The Ant and the Grasshopper

Aesop
Retold and illustrated by Rohini Chowdhury

Once there lived an ant and a grasshopper in a grassy meadow.

All day long the ant would work hard, collecting grains of wheat from the farmer’s field far
away. She would hurry to the field every morning, as soon as it was light enough to see by, and
toil back with a heavy grain of wheat balanced on her head. She would put the grain of wheat
carefully away in her larder, and then hurry back to the field for another one. All day long she
would work, without stop or rest, scurrying back and forth from the field, collecting the grains of
wheat and storing them carefully in her larder.

The grasshopper would look at her and laugh. ‘Why do you work so hard, dear ant?’ he would
say. ‘Come, rest awhile, listen to my song. Summer is here, the days are long and bright. Why
waste the sunshine in labour and toil?’

The ant would ignore him, and head bent, would just hurry to the field a little faster. This would
make the grasshopper laugh even louder. ‘What a silly little ant you are!’ he would call after her.
‘Come, come and dance with me! Forget about work! Enjoy the summer! Live a little!’ And the
grasshopper would hop away across the meadow, singing and dancing merrily.

Summer faded into autumn, and autumn turned into winter. The sun was hardly seen, and the
days were short and grey, the nights long and dark. It became freezing cold, and snow began to
fall.

The grasshopper didn’t feel like singing any more. He was cold and hungry. He had nowhere to
shelter from the snow, and nothing to eat. The meadow and the farmer’s field were covered in
snow, and there was no food to be had. ‘Oh what shall I do? Where shall I go?’ wailed the
grasshopper. Suddenly he remembered the ant. ‘Ah – I shall go to the ant and ask her for food
and shelter!’ declared the grasshopper, perking up. So off he went to the ant’s house and knocked
at her door. ‘Hello ant!’ he cried cheerfully. ‘Here I am, to sing for you, as I warm myself by
your fire, while you get me some food from that larder of yours!’

The ant looked at the grasshopper and said, ‘All summer long I worked hard while you made fun
of me, and sang and danced. You should have thought of winter then! Find somewhere else to
sing, grasshopper! There is no warmth or food for you here!’ And the ant shut the door in the
grasshopper’s face.

The moral of the story "The Ant and the Grasshopper" is that it is important to be prepared
and work hard in case hard times occur.
 The Monkey and the Crocodile

It was a beautiful lake surrounded by lush green grasses, beautiful trees, mountains and sweetest,
tastiest jamun trees. There lived a monkey on one of the jamun trees located near the lake.

The lake also had a few crocodiles. There was one crocodile that used to collect the jamun fruits
from the lake that fall from the tree.

As the crocodile visits the jamun trees every day, it became friends with Monkey. Crocodile and
monkey met every day. The monkey helped crocodile by providing more and fresh jamun fruits
from the tree. Their relationship continued and they became close pals.

One day, the monkey asked the crocodile to give some jamun fruits to his wife and family as the
fruits were more delicious. The crocodile agreed and took a lot of jamun fruits to his wife.

His wife was so happy and surprised that she never ate so delicious fruits, so far. She inquired
her husband, where he got those fruits. The crocodile told her, his friend, monkey who lives in a
Jamun tree gave these for him.

The wife crocodile made a plan in her mind. She asked her husband, ‘Does your friend eat these
fruits every day?’ The crocodile replied yes. She added, ‘Oh my goodness. These are the
sweetest fruits we ever ate. Imagine how delicious the monkey’s heart would be if he eat these
fruits daily! I need the heart of your friend. Can you please bring it for me?’

The crocodile was shocked to hear it from his wife. He replied, ‘But he is my close friend. I can’t
do this to him.’

The wife crocodile told him, ‘don’t worry. You bring him here. I will then take care! Or else, you
may try to push him down into the water if he doesn’t know swimming!’

After a long time, the crocodile agreed to bring monkey to his wife.

The very next day, crocodile invited monkey to join them for lunch and asked for his favorite
foods. Monkey happily agreed to be the guest and but worried that the monkey did not know
how to swim in the lake.

Crocodile on thinking about monkey’s sorrow, pleased monkey and told him, ‘Don’t worry. I
will carry you on my back and will take you back safely too!’

The monkey accepted and crocodile rode him to his home on his back on the water. As they
reached half way, the crocodile tried to push monkey down into the water. However, monkey
held the crocodile tightly and did not fall. Monkey got suspicious about crocodile’s act and asked
him to tell the truth.
Since crocodile believed him as his good friend, he told about the conversation and the fight his
wife had with him and he was taking monkey to eat his heart!

The intelligent monkey said, ‘Oh my dear friend, you should have told me this earlier. I left my
heart on one of the branches of the tree as I won’t carry it if I travel long. If you take me back, I
can give you my heart.’

Crocodile accepted and rode the monkey back to the lake. As they reached the tree where the
monkey lived, the monkey climbed quickly and escaped from the crocodile.

He shouted at crocodile, ‘I thought you as a good friend, but you cheated me. I will never come
back and never be your friend.’

The crocodile understood his mistake and returned back home empty handed, losing a good
friend indeed