"oh, you poor thing! poor thing! there, there! you are safe now! they say that a stork lives for a thousand years, but the tortoise for ten thousand years. you have the longest life of any creature in this world, and you were in great danger of having that precious life cut short by those cruel boys. luckily i was passing by and saved you, and so life is still yours. now i am going to take you back to your home, the sea, at once. do not let yourself be caught again, for there might be no one to save you next time!"