Hare could be charming, but he was best known for being impetuous,
bigheaded and vain. In his own eyes he was the most handsome and fastest
of all in the animal kingdom. He couldn’t stop boasting and belittling
the other animals, who were not as well endowed as he was.
One day when hare was prancing through the wood, he came upon tortoise,
who was having a quiet nap by the wayside. Hare stopped and started
laughing very loud. “Look at those stupid little legs! I’m not surprised
you’re always sleeping, friend tortoise, those little stumps must get
tired very quickly!”
Tortoise woke up, he was a little bit hurt and very annoyed. He decided
hare needed to be taught a lesson. “You may be very fast, friend hare”,
he began, “but I am very steady. We’ll have a race, and I’ll show you
that steady beats fast anytime!”
Hare accepted the challenge, of course. He was so full of himself, that
he simply could not contemplate he possibility of anybody beating him in
a race, let alone that slowcoach, tortoise!
Fox agreed to be the referee and he set the course for the race. Many
animals turned up for the start. Hare went off in a flurry, tortoise
started as he knew he would continue, slow but steady. Hare was very
enthusiastic, but he was not very disciplined. He raced here and there,
he went off the course, gambolling through trees and bushes. After a few
minutes, he stopped to see if there was any sign of tortoise. Of course
there wasn’t. He decided to have a little nap, all this running had
made him sleepy.
Meanwhile tortoise just kept going, slow and steady.
Hare woke up, looked around him, and could see no sign of tortoise. I’d
better run to the finish quickly, he said to himself, and put an end to
this. Off he went, in his gambolling way. You can imagine his great
surprise, that on reaching the finishing line, he saw that tortoise had
already arrived. “That’s impossible!” he screamed. Tortoise just smiled.
“Slow but steady”, he said, “always comes out on top!”
No comments:
Post a Comment