One day the tortoise was taking a nice, slow walk. He was going around the lake. Suddenly—whoosh! Wind rushed at him as the hare raced past. The tortoise flopped over onto his back.
"Oops!" The hare laughed loudly.
Tortoise turned himself back over. "It's not funny, Hare. You should be careful of others on the path!"
"Well, slowpokes shouldn't be on the path," Hare said. "It's for speedy runners like me."
Just then a fox walked by. He saw the two animals' angry expressions.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"This path is for speedy runners, not slow walkers!" Hare said.
"The path is for everyone!" Tortoise said.
They glared at each other.
"Let's have a race," Hare finally said. "The winner can decide who gets to use the path."
"Fine," Tortoise said. "We'll race!"
"I can be the judge," Fox said.
"We'll have the race tomorrow," Hare said. "We'll race once around the lake."
"I'll be here!" Tortoise said.
The next day lots of animals gathered to watch the race. The hare and the tortoise met at the starting line.
The hare grinned. "You'll never beat me. I'm fast, and you're slow. Just give up, Tortoise."
"I want to race," the tortoise said calmly. "Then we'll see who the winner is."
The fox came over to start the race. "On your mark . . . get set . . . go!"
The two racers took off.
The hare instantly shot ahead. "See you later, Tortoise—much later!" he said, laughing.
The hare ran fast for a while. When he looked back, he couldn't see the tortoise at all.
"I'm way ahead of him!" he thought.
Up ahead, Hare spotted some delicious-looking carrots. "Yum! I'll stop for a snack. That slow tortoise will never catch up to me!"
The tortoise kept walking along at the same steady pace. Following the path, he kept his eyes straight ahead.
"Tortoise! Tortoise!" Some animals cheered his name. "You can do it!"
"Aah!" The hare suddenly woke up. "I fell asleep after my snack!" He looked back, but the tortoise was nowhere in sight. "Phew!"
He got up and raced toward the finish line. When he got close, he gasped in surprise. The tortoise was crossing the finish line!
"Impossible!" Hare cried.
Tortoise looked back at Hare and smiled. "You're very fast, Hare. But slow but steady wins the race!"