The Ant and the Grasshopper

On a warm day in summer, an Ant was busy in the field gathering grains of wheat and corn, which he laid up for winter food. A Grasshopper saw him at work, and laughed at him for toiling so hard, when others were at ease.

The Ant said nothing. But afterwards, when winter came, and the ground was hard, the Grasshopper was nearly dead with hunger. He came to the Ant to beg something to eat. Then the Ant said to him:—

"If you had worked when I did, instead of laughing at me, you would not now be in need."