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."
It is
thrifty to prepare today for the wants of tomorrow