Once upon a time, in a shady forest somewhere in Europe lived a medley of animals. One day, a tortoise crawled onto a hill to watch the beautiful setting sun take its daily journey. Just as the tortoise’s eyes were beginning to feel droopy, the hare, who was known for his unkind demeanor, suddenly appeared right in front of the tortoise’s nose! The tortoise scowled and asked, “Why must you bother me right now? The hare paid no attention and started his daily, no, rather hourly, teasing. “Oh, lowly tortoise,” the hare began, “will you ever run quickly on those stout legs?” The tortoise replied, “That’s the five hundred and twelfth time you’ve said that this month! Why don’t we have a race?” For the tortoise was wise and had a plan. The hare agreed for he thought that it would be no contest. It was decided that Dolly the Doe would set the course and be the judge. In a couple of minutes, the hare and the tortoise crouched at the starting line, awaiting the signal.

The hare was very confident, and the tortoise stifled a laugh. The signal was given, and the hare bolted ahead with a speed like a thunderbolt that no one in the forest had ever seen the likes of. The tortoise lagged far behind, so the hare decided to take a short break. The hare only meant to catch his breath, but he found a blueberry bush and consumed enough blueberries to fill a dozen blueberry pies and eventually dozed off. However, the tortoise plodded on, and in time, reached the finish line. The hare woke with a start at the sound of the cheering and dashed to the finish line, but to his dismay, he found that the tortoise had won the race. The hare’s eyes welled up with tears as vast as the Seven Seas, and he decided that he would not be so over-confident and cocky next time.