In summer everything was bright and beautiful. Food was plentiful. A grasshopper ate to its heart's content and sang merrily. He saw ants collecting and carrying food. He laughed at them. He said to an ant who was his friend, "How greedy you people are! You are working when it is the time for joy. What a pity!" The ant said, "My dear friend, we are storing food for the winter."

After summer, came winter. The brightness of summer was gone. Food was getting scarce. The grasshopper found it difficult to get food for himself. And at last came the time for him to starve.

So one day the grasshopper knocked at the door of his friend, the ant. He requested her to give him something to eat. The ant said, "You spent the summer singing merrily. Now you spend the winter dancing. I won't give anything to a lazy creature like you." And she shut her door on his face.

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