On that year, Olivia Owl talked to Barry the Bear and told him that she did not think that there would be a race. “You know,” said Olivia. “No one wants to race Hubert because he brags too much! They all say that it is no fun and that they do not want to! They would rather spend their day doing something better!”
“If only someone could race better than Hubert!” said Barry. He sighed. But, Barry and Olivia both knew that no one was faster than Hubert and that no one would ever be able to beat such a quick hare, no matter who they were! Hubert was undefeated!
“I can race,” said a slow, old voice. He sounded very slow and very shaky.
Olivia and Barry both turned around, and there, they saw Tommy the Tortoise! He was moving very, very slowly toward them. Both Olivia and Barry had to try very hard not to laugh. A tortoise against a hare? There would be no chance that Tommy could win at all! Everyone knew that tortoises were very slow and that they would never be able to run faster than a hare!
“If no one else is going to race, I will!” Tommy said, very slowly. “I do not want all of the spring fun to be ended because no one wanted to try! I am not afraid of losing.”
“If you say so,” said Barry and Olivia hooted in agreement. But, they needed someone for Hubert to race against, so they had no choice. They would have to let Tommy race, too!
On the days leading up to the race, the word got out very far. There was lots of talk about how a tortoise was going to race against the fastest animal that the forest had ever seen and everyone thought that was very funny. They did not believe that he would be able to win! But, they were willing to watch and see what happened. After all, anything was possible.
The day before the big race, Hubert came up to Tommy. Hubert looked at the old tortoise and laughed. He was very glad to see that the tortoise looked as old as he had sounded! “So, big guy, you think that you can beat me, huh?” asked Hubert. Hubert ran circles around Tommy as fast as he could. “Do you really think you’re faster than me? Look! I can literally run circles around you!” And Hubert was. Hubert could run a circle around Tommy before he could even move his feet quickly enough for just one step. “You’re going down!”
But, Tommy did not care. Tommy just smiled at Hubert and kept on going along without a care in the world. You see, Tommy was too old to care about winning or losing. He was too old to think that only the fastest would win. He knew a very important secret and he w’as sure that his very important secret would be enough for him to figure out how to beat Hubert. And, even if he did lose, he was okay with that, too, for he was not a sore loser.