Tortoise and the “powerful”

Tortoise and the “powerful”

Tortoise was angry with Elephant and Hippo. They were proud and boastful. They always laughed at Tortoise because he was weak and small. Tortoise decided to play a trick on them.
One evening tortoise went to the elephant’s home. Elephant was eating so tortoise asked for something to eat. Elephant was angry.
You are too small and weak to eat my food,” he said
Tortoise replied, “I’m stronger than you and I can prove it. Let’s have a tug-of-war and see who is the stronger.”
Elephant laughed and laughed at this but he agreed to the contest. Tortoise tied one end of a strong rope around elephant’s neck and then he took the other end himself. He told elephant to wait until he called “pull”.
Tortoise ran into the forest and soon arrived where hippo lived. Hippo was having a bath in the river.
Tortoise said, “I’m going to show you that I’m stronger then you. We’re going to have a tug-of-war.” Hippo was very angry so he got out of the water at once.
Tortoise tied the second end of the rope around hippo’s neck. Then he ran into the forest again and hid. Then he shouted, “pull!”
Both elephant and hippo pulled hard. At first elephant was stronger but then he got tired and hippo started to win. And then hippo got tired so elephant began to win again.
This went on for many hours. Tortoise sat and laughed. When night came tortoise was tired because he was laughing so much. He took out his scissors and cut the rope in the middle. The rope broke and both animals fell backward, rumbling on and on before the Elephant fell face flat on his house while the hippo fell in to the water.
Tortoise went home happy with the sweet thought that intelligence is better than strength.