Long ago in the very deep part of Brazil, the turtle wasn’t really slow; it actually was a very fast moving animal. Really it was very fast, it was one of the fastest animals in the Amazon.

One day in the Amazon rainforest all animals were afraid because the bad lion was coming to town. Turtle was moving along as fast as he could, until he spotted a rabbit hiding behind the big oak tree that was there for century. Turtle stopped and said, “Rabbit, what’s wrong with you?’’

Rabbit didn’t answer him, so turtle asked again nicely, “Rabbit, what’s wrong with you?’’

All he got in response was “STOP!”

Turtle said, “I didn’t do anything.”

Everybody in the Amazon was afraid of lion coming to town except Turtle. When the lion got in town everybody went running home for cover. Rabbit was so scared; he even tried to make friends with the lion. Instead of the lion replying with a nice answer he just opened his mouth and said, “Hop in little buddy.”

Rabbit was surprised to see lion so nice and kindhearted, but what he didn’t know was that lion had planned to eat him. So Rabbit hopped into his mouth. When he got in, Lion’s mouth snapped closed, and he swallowed Rabbit whole.

The lion roared, “Where is Turtle? I got a bone to pick with him.”

The word spread around about Lion looking for Turtle, but Turtle hadn’t heard that he was on Lion’s must eat list. The next day Turtle was going for his daily run when he passed by Crock and Monkey talking about Lion looking for him. After he heard the conversation, he wanted to know if it was true or not.

When Turtle got halfway through the woods, he heard a whisper saying “Turtle come out to play!”
Turtle was as scared as he had ever been. He thought to himself, “Why should I be scared of something that I can not see?”

So turtle kept moving along swiftly.

Out of nowhere jumped Lion screaming as loud as he could, “I GOT YOU NOW TURTLE!” He sounded angry and especially mad at turtle.

The turtle jumped up in the air screaming,” Help! Help! I’m being attacked. Turtle had never been so scared in his life. Turtle made a vow not to ever run so fast again, and has been slow and watchful ever since his encounter with lion.

And that’s how the turtle became a slowpoke. It’s all because if he still was fast he wouldn't be able to see if a lion tried to sneak up on him again and scare him.