“I said to the Deer,” answered the Tortoise, “‘Let us run a race, to see who can run the faster.’ Now I am going to cheat that Deer. You scatter yourselves along the edge of the campo, in the forest, keeping not very far from one another, and see that you keep perfectly still, each in his place! To-morrow, when we begin the race, the deer will run on the campo, but I will remain quietly in my place. When he calls out to me, if you are ahead of him, answer, but take care not to respond if he has passed you.”
Early the next morning the Deer went out to meet the Tortoise.
“Come,” said the former, “let us run!”
“Wait a bit!” said the Tortoise, “I am going to run in the woods.”
“Why, how are you, a little, short-legged fellow, going to run in the forest?” asked the Deer, surprised.
The Tortoise insisted that he could not run in the campo, but that he was accustomed to run in the forest, so the Deer assented, and the Tortoise went into the woods, saying: “When I take my position I will make a noise with a little stick, so that you may know I am ready.”
When the Tortoise, having reached his place, gave the signal, the Deer started off leisurely, laughing to himself, not thinking it worth his while to run. After the Deer had gone quite a little distance, he turned round and called out, “Hullo, Tortoise!” When to his astonishment, a Tortoise a little way ahead cried out, “Hullo, Deer!”
“Well,” said the Deer to himself, “that Tortoise does run fast!” Whereupon he hurried up for a bit and then called out again, but the voice of the Tortoise still seemed to be beyond him.
“Why, how’s this?” exclaimed the Deer, and he ran briskly for a little ways till, thinking that he surely must have passed the Tortoise, he stopped, turned about, and called again. “Hullo, Deer!” the answer came from the edge of the forest just ahead.
On this the Deer set off at full speed, and, after a little, but without stopping this time, he called to the Tortoise. And still the cry, “Hullo, Deer!” came back to him from ahead. He then redoubled his forces, but with no better success, and at last, tired and bewildered, he ran against a tree and fell dead.