Tortoise's back-plates, so that by
twisting and straining Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up a
tiddy wee bit.

'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly; 'but I shouldn't do any more just
now. It's making you black in the face. Kindly lead me into the water
once again and I'll practise that side-stroke which you say is so easy.'
And so Stickly-Prickly practised, and Slow-Solid swam alongside.

'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A little more practice will make you
a regular whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace my back and front
plates two holes more, I'll try that fascinating bend that you say is so
easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!'

'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly, all wet from the turbid Amazon. 'I
declare, I shouldn't know you from one of my own family. Two holes, I
think, you said? A little more expression, please, and don't grunt quite
so much, or Painted Jaguar may hear us. When you've finished, I want to
try that long dive which you say is so easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be
surprised!'

And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow-and-Solid dived alongside.

'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A leetle more attention to holding
your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom of the
turbid Amazon. Now I'll try that exercise of wrapping my hind legs round
my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable. Won't Painted Jaguar
be surprised!'

'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly. 'But it's straining your back-plates
a little. They are all overlapping now, instead of lying side by side.'

'Oh, that's the result of exercise,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'I've noticed
that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you're
growing to look rather more like a pine-cone, and less like a
chestnut-burr, than you used to.'

'Am I?' said Stickly-Prickly. 'That comes from my soaking in the water.
Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!'

They went on with their exercises, each helping the other, till morning
came; and when the sun was high they rested and dried themselves. Then
they saw that they were both of them quite different from what they had
been.

'Stickly-Prickly,' said Tortoise after breakfast, 'I am not what I was
yesterday; but I think that I may yet amuse Painted Jaguar.'

'That was the very thing I was thinking just now,' said Stickly-Prickly.
'I think scales are a tremendous improvement on prickles--to say nothing
of being able to swim. Oh, _won't_ Painted Jaguar be surpri