There was once a lad who wanted to be a sailor but his mother would not let him go to the sea.

“Child, what do you know of sailing?” she would say.

“You’re a farmer’s son, you know the turn of the seasons and the smell of the soil but you do not know the sea.”

Now the boy whose name was Jon, had always obeyed his mother.

So he went about his farm work with a heavy heart but did not again mention the sea.

One day, he had been walking behind the plough. He all but ran over a tiny green turtle on a clod of dirt.

He picked the turtle up and set it on his head where he knew it would be safe.

When he was done with ploughing, Jon plucked the turtle from his head.

To his utter surprise he found that it had turned into a tiny green fairy man that stood upon his palm and bowed.

“I thank you for your kindness, tell me your heart’s desire and I’ll grant it to you for saving my life,” said the fairy.

Jon bowed back but said nothing. Although his heart yearned to go out to the sea, he did not express his wish.

The green fairy man could read a heart easily so he said, “I see you wish to go sailing”. Jon’s face answered for him.