_Turtle._ Well, well, is there no other way? Then I must take you back to get your heart. That is the best plan, and we must start at once. Come. [_They go out together._]
_Queen Osa._ My dear Turtle, where have you been so long, and oh, what has happened to you?
_Turtle._ Dear Queen, I am very sad, and very cold, and very ill. My poor body is without its covering, for see, I have lost my shell.
_Queen Osa._ Poor Turtle! Come tell me all about it.
_Turtle._ The monkey told me he had left his heart at home and he asked me to take him back so he could get it. I believed him. You know I wanted the heart for you.
_Turtle._ I took him on my back. When we got to the land he sprang off my back and up the nearest tree. He told his brothers what had happened to him. Then they all rushed at me. They tore off my shell and threw my body back into the sea without it.
_Queen Osa._ Poor Turtle! Never mind. I’ll give you another shell, for you did your best. Some one must have been telling the monkey tales. Jellyfish, you were his friend. Do you know anything about this?
_Jellyfish._ I told the monkey that we were going to kill him so that we could get his heart for you. I told him to try and be brave about it.
_Queen Osa._ You are to blame, then, Jellyfish, for all this trouble. To punish you for meddling, I will take away your shell. And you must go without it forever.
_Little Girl._ I would like you for a comrade, for I love you, that I do, I never met a little calf as amiable as you; I would teach you how to dance and sing and how to talk and laugh, If I were not a little girl and you were not a calf.
_Little Calf._ I would like you for a comrade; you should share my barley meal And butt me with your little horns just hard enough to feel; We would lie beneath the chestnut trees and watch the leaves uncurl, If I were not a clumsy calf and you a little girl.
_Gluck_ _Hans_ _Schwartz_ _Little Old Gentleman_
_Gluck._ What a pity my brothers never ask anybody to dinner. I’m sure when they’ve got such a nice piece of mutton as this it would do their hearts good to have somebody to eat it with them. [_Knock sounds at the door._] It must be the wind. Nobody else would dare to knock double knocks at our door. [_Gluck goes to the window._]