Mr. Turtle's Flying Adventure Hollow Tree Stories   By: Albert Bigelow Paine (1861-1937)

"I KNOW," HE SAID "I KNOW A WAY"]

MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE

[Illustration: HOLLOW TREE STORIES

BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

ILLUSTRATED BY J. M. CONDÉ]

HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON

HOLLOW TREE STORIES

BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

12mo, Cloth. Fully Illustrated

MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE MR. CROW AND THE WHITEWASH MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING HOW MR. DOG GOT EVEN HOW MR. RABBIT LOST HIS TAIL MR. RABBIT'S BIG DINNER MAKING UP WITH MR. DOG MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT BALLOON TRIP WHEN JACK RABBIT WAS A LITTLE BOY

HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK Illustrated. 8vo. HOLLOW TREE SNOWED IN BOOK Illustrated. 8vo.

HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK

MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE

Copyright, 1915, 1916, 1917, by Harper & Brothers Printed in the United States of America Published October, 1917

CONTENTS

PAGE MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE 9 THE DEEP WOODS ELOPEMENT 33 IN MR. MAN'S CAR 55 MR. 'POSSUM'S CAR 75 HOW MR. 'POSSUM'S TAIL BECAME BARE 99

MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE

MR. TURTLE TELLS ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD AND EXPLAINS A VERY OLD FABLE

ONCE upon a time, when it was early summer in the Big Deep Woods, the Hollow Tree people and Jack Rabbit went over to spend the day with Mr. Turtle, who lives in a very nice stone house which he built himself on the edge of the Wide Blue Water. Mr. Turtle fishes a good deal, and makes most of his living that way, and knows all the best places, so when his friends came he said that perhaps they would enjoy fishing a little which they could do and sit in a pleasant place at the same time, and talk, and look out over the Wide Blue Water, which was especially blue at this season.

[Illustration: A CATFISH NEARLY JERKED HIS POLE OUT OF HIS HANDS]

That just suited the Hollow Tree people, for they enjoyed fishing when they had somebody to pick out a good place, and Mr. 'Possum found a nice stump to lean back against, and presently went to sleep, but was waked up soon after, when a big catfish nearly jerked his pole out of his hands. Mr. 'Possum had to use all his strength to pull it out.

Then he was so proud he didn't think about going to sleep again, and told how all his family had been quite smart at catching fish; and pretty soon Jack Rabbit caught a good sized perch, and Mr. 'Coon hooked a croppie, which got away the first time, though he caught it the next; and Mr. Crow caught a "punkin seed," which made the others laugh, because it is a funny little fish; while Mr. Turtle just went right along pulling out one kind after another, without saying a word, because fishing is his business and doesn't excite him.

Then by and by the fish stopped biting, as they 'most always do, by spells, and the Deep Woods people leaned back and looked out over the Wide Blue Water, and away out there saw Mr. Eagle swoop down and pick up something which looked at first like a shoe string; then they saw it wriggle, and knew it was a small water snake, which was going to be Mr. Eagle's dinner; and they talked about it and wondered how he could enjoy such food.

Mr. Turtle said that Mr. Eagle enjoyed a good many kinds of food, and that he was reminded of an adventure he once had himself with Mr. Eagle, when he (Mr. Turtle, of course) was quite small. Then they all asked Mr. Turtle to tell them his adventure, because they thought it must have been exciting if it was anything like the snake's adventure which they had just witnessed. Mr. Turtle said it was quite a good deal like it, in some ways then he said: