The Tortoise and the Hare

Hare was fast, and everybody knew it, because Hare told them every single day.

"Did you see me cross the meadow this morning?" he would say. "Faster than the wind! Faster than a falling star! Nobody in the whole wide world is as fast as me."

The other animals rolled their eyes. The birds pretended they hadn't heard. And Tortoise, who was munching a dandelion very slowly, said nothing at all.

"And you," said Hare, bouncing in a circle around him. "You are the slowest creature I have ever seen. It must take you a week to get to breakfast."

Tortoise finished chewing. Then he looked up.

"Would you like to race me?" he asked.

The race

Hare laughed so hard he fell over.

But Tortoise meant it, and soon the whole meadow had gathered to watch. Fox drew a line in the dust for the start. Owl agreed to wait at the old oak tree on the far side of the hill, which would be the finish.

"Ready," said Fox. "Steady. Go!"

Hare shot away like an arrow. In a few heartbeats he was over the first little rise and out of sight.

Tortoise put one foot forward. Then another. Then another.

The watching animals sighed. "Poor Tortoise," said Rabbit. "He'll still be walking at bedtime."

A little rest

Halfway up the hill, Hare stopped and looked back. Far, far behind him, he could just see a small brown dot on the path.

"Ha!" he said. "I could stop for lunch, have a bath and write a song, and he still wouldn't catch me."

The sun was warm. The grass under the hawthorn tree looked soft and cool.

"I'll just rest my eyes for a minute," said Hare.

And he fell fast asleep.

Step by step

Tortoise did not stop.

He did not stop when his legs grew tired. He did not stop when the path turned steep and stony. He did not stop when a butterfly landed on his shell and said, "Why bother? You can't possibly win."

"Maybe not," said Tortoise. "But I can keep going."

He walked past the hawthorn tree, where Hare was snoring with his ears flopped over his face. He did not wake him. He did not boast. He simply walked on, one foot, then the next, then the next.

The finish

When Hare woke up, the shadows were long and the air was cooler. He stretched, yawned and looked down the path.

There was no brown dot.

He looked up the hill, and his heart dropped into his paws. There, almost at the old oak tree, was Tortoise.

Hare ran faster than he had ever run in his life. He flew over the stones. He leaped over the roots. But it was too late. Tortoise's nose crossed the line just before Hare skidded in, panting.

The animals cheered until the leaves shook.

Hare sat down in the dust. For once, he had nothing to say.

"You are much faster than me," said Tortoise kindly. "But being fast isn't the same as finishing."

About this fable

This is one of the best-known fables credited to Aesop, the storyteller of ancient Greece. It has been retold in hundreds of languages, and "slow and steady wins the race" has become a saying all over the world. This version is a shortened, simplified retelling.