One of Aesop’s Fables
Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: “Who do you think you are? There’s no denying you’re swift, but even you can be beaten!” The hare squealed with laughter.
“Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there’s nobody in
the world that can win against me, I’m so speedy. Now, why don’t you
try?”
Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A
course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting
line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off.
When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half
asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. “Take your time!” he said.
“I’ll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute.”
The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round,
looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance
away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of
relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he
went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the
heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless
glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have
another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at
the thought of the look on the tortoise’s face when it saw the hare
speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun
started to sink, below the horizon, 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! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the
tortoise who was silently smiling at him.
“Slowly does it every time!” he said.
Moral of the Story-
- Try and try, till you succeed.
- Never loose your courage.
- Never underestimate yourself.
