Advice From The Long-Lived Tortoise comic poem 191

 

Would you prefer to jump like a porpoise

Or move slow and sedate, like a tortoise?

You must admit the latter looks stronger

And knows how to live a whole lot longer

The oldest's a hundred and eighty-eight

The oldest creature in the world, we're told

If only he could talk, I would ask him

"How ever did you get to be so old?

"You outlive a cat, don't play cat and mouse,

You don't have the known stress of moving house!"

"I do walk a lot, but it's slow walking

Don't waste time on pointless, endless talking."

-end-

The second line was originally

Or move very slowly, like a tortoise

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_(tortoise)#cite_note-15

Jonathan the St Helena tortoise on the reverse of a five cent St Helena coin.