The Ant and the Grasshopper – Aesop’s Fables
Aesop’s Fables does have a relatively large number of legendary stories and some of them are straight out beautiful with a great moral. The story of the “The Grasshopper and the Ants” is one of the most famous and is also called as the “The Ant and the grasshopper”. It is having an index of 373 in in the Perry Index and is the story of a hardworking ant and a grasshopper who was very lazy…..
Story:
In a large and beautiful field on one warm and lovely summer’s day, a grasshopper was happily hopping about. He was chirping and dancing and singing to his heart’s content.
“Ah what a glorious summer. How beautiful the sun shines. I may just relax and dance and sing until the summer ends.”
He was lying down when he saw a group of ants walked by. These ants were working hard and were struggling as they were carrying corn and wheat and rice seeds. Not only that, they were working without rest and the Grasshopper was amused.
The Grasshopper said, “Where are you going with such heavy food? Why don’t you eat them here instead of carrying it back home?”
The ant replied, “We are not eating them. We are storing the seeds. We are saving up for winter. This is the fourth seed that I have stored today.”
The Grasshopper teased, “Why do you ants work so hard when you can dance and sing all summer.”
The ants said to him, “The winter is soon coming and I suggest you start to save.”
The grasshopper laughed at them and merrily started to chirp ignoring them completely, “Winter is so far away and I have so many months to save food. Let me enjoy for the time being.”
Winter comes
Soon the winter came and the grass and the crops dried out. Snow covered the land and the Grasshopper could not find any food anymore and began to starve. He struggled and reached the ant hill and begged for food.
The ants were horrified, “What? Did you not save any food for the winter? What were you doing the entire summer?”
“I did not have any time in the Summer to store food. The weather was so warm and shiny and glorious that I was singing and dancing all summer.”
“Ah, such a delight” said the ants, “Maybe you can dance and sing all winter away and leave us alone.”
Moral of the story:
The moral of the story The Ant and the grasshopper is “There’s a time for work and a time for play.” The moral of the Aesop’s Fable can also be “Work today and reap the benefits tomorrow”
Other stories which you can read
The Dog and the Hides |
The Cock, The Dog and the Fox |
The Farmer and the Snake |
The Farmer and the Stork |
The Cat and the Birds |
Questions on “The Ant and the Grasshopper“
- Who are the main characters of the story?
- What did the ants do all summer?
- In contrast, what did the grasshopper do all summer?
- What happens at the end of the story?
- What is the moral of the story?
Answers:
- The main characters of the story are an ant and a grasshopper.
- The ants were working hard. They were struggling as they were carrying corn and wheat and rice seeds. The ants were also working without rest.
- The grasshopper was happily hopping about, chirping and dancing and singing to his heart’s content. He was not working hard like the ants.
- When the winter came, the grass and the crops dried out. The Grasshopper could not find any food anymore and began to starve. The ants had saved up their food for winter and were happy.
- The moral of the Aesop’s Fable is that “There’s a time for work and a time for play.” The moral of the Aesop’s Fable can also be “Work today and reap the benefits tomorrow”
The And and the Grasshopper – PDF
Looking for the free downloadable PDF version of the The Ant and the Grasshopper short story in English? If so, you’ve come to the right place. You can click on the link below to download the free story in PDF version format.