Maddison is a young turtle. He likes to play with the minnows at the edge of the lake. He has no brothers and sisters, and he is teased, for his legs are too long, his shell is too thick, and his head is too big. A crane at the lake tells him, "You'll grow into them! Don't worry!"
Eventually the tadpoles grew into small frogs, and frogs are susceptible to the gossip of the lake. They hop away and splash at Maddison, laughing at him beneath the water. Still, Crane says, "You'll grow into them! Don't worry!"
One night, Maddison decided he was going to leave the lake. Crane lifted his long neck under the moonlight, watching the small turtle go about his way. "He'll be back," he said to himself, before noticing a fish swimming about his feet; plunging his sharp beak into the water for a midnight snack.
"I need to stop for a rest," Maddison thinks. He tucks himself into his shell, with legs dangling out ungracefully. It wasn't long before he fell asleep.
A rude banging awoke the turtle, for something was beating against his shell! A bird, monstrous with a sharp beak and talons as long as bull rushes, was on top of him, trying to pull him out of his shell.
"Go away!" he shouted. The bird acted as if he hadn't said a word, only attacking harder.
"Why is your shell so thick?" the bird demanded. Maddison realized, it couldn't break through his shell!
The young turtle choked down a lump in his throat, swallowing his fear and pushing his overly long legs out of his shell; legs that let him run faster than the bird could keep up with in the muddy area. His large head was adorned with an equally large mouth, and so he snapped roughly at the bird's legs when they came too close.
Within no time at all, he was splashing into the water, going deep into the bottom of the lake and burrowing under the mud. He watched and watched as the bird's shadow lingered at the surface, and finally, the creature became impatient and left.
Slowly, Maddison crept up the bank. Crane was there, ever watchful as always.
"My shell protected me!" Maddison exclaimed. "My legs, I moved so quickly!" Never before had he been so proud of his seeming deformities. As he turned around, he noticed small heads popping up out of the water. Other turtles began to swim ashore, looking as strange as he in their own different ways. Their eyes didn't meet anything in particular, and they all looked rather bashful and embarrassed about their odd limbs and appearances.
Maddison smiled at them. "Hello," he said. "My name is Maddison. Don't worry. You'll grow into them."
