The Ant and the Cricket

"Go to the ant, O sluggard,

Observe its ways and be wise,

Which, having no chief,

Officer or ruler,

Prepares her food in the summer

And gathers her provision in the harvest.

How long will you lie down, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

'A little sleep, a little slumber, 

A little folding of the hands to rest'-

Your poverty will come in like a vagabond

And your need like an armed man."

— Proverbs 6:6-11

    

A silly young cricket, accustomed to sing

Through the warm, sunny months of gay summer and spring, 

Began to complain, when he found that at home 

His cupboard was empty and winter was come.

Not a crumb to be found 

On the snow-covered ground;

Not a flower could he see,

Not a leaf on a tree.

"Oh, what will become,"says the cricket, "of me?"

At last by starvation and famine made bold,

All dripping with wet and all trembling with cold,

Away he set off to a miserly ant

To see if, to keep him alive, he would grant 

him shelter from rain.

A mouthful of grain 

He wished only to borrow,

He'd repay it to-morrow;

If not helped he must die of starvation and sorrow.

Says the ant to the cricket: "I'm your servant and friend,

But we ants never borrow, we ants never lend.

Pray tell me, dear sir, did you lay nothing by

When the weather was warm?" Said the cricket,

"Not I.

My heart was so light

That I sang day ad night,

For all nature looked gay,"

"You sang, sir, you say? 

Go then," said the ant, "and sing winter away."

Thus ending, he hastily lifted the wicket

and out of the door turned the poor little cricket.

Though this is a fable, the moral is good-

If you live without work, you must live without food.

                                                                                         -Anonymous