A time to dance

Grasshopper was a happy girl,
Whose days passed in a pleasant whirl,
But summertime was growing short,
And fall was near, at last report.

She knew the frost would soon arrive.
Her shelves were bare, could she survive?
"Aha!" she thought, "I'll visit Ant.
She'll help fix things; I know I can't."

Grasshopper went to beg a loan
Of wheat, from seeds that Ant had sown.
Hard-working Ant had food in store
For winter's needs, but nothing more.


She bragged to Ant, that "Every day,
I sing, and dance my time away."
Ant said, "Now you will have a chance
To feed yourself; Can you still dance?"

Jean de la Fontaine
Translated from the French