on a cold frosty day in winter, the ants were dragging out some of the corn which they had laid up in summer-time, so as to air it. the grasshopper, half-starved with hunger, begged the ants to give him a morsel of it to save his life. "nay," said they, "but you should have worked in the summer, and you would not have wanted in winter."

"well," says the grasshopper, "but i was not idle either, for i sung out the whole season!" "nay, then," said the ants," you'll do well to make a merry year of it, and dance in winter to the tune that you sung in summer. "