The Tortoise and the Hare
About 1 min read aloud
The whole story, told short. Ages 3-8.
0% · About 2 min left
A hare who could run faster than anything in the field liked to mention it. One morning he found a tortoise crossing the path and told him he could run to the far hill and back twice before the tortoise got across.
"I'll race you," said the tortoise.
Every animal came to watch. The fox said go, and the hare was gone like a brown streak through the grass. The tortoise started walking.
Halfway up the slope the hare looked back. The tortoise was a tiny dark shape near the bottom of the field. The sun was warm and there was soft grass in the shade of a rock, so the hare lay down for an hour.
The tortoise came up the slope. He did not hurry, because he could not, and he did not stop, because there was no reason to. He walked right past the sleeping hare.
The hare woke up because of the cheering. He ran better than he had ever run in his life, and he was still running when the tortoise put one foot over the line.
Nobody said anything unkind to him. They did not have to.