The ants were employing a fine winter's day in drying grain collected in
the summer-time. A grasshopper, perishing from 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."
_In living, be guided much by the laws of nature, and not by the hope of
mercy._