Little turtle, can I borrow a cup of sugar?"

Fred heard him and said, "NOT BY THE TAIL OF MY SHELL!" So Coyote blew over   Fred Turtle’s house, but luckily, the Turtles had made escape tunnels for just such an occasion.

Coyote soon caught up with Fred who was now at Ted Turtle’s house. Again, he blew the house down, and once more the Turtles escaped by the skin of their teeth (actually, by the skin of their lips—turtles don’t have teeth).

Coyote met them again at Jed Turtle’s house. And again, he shouted through the door, "Little Turtles, can I borrow a cup of sugar? And three little turtles, too?"

But the Turtles said nothing so Coyote tried to blow the house down, but passed out in the process because of his asthma problem.

Later that afternoon, the Turtles put Coyote in a box with his inhaler and mailed him to a federal agent in Philadelphia.