Topsey

Topsey loved to work in his garden. He always had, since he was a young turtle. His Papa had started the garden at Topsey’s Cove, which was right outside their home. Topsey had continued working in this same garden all his life and now it was huge! Topsey had made little pathways throughout the garden so he could go in and tend to all the plants. He grew many varieties of sea vegetables, but the part he loved best was the patch for new plants. He loved experimenting with the plants, combining some of them to create new plants. For instance, he had combined red algae with yellow algae to produce orange algae. The orange algae tasted a little tangier than the others and he liked that. So did most of the other sea creatures!

There were many volunteers who came to help Topsey work his garden. Topsey invited all the sea creatures to come and enjoy plants from his garden, and they, in turn, came to help work in the garden. One of the volunteers who came was Trixie. Trixie was a student in the Turtle School. Her papa was also interested in plants and volunteered in Topsey’s garden. After school she slipped around the corner into the garden to find him. They usually worked there until dinner time, and then they would pick some sea vegetable for her mama to serve.

One day, Maris, the Head Mistress at the Turtle School, said to Trixie, “Trixie, I would like to take the little turtles on a field trip to see the garden. Would you like to be their guide?” Trixie said that she would be happy to do that and would ask Topsey which day would be best? So that afternoon Trixie talked to Topsey and arranged for the little turtles to visit the garden in three days.

When Trixie got to work, she went searching the ocean floor for a special rock. She found one that had a funny shape. “This is perfect!” she thought. On her way home, she found some string that she needed. Then she went directly to the art studio, which was part of the Town Center. Trixie used some light green paint, like the tender new plants and painted most of the string. She used a little brown to paint the last part of the string. While she waited for the paint to dry, she decided to go home and fix dinner.

The next day after school, Trixie went back to work on her project. She used a thick shiny substance JellyJel, which had come from Clay Island. Trixie glued the green string around the rock and shaped some of it to go upward like a new plant.

The following afternoon, Trixie took her “rock plant” into the New Plant section of the garden. She put the rock in an open space all by itself. She threaded the brown string back through the plants behind the rock where she would be standing the next day. She looked things over and was satisfied with her work.

The following day, when the turtles arrived for their field trip, Trixie showed them all around the garden, leaving the New Plants section for last. She said to them, “Don’t you think this is a wonderful garden? Topsey can grow almost anything. Why now, he is trying to grow a plant from a rock!” Trixie said to the students, “Look over there at that rock.” The little turtles edged close to the rock. She said, “Sometimes you can see the rock wiggling, it’s growing so fast.” The little turtles edged a little closer. She said, “Now don’t get too close. Sometimes the rock grows really fast.” She reached back and grabbed the brown string and jerked it. The little turtles squealed and went tumbling all over each other and scrambled away. Trixie was laughing so hard she fell backwards. Maris said, “Trixie!” She was trying to frown, but she was laughing too! From that time on, Trixie was known as Trixie the Trickster.