Aesop's Fables

The Ants and the Grasshopper

THE ANTS were spending a fine winter’s day drying grain collected
in the summertime.  A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed
by and earnestly begged for a little food.  The Ants inquired of
him, “Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?’ He
replied, “I had not leisure enough.  I passed the days in
singing.”  They then said in derision:  “If you were foolish enough
to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the
winter.”