The price of a song

All summer long the grasshoppers sat on the tips of the tall grass and sang their hearts out. Everybody stopped to listen to them. Their song was the song of long hot summer days. Only the ants did not stop. They scurried about their business, collecting fallen seeds and hurrying back to their nest with them. There was no joy in their lives, only never-ending work. At last, summer was over, and the rains and mists of winter came.

Each day, the ants carefully shared out some of their seeds to keep them alive, always making sure there were enough left to last the winter. One day the grasshoppers came to their nest. "Please share some of your seeds with us," they begged. "We sang all summer long and had no time to collect food.

Now we are cold and starving. " But the ants just laughed at them. "If you had spent the summer working instead of singing you would not be hungry," they said. "And if you are cold, why don't you spend the winter dancing to keep warm?"