.

"Oh, he must be a regular old settler," Farmer Green declared. "He may
have been around here when your grandfather was a boy, for all I know."

"Do you really believe that?" Johnnie exclaimed.

"Well," his father answered, "there's only one way to find out."

"What's that?" Johnnie inquired eagerly.

"Ask Mr. Turtle himself," Farmer Green replied with a smile.

XVII

TIMOTHY NEEDS HELP

Everybody who lived near Black Creek noticed Timothy Turtle's new
collar. And almost every one, being curious, asked Mr. Turtle where he
got it, and why he was wearing it.

Now, Timothy Turtle would give such folk no answer at all. But old Mr.
Crow knew what had happened--of course. And he took pains to tell all
his friends how Johnnie Green had caught Timothy and tied a rope around
his neck, and cut something on Timothy's back, besides.

[Illustration: "Let me go!" Fatty Coon shrieked.]

So it was not long before Timothy Turtle's neighbors began to ask him
what was on his back.

"My shell's on my back!" he snapped, when any one put that question to
him.

"Yes--but what's on your shell?" everybody was sure to answer back.

Timothy Turtle couldn't have replied to that question, even if he had
wanted to. And though he always sneered when hearing it and turned his
head away, as if the matter was something he didn't care to talk about,
there was nobody who was any more eager to know the answer than he.

To be sure, by raising his head he could get a slanting view of the top
of his shell. But such a glimpse was not enough to tell him anything.

Under the constant inquiries of his neighbors Timothy's curiosity grew
every day. Soon he took to staring at his reflection in the surface of
the water, with the hope that he might be able to see his back in that
way.

But it was all in vain. Though Timothy twisted and turned and stretched
his long neck, he couldn't see his own back, no matter how much he
tried.

Now, there was an ill-mannered scamp named Peter Mink who happened to go
prowling up the creek one day. And as he quietly rounded a bend he came
upon an odd sight.

In front of him, and perched on a rock in the midst of the water,
Timothy Turtle was going through the queerest motions. He seemed to be
peering into the water at something, while wriggling about in a most
peculiar fashion.

He did not notice Peter Mink, who stood stock still and watched him for
some time without speaking.

At last Peter's pry