Problem/Solution
Main Problem: Mr. Hoppy is in love with Mrs. Silver. He wants to be in a relationship with her. He want to win her love. He is looking for any way to impress her. He discovered Mrs. Silver’s desire to enlarge her tortoise.
Solution to the Main Problem: Mr. Hoppy provided Mrs. Silver with the “magic” words to enlarge Alfie. But, Mr. Hoppy doesn’t have magic powers and the words that he gave Mrs. Silver aren’t really magic. Mr. Hoppy buys 140 tortoises and brings them back to his flat. Then he builds a tortoise catcher and removes Alfie from Mrs. Silver’s balcony and exchanges him with tortoise number 2, a slightly bigger tortoise. He changed the tortoises every week for 8 weeks and each time he replaces one with another slightly bigger tortoise. Finally, “Alfie,” is so big that Mrs. Silver is happy with her big tortoise. Mr. Hoppy asks Mrs. Silver to marry him and she says, “I thought you’d never ask.” They get married and Mrs. Silver becomes Mrs. Hoppy.
Minor problem: Mr. Hoppy has to switch out Alfie and all of the other tortoises until they get big enough to please Mrs. Silver. He has to lift tortoises off of Mrs. Silver’s balcony up to his own balcony, find a tortoise that is 2 ounces heavier, and then return the new tortoise to Mrs. Silver’s balcony.
Solution to the Minor problem: Mr. Hoppy travels to his old work where he worked as a mechanic on buses. At his old shop he constructs a “tortoise catcher.” The tortoise catcher is a device that has a long handle. He lowers its jaws over the tortoise and then pulls a chord at the top, which clamps the jaws around the tortoise. He is then able to pull it up to his balcony.