A tortoise and an armadillo quarrelled, and agreed to fight it out.
Repairing to a secluded valley, they put themselves into hostile
array.
"Now come on!" shouted the tortoise, shrinking into the inmost
recesses of his shell.
"All right," shrieked the armadillo, coiling up tightly in his coat of
mail; "I am ready for you!"
And thus these heroes waged the awful fray from morn till dewy eve, at
less than a yard's distance. There has never been anything like it;
their endurance was something marvellous! During the night each
combatant sneaked silently away; and the historian of the period
obscurely alludes to the battle as "the naval engagement of the
future."