A hare was always making fun of a tortoise for being so slow.  "Get moving, slowpoke," he would shout.  "Is that the fastest you can go?"  One day, the tortoise decided that he had had enough and challenged the hare to a race.

          The hare laughed and laughed.  "A race with you?" he scoffed.  "I'll get to the finish before you even cross the starting line!"

          "Never mind that, " said the tortoise.  "Let's just have the race."

          A course was set by all the animals and the fox was to be the judge.  When the fox barked, the race began.

          Quicker than you can say "Go," the hare sprang ahead and vanished down the path.  Meanwhile the tortoise went along at his usual slow speed.

          Before long, the hare decided to stop and have a rest.  "After all," he thought, "that slow tortoise will take hours to catch up with me!"

          So he stretched out on some shady grass.  Soon he began to yawn.  "Perhaps I'll just take a quick nap," he said, and with that, he fell asleep.

          Meanwhile the tortoise kept plodding along.  And when the hare awoke, the tortoise was at the finish line.

          So the moral of the story is as follows:  In the end, slow and steady wins the race.