James Baldwin

The Hare and the Tortoise

"W HAT a slow fellow you are," said a Hare to a Tortoise one day. "I pity any one who has to creep along as you do!"

"Do you?" said the Tortoise. "Suppose we run a race to the foot of yonder mountain. Slow as I am, I will beat you."

"What a boaster you are!" said the Hare. "You know very well that you can not. But of course I will race with you, although it will be no race at all."

"Let us ask the Fox to mark off the bounds and see that the race is fair," said the Tortoise.

"Agreed!" said the Hare; and he laughed at the thought of such a race.

So they called in the Fox, and he showed them where to start, and how far to run. Then, at word from him, the race began.

The Tortoise lost no time, but started at once and kept straight on.

The Hare leaped along gaily for a minute or two, and then, when he saw that he had left the Tortoise out of sight, he stopped to play a while. Then he went on a little farther, and, as the sun was hot, he lay down among the grass by the roadside to take a nap.

He woke up by and by, and ran as fast as he could. But when he came to the goal at the foot of the mountain, the Tortoise was already there.

"Slow and steady wins the race!" cried the Fox.