The Tortoise and the Hare

One day a hare was making fun of a tortoise for being slow, while a the same time he bragged about his own speed.

“I’ll race you,” the tortoise said quietly.

“You’ll WHAT?!” the hare laughed.

“I said, I’ll race you,” the tortoise repeated.

“HA! You race me? That’s a laugh!” the hare guffawed. “why, I’d be at the finish line before you even got started!”

“And I bet I’ll win,” the tortoise calmly continued.

“It’s a bet!” cried the hare, and the two shook hands on the wager.

They asked a fox to judge the race and set the finish line, and then they were off.  With amazing speed, the hare was away and rounding the first bend before the tortoise had taken even a few steps.  Soon, the hare had run so far ahead that he could no longer even see the tortoise behind him.

“Maybe I’ll just wait here until I can actually see the fleet-footed Mr. Tortoise,” the hare chuckled,, as he stretched in the shade of a roadside tree.  “And to think that tortoise bet that he could beat me!”  The smirking hare leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes.  “What a chump!”  Soon he was fast asleep.

Meanwhile, the tortoise kept right on steadily putting one foot in front of the other as he slowly plodded along.  He even plodded on tiptoe as he passed the tree where the hare blissfully dozed.

The hare had no idea when, exactly, the tortoise has passed him.  In fact, it wasn’t until sometime much later that he finally woke up.  But by then it was too late.

Even though he ran with all of his might, the hared reached the finish line just in time to see the tortoise cross it before him.

The moral of the story is, “slow and steady, wins the race!”

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