make war on the people of a neighbouring village. The turtles,
who were tired of doing nothing, agreed at once, and next day the
whole tribe left the camp. The girl was standing at the door of
her hut as they passed, and laughed out loud--they moved so
slowly. Her lover, who was marching at the head, grew very angry
at this, and cried out:

'In four days from now you will be weeping instead of laughing,
because there will be hundreds of miles between you and me.'

'In four days,' replied the girl--who only promised to marry him
in order to get rid of him--'in four days you will hardly be out
of sight.'

'Oh, I did not mean four days, but four YEARS,' answered the
turtle, hastily; 'whatever happens I shall be back by then.'

The army marched on, till one day, when they felt as if they must
have got half round the earth, though they were scarcely four
miles from the camp, they found a large tree lying across their
path. They looked at it with dismay, and the oldest among them
put their heads together to see what was to be done.

'Can't we manage to get past by the top?' asked one.

'Why, it would take us YEARS,' exclaimed another. 'Just look at
all those tall green branches, spreading in every direction. If
once we got entangled in THEM, we should never get out again!'

'Well then, let us go round by the bottom,' said a third.