Once upon a time in a meadow there lived an old wise turtle.   Turtle had great friends, only they bragged a lot.  Bird always talked about this beautiful feathers. Mole always talked about his great digging skills.  Monkey always talked about his great leaping skills, and snake talked about his beautiful scales, but turtle had nothing.  He had no feathers, no digging skills, no climbing skills and no scales.  All he had to offer was an old shell, teeny tail and the rest of his old body.  Turtle was sad.

One day there was a woman who was swimming in a river.  She had a beautiful ring on.  When she was swimming, her ring fell off! Turtle heard her scream "I lost my ring!"

Bird came down from the tree to help, then realized he could not swim.  His feathers would be of no help.  Snake could not swim either.  His scales didn't help him at all.  Monkey could not swim either. His jumping skills would be of no help.  Mole could not swim.  His digging skills also would not work to get the ring.            

So Turtle slowly went up.  He said, "I'll get it." He jumped in the water and put his night vision on and looked and looked and looked.  He could hold his breath for a long time.  Finally, Turtle saw the ring.  His big jaw picked it up and carried the ring above water.            

The woman thanked him and Turtle said "No problem, but I am still not as good as you guys" he said to his friends. "Oh Turtle", said the animals, "You were the best all along.