All summer long a merry grasshopper spent his days making music. When he saw the ants marching past him in a line, carrying seeds and grain to store in their hill, he laughed at their toil. "How foolish, to work so hard in the hot sun!" the grasshopper cried. "Summer's the time to play and sing. There's time enough to worry about winter when the first snow falls."
But when the days grew short and the first snow fell, the grasshopper could find nothing to eat. Shivering in the cold, he came to ask the ants for help. "Please, can't you spare me a seed or a leaf?" he begged. "I'm too hungry even to sing!"
The ants shrugged in disdain. "We worked hard for our food and we have none to spare," they said. "All summer long you made nothing but music. Now all winter long you can dance!"
Don't put off for tomorrow what you should do today.
Jerry Pinkey, Aesop's Fables, Seastarbooks, 2000
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