One bright summer day, a family of seagulls flew across the sunny sky for a picnic at the beach.
When they arrived, Father Seagull announced, “I will fly over the waves to find fish for our lunch,” and he disappeared over the water.
Mother Seagull gathered the flock of seagulls together. “We will practice our flying and collect food that has been left on the beach,” she told them. “We can eat it for lunch with the fish that your father will catch.”
Happily, the flock of seagulls set off to practice their flying skills, finding scraps of food on the beach and dropping it from high in the sky so they could swoop down and catch it again. But one little seagull was distracted by the waves, and he stopped to look at the ocean. As he watched the waves, he saw a green sea turtle climbing out of the water and onto the soft, sandy beach.
The turtle looked up at the seagull perched on the sand. “Did you fly here?” he asked.
“Yes,” answered the seagull. “My family flew here for lunch. I love the beach, but I would rather swim in the ocean. Do you like to swim?”
“I swim all day long, but I wish I could fly like you,” the turtle replied. “I love to sit on the beach watching the seagulls fly high in the sky. I wish I could be a seagull.”
The seagull looked at the wet green turtle with sand in his toes. “I’d rather be a turtle,” he said. “Flying is not that great. I’d much rather swim.”
So it was that the green turtle and the young seagull spent the entire morning sharing stories of flying and swimming.
Suddenly, the seagull heard his mother calling him. It was time for lunch. He flew back to his family and enjoyed a delicious lunch of fish and popcorn.
During lunch, the little seagull told his father all about the green turtle. “I wish that I were a turtle so that I could swim all day,” he said.
His father looked at him in surprise. “But seagulls fly and clean the scraps that are left on the beach. It’s a very important job, you know. Without seagulls, trash would be rotting all over the beach!”
Just then, the seagull family heard someone calling for help. A hermit crab was crawling up and down the beach looking for her son.
“Help! Please help!” she cried. “Please, can you help me find my son? His shell was too small so he set out to look for a larger one. I haven’t seen him since this morning when he squeezed out of his old shell.”
“My family will be happy to fly over the beach to look for him,” replied Father Seagull kindly.
As soon as the little seagull heard this, he flew high up in the sky and began looking for the lost hermit crab.
When the green turtle heard about the lost hermit crab, he wanted to help, too. “Hermit crabs eat sea grass just like me!” he shouted from the water. “I will swim along the shore and search all my favorite rock pools to help you find your son.” The friends worked together to find the missing hermit crab. Finally, they found him resting inside his beautiful new shell, and rushed over to greet him.
“My legs were very tired carrying this big shell,” said the hermit crab. “I was just looking for a nice, quiet place to rest.”
“I could see your big shell sparkling on the clean sand from way up high!” said the seagull.
“You must be hungry!” the turtle exclaimed. “I’ve been keeping the sea grass short and healthy. Please have some, it’s delicious!”
Mother hermit crab was so happy that she scrambled over to her son and hugged him. “Thank you both for helping me find my son!” she said.
The friends were both very happy that they could help.
“Now I understand why it’s good to be a seagull,” said the young seagull. “Not only can I keep the beach clean, but I can also fly up high to help others.”
“And,” said the turtle, “Now I understand that it’s good to be a turtle, because it’s important to keep the sea grass healthy, and I can swim to help others,” said the turtle.
At last, the friends had discovered that it’s best when each gives to others the thing that makes him special, because this makes everyone happier!