The World-Changing Turtle

There once was a little aquatic turtle who lived by a small lake in the woods.  The turtle happily swam in the waters eating minnows and basked on a rock.

But one day it got an ambition.  The little turtle decided to change the world.

Since its world consisted of the small body of water and the mysterious forest around it, the turtle’s world-changing scheme was to dam up the outlet for the lake, thus making the beneficent and friendly (for aquatic turtles) lake, and shrinking the domain of the  hostile and unknown (for aquatic turtles) forest.

So the little turtle swam over to where the water left the little lake through a tumble of rocks and set about trying to add more rocks to it.

Almost instantly the turtle was swept away.

After tumbling over and being washed down and then helplessly floating along the current, the stream became a river and the river broadened into a huge very marshy lake.  Nothing but water and marsh for as far as the turtle could see.

Not long thereafter as the turtle was sunning itself on an old log a curious crow struck up a conversation with the turtle.  The turtle recounted its circumstances.

“Well,” the crow said, “sounds to me like you succeeded in changing the world, at least for you.”

“Yes,” said the turtle, “but I can say more than that.  The world I changed the most was me.”