The Tortoise and the Hare

One day a hare was bragging about how fast he could run. He bragged and bragged and even laughed at the tortoise who was so slow. The tortoise stretched out his long neck and challenged the hare to a race, which of course, made the hare laugh.  

"My, my, what a joke!" thought the hare. "A race, indeed, a race. Oh! what fun! My, my, a race, of course Mr. Tortoise, we shall race!"

The forest animals met and mapped out the course. The race began and the hare, being such a swift runner, soon left the tortoise far behind. About halfway through the course it occurred to the hare that he had plenty of time to beat the slow trodden tortoise.

"Oh my!" thought the hare, "I have plenty of time to play in the meadow here."

And so he did.

After the hare finished playing, he decided that he also had time to take a little nap.

"I have plenty of time to beat that tortoise," he though. And he cuddled up against a tree and dozed.

The sun started to sink and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he'd be first at the finish. But the hare's last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare!

"Slow and steady wins the race!" the tortoise said.

I woke up this morning thinking about this story. Maybe I had a dream about it, but for some reason it was really on my mind.  It is an important story after all.  All too often I am just like that hare and one day it is probably going to get me into trouble.  Good thing Aesop thought of all those fables to teach us important lessons like this. From now on, I'm going to try to be a little less like the hare and a little more like the tortoise.