certainly. When do you wish to begin? I am quite
ready.'

'Then give me one of your longest bones, and I will fasten it to my leg.
When I give the signal, you must pull, and we will see which can pull
the hardest.'

'Very good,' replied the whale; and he took out one of his bones and
passed it to the tortoise.

The tortoise picked up the end of the bone in his mouth and went back
to the elephant. 'I will fasten this to your leg,' said he, 'in the same
way as it is fastened to mine, and we must both pull as hard as we can.
We shall soon see which is the stronger.' So he wound it carefully
round the elephant's leg, and tied it in a firm knot. 'Now!' cried he,
plunging into a thick bush behind him.

The whale tugged at one end, and the elephant tugged at the other, and
neither had any idea that he had not the tortoise for his foe. When the
whale pulled hardest the elephant was dragged into the water; and when
the elephant pulled the hardest the whale was hauled on to the land.
They were very evenly matched, and the battle was a hard one.

At last they were quite tired, and the tortoise, who was watching, saw
that they could play no more. So he crept from his hiding-place, and
dipping himself in the river, he went to the elephant and said: 'I see
that you really are stronger than I thought. Suppose we give it up for
to-day?' Then he dried himself on some moss and went to the whale and
said: 'I see that you really are stronger than I thought. Suppose we
give it up for to-day?'

The two adversaries were only too glad to be allowed to rest, and
believed to the end of their days that, after all, the tortoise was
stronger than either of them.

A day or two later the young tortoise was taking a stroll, when he met
a fox, and stopped to speak to him. 'Let us try,' said he in a careless
manner, 'which of us can lie buried in the ground during seven years.'

'I shall be delighted,' answered the fox, 'only I would rather that you
began.'

'It is all the same to me,' replied the tortoise; 'if you come round
this way to-morrow you will see that I have fulfilled my part of the
bargain.'

So he looked about for a suitable place, and found a convenient hole at
the foot of an orange tree. He crept into it, and the next morning the
fox heaped up the earth round him, and promised to feed him every day
with fresh fruit. The fox so far kept his word that each morning when
the sun rose he appeared to ask how the tortoise was getti