The hare was the fastest animal in the animal kingdom, no other animal could outrun it or so he thought. This ability got into his head, he bragged all day and all night.
"Who can compete with me? If you know you can, come forward and if you win, I'll give you all my properties, everything I own, my barns, my lands, my houses even my servants. If I defeat you, you will serve me all your life," he bragged.
No animal was brave enough to challenge it. It would be futile, no one came forward.
"Cowards! The bunch of you!" The Hare laughed mockingly.
"I accept your challenge!" A sharp voice came from among the crowd of animals gathered. It was the tortoise. The hare laughed even more, this time, other animals joined in.
"Don't be stupid!" The hare said, "Do I look to you like Mr. Snail? I expect the likes of Mr. Fox and Mr. Dog to challenge me not you slow slime," the hare mocked.
Other animals tried to discourage the tortoise but he would not be dissuaded. Tortoise's wives and children began to cry and plead to reconsider his unwise decision. He ignored them.
The day of the race came, Tortoise's family went along with him to the starting line crying and pleading, it was not too late to change his decision but Tortoise remained unmoved.
Mr. Pig fired the gun and the hare took off immediately, in a few seconds, he was out of sight while the Tortoise crawled slowly, the wails of his loved ones behind him.
The hare ran and when it got to a tree, it stopped to rest, "I'll win the race anyway," he said gulping some water from his water bottle as he laid at the base of the tree and slept off.
He had a nice dream, the Tortoise was in his house serving him some hot porridge on a golden stool.
The tortoise soon got to where the Hare laid down, shook his head, smiled and continued his crawling.
After a long time, the hare woke up with a start, he started running to the finish line, but it was too late. The Tortoise had crossed the finish line and he was being awarded. Mr Hare lost all his properties to the Tortoise.
Slow and steady wins the race
It was nice to read this story again. Do you think it went this way?
I wonder if a tortoise can have a shared voice but also if the hare would have had a lot of fun by having a tortoise for a servant. I think it would have annoyed him. What do you think?