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Fables and tales

The Hare and the Tortoise

Author: Aesop Year: 1867 Length: 488 characters Difficulty: easy Public domain

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A HARE one day ridiculed the short feet and slow pace of the Tortoise, who replied, laughing: “Though you be swift as the wind, I will beat you in a race.” The Hare, believing her assertion to be simply impossible, assented to the proposal; and they agreed that the Fox should choose the course and fix the goal. On the day appointed for the race the two started together. The Tortoise never for a moment stopped, but went on with a slow but steady pace straight to the end of the course.

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A horse and cart on a wet road under bare trees beside a stone wall at night, A Wet Moon, Putney Road, John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1886. — Wikimedia Commons

About this text

The race between the hare and the tortoise carries number 226 in the Perry Index of Greek fables. This English wording is by the Reverend George Fyler Townsend, whose collection of three hundred fables appeared in London in 1867. The fox chooses the course and fixes the goal, a detail the older Greek versions also keep. Aesop himself is a half legendary figure, said to have lived in the sixth century before our era.

About this text

The race between the hare and the tortoise carries number 226 in the Perry Index of Greek fables. This English wording is by the Reverend George Fyler Townsend, whose collection of three hundred fables appeared in London in 1867. The fox chooses the course and fixes the goal, a detail the older Greek versions also keep. Aesop himself is a half legendary figure, said to have lived in the sixth century before our era.

What it trains

Opens with a word in capitals and holds a quotation inside the first sentence, so Shift and the quotation mark come early.

Public domain

Copyright has expired or never applied, so anyone can copy the text and use it further.

Source: domena publiczna, Project Gutenberg

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Updated: 2026-08-08