One day Turtle came by Meli's house. Meli was in the front yard playing with a stick. Meli threw the stick in the air and it came down and hit her on the head. Meli began to cry. Turtle laughed at Meli and said, " Ha, ha, Meli is a crybaby."

Meli told turtle to quit laughing at her, but Tutle kept saying, "Ha, ha, Meli is a crybaby." Then Meli got mad. She picked up the stick and chased Turtle. Turtle could not run fast. Meli caught Turtle and hit him hard with the stick. Turtle began to cry because the stick had cracked his shell into a lot of little pieces. Meli got scared and ran home. She left Turtle all alone.

Some little red ants were walking by and heard Turtle crying.

"Can we help you, Turtle?" the ants asked.

Turtle said, "Little Red ants can't help a big turtle with a cracked shell."

"Yes we can." And all the ants crawled up onto Turtle's shell and sewed it back together.

Turtle said, "Oh thank you, little ants."

So if you see a turtle, you will see where his shell was cracked by Meli, and where the ants sewed his shell back together again.

All Choctaw stories are included in the "Choctaw Language Program," book, which is copyrighted by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Permission was granted for reprint, 31 July 2003, by Gergory E. Pyle, Chief of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma.