The Tortoise and the Hare
One clear, sunny morning a hare was in his burrow admiring himself in his mirror.
"My what a handsome hare you are." He said to himself admiringly, "and oh how speedy. Anyone who tried to race you would probably be so embarrassed they would move to another forest! I feel sorry for them just thinking about it, well, not really!" and he laughed a hearty laugh all the way outside.
Just as he was leaving, a tortoise was just passing over the opening to his burrow and politely said good morning to the hare. The hare grunted rudely and continued on proudly gaiting about. As he moved a little farther, he casually glanced back at the tortoise that had turned and had started plodding on in the other direction. "Oh well," the hare thought to himself, "He's not the only one who doesn't like me in this forest. And what's a stupid tortoise to such a handsome hare as me anyway?" He laughed merrily again.
He was deep in thought when a buck came up to him and declared so loud that everybody could hear him, "So you think that you are so cool and fast, huh? Let's see who's the fastest and race tomorrow at noon. Or are you too afraid?"
Indeed the hare was afraid. He had never raced anyone so agile and big but he still said,
"I never turn down an opportunity to crush someone at a race. I accept your challenge." The hare replied haughtily, "In fact let's make it 11:00 shall we?"
The buck agreed and quickly and gracefully bound off into the tall thick trees where a doe was waiting for him. The hare quickly turned and headed toward the waterfall before anyone could start asking questions. Muttering to himself about how much he was in for, he didn't notice how dark it was getting. Finally he looked up and saw the dark-grey, gloomy rain clouds forming above, so he turned abruptly and sped to his home.
Upon reaching his house, the hare went to his kitchen and made a carrot and peanut-butter sandwich then sat down at his table to eat it. He glanced at his clock. It was half past 3:00. He sighed and thought that if he hadn't boasted so much he wouldn't be in this mess.
"Well there's no backing out now so I might as well get used to the fact," he told himself, out loud (again).
He poked his head out of the top of his borrow and looked to see if the rain had stopped. It hadn't yet, so he went to his bookshelf and picked out one of his favourite volumes, The Best Way to Grow Carrots, and sat down to read while he waited for the rain to stop. He was so engrossed in his book that he didn't realize that it was now 7:00 and the rain had stopped hours ago and he went back to his kitchen and ate something quickly before he started to get ready for bed. It was 8:00 before he crawled under his covers and closed his eyes. He wanted to get a good night sleep before tomorrow's race with the buck.
Early the next morning, the hare woke up refreshed and full of energy. He hurried eating and getting ready so he could jog to meet the buck. He got there an hour earlier than any body else, so he started to practise running around a small race course that he made himself quickly. He started to pant a few minutes after he was running and said more to himself than anyone, "Maybe if I pick a course that had an alternate, faster route I could stand a chance against the buck!"
He glanced about quickly and with some trouble found the kind of course he was looking for. He was just returning when he saw the buck bounding towards him.
"Ready?" the buck said in a teasing voice. "Or are you going to forefoot?"
"I was born ready. Even if I fore footed you'd still probably lose!" the hare retorted back.
The buck gave the hare a look that said you just wait until I crush you.
"Well I thought that since you chose to race me, and I'm much, much smaller than you, that I would be able to pick the course we race on." The hare said mischievously.
The buck agreed and the hare showed him the designated course. Past the sycamore tree, around the water fall (this where the hare took an alternate route), through the meadow, through the cave, and back past the broken bridge.
They lined up at the start line. Someone in the crowd said "Get Ready, Get Set, GO!"
The two were off! Each of them racing their absolute hardest, but of course the buck was in first and kept ahead until they were at the water fall. Once the hare was so far behind the buck that he was sure he couldn't see him, he took his alternate route and ran right past the waterfall towards the cave. Now he was ahead of the buck; his plan had worked and all he had to do to win was come to the broken bridge. Lightning fast he zipped to the bridge first and he won the race; but the buck wasn't happy.
"You cheated! I saw you! You didn't go around the water fall you went past it! I demand a rematch!" the buck demanded angrily.
The hare declined saying that he won fare and square and left quickly. He went back to the shelter of his burrow.
The next day he went into the forest and there he saw the tortoise again.
"Oh now what do you want?" the hare said impatiently.
"I saw you cheat yesterday and I don't think that you ever do anything fairly. I challenge you to a race Mr. Hare and if you cheat…boy it'll be the last thing you do in this forest." The tortoise told him.
"Ha! I accept your challenge Mr. Tortoise and this time I won't have to cheat because you're the slowest thing in this forest!." The hare said back to the tortoise, "When shall we race?"
"Right now." The tortoise said back to the hare angrily.
The hare agreed and set off with the tortoise to set up a course, but ended up deciding upon on the same course the hare and the buck had used. Soon after, a crowd began gathering upon hearing that another race was taking place.
When the hare and the tortoise were ready the crowd yelled, "Get ready, Get set, GO!" all together
The hare and the tortoise set off. The hare started like a bolt of lightning while the tortoise plodded on slowly behind him. The hare reached the meadow before the tortoise was even at the water fall yet. He decided, to be funny, he would pretend to have a nap and when the tortoise came by he would spring up and win the race, so he settled down against some rocks, closed his eyes, and let out a quiet, fake snore. But sitting there was extremely boring for the hare and he actually fell asleep and didn't waken until the applause and cheers started just as the hare was just crossing the finish line. Furious, the hare sped to the old broken bridge and to the finish line demanding a rematch.
Laughingly the tortoise said, "It's not my fault you wanted to take a nap."
The hare furiously bounded off back towards his burrow. On his way though, he unfortunately didn't see a tree coming up in front of him and he smacked his head hard on it. Only the tortoise heard the loud bang and came up quickly to see what it was. He found the hare lying on the ground and he called for help. A few generous bears took him to a doctor and he said that the hare had only a small concussion. Later that day, the tortoise went to the hospital and said that he felt sorry for him. Shocked, hare thanked him and they became friends.
THE END