THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE
One fine day a hare was being a bit unkind and made fun of his friend the tortoise for
being such a slowcoach.
The hare laughed and laughed and said, "How do you ever actually get anywhere?"
"Hmmm," replied the tortoise, "Oh, I get there all right and much sooner than you might
think. Why don’t we run a race and you will find out?"
The hare thought this was highly amusing and giggled as he pictured himself zipping
along miles ahead of the slow old tortoise. “Okay, you’re on,” agreed the hare. They got
their friend the fox to act as the judge and he counted down, “5,4,3,2,1 and off you go!”
Very quickly, the hare raced ahead and he was way off in the distance as the tortoise
crept slowly along on his little legs, carrying the heavy shell on his back.
The hare knew the tortoise was a very long way back and would take ages to catch up.
So he thought he would have a little sleep and that would make the tortoise feel very
silly for challenging him, a hare, to a race. Then he could spring up and dash for the
finish line.
Now, the tortoise just kept plodding slowly and steadily along and, as time went on, he
passed the spot where the hare lay fast asleep. The tortoise just kept going until he was
very close to the finish line. The hare suddenly woke up and ran as fast as he could but
he was too late. The tortoise crossed the line and was declared the winner.
And the moral of that story is that it's not always the fastest who wins the race.
The End
THE FOX AND THE GRAPES
One fine and sunny day a fox was strolling along minding his own foxy business.
He thought he might sit down under a shady tree and have some lunch, as he was a bit
thirsty and hungry.
Then he realised he’d left his lovely packed lunch at home.
"Oh, you foolish fox!” he said to himself.but just then he looked up and what should he
see but the most delicious-looking bunch of purple grapes he’d ever seen in his whole
foxy life.
They were just sitting there; hanging from a grapevine that ran along the branches of a
tree.The grapes looked like they were about to burst with the tastiest juice and the fox’s
mouth began to water. “Oh, I’ve got to have these, just got to!” he muttered to himself, “I
shall fill my foxy face with them!”
The bunch of grapes hung from a very high branch so the fox jumped up to reach it. He
hadn’t jumped high enough and missed it by a long way. So he walked back a little way
and took a running leap. Up he went but not high enough and his paw missed the
grapes. He kept jumping and jumping but every single time he missed.
Now he was hot and tired and thirsty and hungry and cross. He sat down under the tree
and looked up at the grapes in disgust.
"What a foxy fool I am," he muttered. "What am I doing wearing myself out jumping up
and down on a hot day like this just to get hold of a bunch of horrible old sour grapes?"
So, he got up, made a cross face and off he went.
And the moral of the story is that sometimes people pretend to dislike things they can’t
have. Oh, and did you know that this is where the phrase ‘sour grapes’ comes from?
The End
