THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE

Deep in the forest there was a clearing. A stream ran through it and it was here in the evening that all the animals would gather to drink. The tortoise was always the last to arrive and as he plodded slowly to the stream all the other animals would laugh and call him names because he was so slow.

One evening as tortoise ambled towards the stream the hare who was the fastest animal in the forest called to the tortoise, “Come on, slow coach”. The hare then started boasting.

“I am the fastest here”, he said. “I can run faster than any of you”.

On hearing this the tortoise walked slowly over to the hare and said, “All right, then. If you think you’re so fast I’ll challenge you to a race”.

The hare fell over with laughter.

“You?”, he said. “You, race against me?! Ha, ha, ha! I’ve never heard anything so funny! You’ll never beat me in a race!”.

Most of the other animals also thought the idea of tortoise beating hare was quite funny and went chuckling to themselves. The fox said, “Come on, tortoise, you’ll lame the distance on time and we’ll all come along to watch”.

“Let’s start at sunrise”, said tortoise. “We’ll run from here to the edge of the forest and then back again by the edge of the stream. The first one back into this clearing will be the winner”.

“Agreed”, said the hare.

The Hare thought that this was going to be an easy victory and ran off into the forest to tell his friends. The tortoise settled down in the long rasp for the night.

At sunrise all the animals had turned out to see the race. The Hare and the Tortoise stood at the start line. The Fox said, “Ready, steady, go!”.

With this the Hare jumped up and ran off waving to all his friends on the way. The Tortoise started to plod away from the start line. Very soon the Hare was out of sight but the Tortoise kept lumbering along. Tortoise did not wave to anyone as Hare had done he just kept putting one foot slowly in front of the other as he plodded along.

As the Hare ran along he kept stopping to chat to his friends and nibble the sweet grass. Very soon the Hare had passed the half way point and was on his way back to the clearing by following the edge of the stream. The sun was now high in the sky and eating all that grass had made him feel a little sleepy. The Hare thought to himself “The Tortoise will take all day to complete the course. I think I’ll just lie down here for a nap.” He lay down and very soon fell asleep.

The Tortoise on the other hand had not chatted to any of his friends or eaten any sweet grass. He had kept plodding on. And very soon reached the point where Hare was sleeping. Tortoise smiled gently to himself as he ambled quietly past the Hare. Later that day the animals waiting in the clearing saw the Tortoise plodding towards them.

“Where’s the Hare?”, they called out.

But tortoise didn’t waste his breath by calling back to them. He kept waking slowly towards them. And very soon crossed the finishing line.

“Hurray! Tortoise has won! Well done, slow coach!” they called out.

Only then did Tortoise tell the others that he had passed Hare asleep by the stream. Suddenly there was a rustle in the forest. And Hare burst into the clearing at great speed. He had well come and realised that he had slept much longer than intended. He had raced back to the clearing but it was too late.

“You see”, said Tortoise, “slow and steady wins the race”.