me here to play yesterday, and you
scolded them and drove them away. You said all my family was not worth
one piece of silver. You think you are worth many pieces of gold, I
suppose. No one likes you. Your own master would not eat you. And
the market people would never buy a thing so old and tough as you are.
But I suppose you will have to stay here in our yard a thousand years
or so, until you die. Then they will carry you to the wilderness and
throw you into the Nobody-Knows Lake."

Then the Turtle answered and said, "I am a Mountain Turtle. I come
from a wise family, and it is not easy for even man to catch me.
Educated men, doctors, know that I am useful for sickness, but if all
the people knew the many ways they could use me, I think there would
soon be no more turtles in the world. Many Chinese know that my skin
is good for skin disease, and my forefeet are good for the
devil-sickness in children, as they drive the devil away; and then my
shells are good for sore throat, and my stomach is good for
stomach-ache, and my bones are good for tooth-ache. Do you remember
that not long ago our master brought three turtle eggs to feed your
children? I heard him say: 'Those little Chickens caught cold in that
damp place, and so I must give them some turtle eggs.' I saw your
children eat those three eggs, and in two or three days they were well.

"So you see the Turtle is a useful creature in the world, even to
Chickens. Why do you not leave me in peace? As I must stay here
against my will, it is not right that your children should trouble me.
Sometimes they take all my rice and I go hungry, for our master will
not allow me to go outside of this fence to hunt food for myself. I
never come to your house and bother you, but your children will not
even let me live in peace in the little corner our master gave me. If
I had a few of my own people here with me, as you have, I think you
would not trouble me. But I have only myself, while you are many.

"Yesterday your children scolded me and disturbed my peace. To-day you
come again; and to-morrow and many to-morrows will see generations and
still more unhatched generations of Chickens coming here to scold me, I
fear; for the length of life of a cackling hen is as a day to me--a
Mountain Turtle. I know the heaven is large, I know the earth is large
and made for all creatures alike. But you think the heavens and the
earth were both made for you and your Chickens