David Boaz reminds us of the story of the Ant and the Grasshopper:
In a field one summer’s day a Grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart’s content. An Ant passed by, bearing along with great toil an ear of corn he was taking to the nest.
“Why not come and chat with me,” said the Grasshopper, “instead of toiling and moiling in that way?”
“I am helping to lay up food for the winter,” said the Ant, “and recommend you to do the same.”
“Why bother about winter?” said the Grasshopper; “we have got plenty of food at present.”
But the Ant went on its way and continued its toil. When the winter came the Grasshopper had no food, and found itself dying of hunger, while it saw the ants distributing every day corn and grain from the stores they had collected in the summer. Then the Grasshopper knew:
IT IS BEST TO PREPARE FOR THE DAYS OF NECESSITY.
What I find most interesting is that when I was a kid, the “ant and the grasshopper” story had the grasshopper dying in the end. However, the version I read in a children’s book more recently had the ant going to donate its food and save the grasshopper. Perhaps the author of the new version thought they didn’t want to harm children’s delicate sensibilities with the images of a grasshopper starving. However it seems like that is the story today, except that in the ant and the grasshopper story of the current era, the ant doesn’t voluntarily donate its food to the grasshopper, the grasshopper calls on its big buddy (the anteater?) to steal the food from the ant.
