Slowly but Surely

Mia is nine years old and lives in Adelaide with her parents and a tortoise called Walter. Walter does everything slowly. He walks slowly, he eats slowly, and he looks at you slowly with his small black eyes. Mia loves him.

Every morning, Mia puts some lettuce in the garden, and Walter eats it happily. "He is too slow for a race," her brother says, "but he is fast enough for lunch." Mia doesn't listen. She thinks Walter is perfect.

One hot afternoon in January, Mia went outside with the lettuce, but Walter wasn't there. She looked under the bushes. She looked behind the shed. She called his name quietly, then loudly. Nothing.

Her brother laughed. "A tortoise can't go far. He's too slow!" But Mia was worried. She searched the garden carefully, corner by corner. Then she saw a small hole under the fence. It wasn't big enough for a dog, but it was big enough for a tortoise.

Mia knocked politely on the neighbor's door. Mrs. Nguyen opened it. "Have you seen a tortoise?" Mia asked. Mrs. Nguyen smiled. "Come and look." In her garden, in the middle of the tomatoes, Walter was eating a big red tomato very happily.

Mia carried him home carefully. "You were slow, Walter," she said, "but you went a long way." Now there is a stone in front of the hole, and Mrs. Nguyen sometimes brings tomatoes. Slowly but surely, Walter has made a new friend.