VOYAGEUR

There once was a turtle who could not stop talking.

Talk-i-ty, talk talk.
Talk-i-ty, talk, talk.
My that Turtle talked.

He talked to his friends. He talked to strangers. Turtle talked to everyone.

He talked in the morning.
He talked at noon
He talked in the evening
To the man in the moon!.

One day Turtle talked to two geese that lived far away. “You should visit our home," the geese told Turtle. "We live on a beautiful lake, surrounded by beautiful mountains."

"I wish I could go with you," said Turtle. "I would like to see your home. It would give me more to talk about. But, I cannot fly."

"We can carry you," said the geese. "But, you must promise to keep your mouth closed and not say a word. Can you stop talking long enough to travel a long way?”

"Certainly, I can keep my mouth shut," said Turtle. I am very good about being quiet."

This was not true. Turtle could not stop talking.

Talk-i-ty, talk, talk.
Talk-i-ty, talk, talk.
My that Turtle talked.

He talked to his friends. He talked to strangers. Turtle talked to everyone.

But, the geese did not know turtle well like his friends did. The next day the Geese came back carrying a big stick. "You bite the stick and hold it in your mouth. We will hold it with our feet while we fly. Do not say a word, or you will fall to the ground."

"I can keep my mouth shut," the Turtle said again. He bit down tightly on the middle of the stick. The two geese took hold of the stick and flapped their wings. Soon they were flying high above the ground. The Turtle held on tightly.

Turtle wanted to say how small everything looked. But, he did not open his mouth.

The geese passed over the village where Turtle lived. Turtle wanted to shout and tell everyone that he was going on a long trip. But, he did not open his mouth to speak.

"Look at the flying Turtle," shouted the children below. “He looks like the Turtle from our village.”

“That cannot be our Turtle,” said a little boy. “Our Turtle cannot stop talking long enough to hold onto a stick in order to fly through the air.

“I can too stop talking,” said Turtle. But, as he opened his mouth to talk, he let go of the stick.

Down, Down, Down.

Turtle fell back to the earth. He landed in the mud next to a river.

The children came running to see if Turtle was hurt. But, they could not find Turtle. He knew that he had talked when he should have stayed quiet. Turtle dug into the mud and slept all winter.

Turtle did not come out until spring. When the children saw Turtle again, he had cracks all over his shell. They also found that Turtle no longer talked all of the time.

Turtle finally learned how to be quiet.

source : http://www.mikelockett.com/stories.php?action=view&id=199

This is a very strange story about the moon, a balloon and a spoon-but who's to say it isn't true?
It happened late one night when everybody had gone to bed. All the children in the houses had been fast asleep for hours, and all the grown-ups too. Only the cats that sat on the rooftops were wide awake in the monnlight.

Suddenly there came a noise like..,,,...thunder perhaps, or a jet plane maybe, or the roaring, rushing sound of a hurricane......no-one could really say for sure.

All at once everyone was out of bed opening their windows and looking up into the sky.
There it was again, and again, and again. The noise was so loud that it knocked off some of the chimney pots and sent them rolling down the roofs.

"What is it?" the people in the houses cried with fright.

A ginger cat who had been sitting on the roof seemed to know the answer.

"Its the Moon!" he purred, looking very aloof. "The Moon has a bad cold and he keeps on sneezing!" and the ginger cat strolled off to find a quieter rooftop.

Sure enough when the people looked up into the sky, they could see that the Moon had a dreadful cold red nose and all!

The stars were scattered across the sky, for they found it very difficult to hang on when the Moon was sneezing so hard.

All through that night the moon sneezed and sneezed. No-one got a wink of sleep and everyone felt very tired and grumpy next morning.

"What are we going to do?" neighbours asked one another-but nobody had the least idea.

"How long does a bad cold usually last?" someone asked the chemist in the shop down the street.

"At least a week," he said gravely, "and in some cases up to a fortnight!"

Everybody groaned. No sleep for a fortnight.....it was unthinkable!.

"What the Moon really needs is a bottle of my best cold medicine," the chemist went on, "that will stop him sneezing in a jiffy."

"This all sounds very silly indeed," said a lady who lived in one of the houses. "How on earth can we give medicine to the Moon?"

"Somebody could float up there in a ballon," said one little boy "they do it all the time in nursery rhymes and fairy stories!"

"That sounds like a very good idea to me," a man spoke up, "I have a hot-air balloon and would gladly help the Moon's bad cold!"

First the medicine had to be mixed. The chemist found everything he needed and put all the ingredients into a great big bowl. He had a giant bottle in his shop window so he carefully poured the cold mixture into that.
"So far so good," smiled the chemist looking very pleased with himself.

"We shall need a giant spoon!" piped up the little boy (whose idea it was in the first place).
"I've just the thing," cried the baker. "I use it to stir my cakes at Christmas time.......I've such a lot to make!"

So straight away he ran to his shop to fetch the giant spoon.

The man who owned the hot-air balloon started getting things ready.

The little boy (whose idea it was in the first place), was going up in the basket to give the Moon the medicine.
By the time darkness fell and the Moon appeared in the sky, everything was ready.

You could hear that the Moon's cold was no better, in fact he sounded much worse. Even the clouds were being blown all over the place.

"Soon we shall be sneezing instead of twinkling," some of the stars grumbled loudly.
At long last the man in the hot-air balloon and the little boy, (whose idea it was in the first place), reached the Moon.

Very, very carefully the little boy gave the Moon the cold medicine from the giant spoon.

"Is it alright to take the whole bottle?" asked the Moon wheezing and sneezing.

"Perfectly alright," the little boy replied, "it says so on the label!"

The cold medicine worked wonders. In next to no time the Moon recovered and all was peace and quiet.
Everyone in the houses had a good night's sleep, for there was nothing to disturb their slumbers......and the cats walked along the rooftops as usual and gazed up at the moon, who was asleep too!