I don't like this old lady one little bit, said Stickly-Prickly, under the shadow of a large leaf. I wonder what else she knows?

A Tortoise can't curl himself up, Mother Jaguar went on, ever so many times, graciously waving her tail. He only draws his head and legs into his shell. By this you may know the tortoise.

I don't like this old lady at all—at all, said Slow-and-Solid Tortoise. Even Painted Jaguar can't forget those directions. It's a great pity that you can't swim, Stickly-Prickly.

Don't talk to me, said Stickly-Prickly. Just think how much better it would be if you could curl up. This is a mess! Listen to Painted Jaguar.

Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon sucking prickles out of his Paws and saying to himself—

He'll never forget that this month of Sundays, said Stickly-Prickly. Hold up my chin, Slow-and-Solid. I'm going to try to learn to swim. It may be useful.

Excellent! said Slow-and-Solid; and he held up Stickly-Prickly's chin, while Stickly-Prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid Amazon.

You'll make a fine swimmer yet, said Slow-and-Solid. Now, if you can unlace my back-plates a little, I'll see what I can do towards curling up. It may be useful.

Stickly-Prickly helped to unlace Tortoise's back-plates, so that by twisting and straining Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up a tiddy wee bit.

Excellent! said Stickly-Prickly; but I shouldn't do any more just now. It's making you black in the face. Kindly lead me into the water once again and I'll practice that side-stroke which you say is so easy. And so Stickly-Prickly practiced, and Slow-Solid swam alongside.

Excellent! said Slow-and-Solid. A little more practice will make you a regular whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace my back and front plates two holes more, I'll try that fascinating bend that you say is so easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!

Excellent! said Stickly-Prickly, all wet from the turbid Amazon. I declare, I shouldn't know you from one of my own family. Two holes, I think, you said? A little more expression, please, and don't grunt quite so much, or Painted Jaguar may hear us. When you've finished, I want to try that long dive which you say is so easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!

And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow-and-Solid dived alongside.

Excellent! said Slow-and-Solid. A leetle more attention to holding your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom of the turbid Amazon. Now I'll try that exercise of putting my hind legs round my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!

Excellent! said Stickly-Prickly. But it's straining your back-plates a little. They are all overlapping now, instead of lying side by side.

Oh, that's the result of exercise, said Slow-and-Solid. I've noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you're growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.

Am I? said Stickly-Prickly. That comes from my soaking in the water. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!

They went on with their exercises, each helping the other, till morning came; and when the sun was high they rested and dried themselves. Then they saw that they were both of them quite different from what they had been.

Stickly-Prickly, said Tortoise after breakfast, I am not what I was yesterday; but I think that I may yet amuse Painted Jaguar.

That was the very thing I was thinking just now, said Stickly- Prickly. I think scales are a tremendous improvement on prickles—to say nothing of being able to swim. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised! Let's go and find him.

By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still nursing his paddy-paw that had been hurt the night before. He was so astonished that he fell three times backward over his own painted tail without stopping.

Good morning! said Stickly-Prickly. And how is your dear gracious Mummy this morning?

She is quite well, thank you, said Painted Jaguar; but you must forgive me if I do not at this precise moment recall your name.

That's unkind of you, said Stickly-Prickly, seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.

But you hadn't any shell. It was all prickles, said Painted Jaguar. I know it was. Just look at my paw!

You told me to drop into the turbid Amazon and be drowned, said Slow-Solid. Why are you so rude and forgetful to-day?

Don't you remember what your mother told you? said Stickly- Prickly,—

Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round Painted Jaguar till his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head.

Then he went to fetch his mother.

Mother, he said, there are two new animals in the woods to- day, and the one that you said couldn't swim, swims, and the one that you said couldn't curl up, curls; and they've gone shares in their prickles, I think, because both of them are scaly all over, instead of one being smooth and the other very prickly; and, besides that, they are rolling round and round in circles, and I don't feel comfy.

THIS is a picture of the whole story of the Jaguar and the Hedgehog and the Tortoise and the Armadillo all in a heap.. It looks rather the same any way you turn it. The Tortoise is in the middle, learning how to bend, and that is why the shelly plates on his back are so spread apart. He is standing on the Hedgehog, who is waiting to learn how to swim. The Hedgehog is a Japanesy Hedgehog, because I couldn't find our own Hedgehogs in the garden when I wanted to draw them. (It was daytime, and they had gone to bed under the dahlias.) Speckly Jaguar is looking over the edge, with his paddy-paw carefully tied up by his mother, because he pricked himself scooping the Hedgehog. He is much surprised to see what the Tortoise is doing, and his paw is hurting him. The snouty thing with the little eye that Speckly Jaguar is trying to climb over is the Armadillo that the Tortoise and the Hedgehog are going to turn into when they have finished bending and swimming. It is all a magic picture, and that is one of the reasons why I haven't drawn the Jaguar's whiskers. The other reason was that he was so young that his whiskers had not grown. The Jaguar's pet name with his Mummy was Doffles.

Son, son! said Mother Jaguar ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, a Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and can't be anything but a Hedgehog; and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, and can never be anything else.

But it isn't a Hedgehog, and it isn't a Tortoise. It's a little bit of both, and I don't know its proper name.

Nonsense! said Mother Jaguar. Everything has its proper name. I should call it "Armadillo" till I found out the real one. And I should leave it alone.

So Painted Jaguar did as he was told, especially about leaving them alone; but the curious thing is that from that day to this, O Best Beloved, no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called Stickly-Prickly and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo. There are Hedgehogs and Tortoises in other places, of course (there are some in my garden); but the real old and clever kind, with their scales lying lippety-lappety one over the other, like pine-cone scales, that lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and Far-Off Days, are always called Armadillos, because they were so clever.

So that's all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?