Oral Exercise. Did you ever read the story or fable of the ants and the grasshoppers? Read it carefully as it is told on this and the next pages. See whether you can tell your classmates the lesson that it teaches.
THE ANTS AND THE GRASSHOPPERS
In a field one summer day some ants were busily at work. They were carrying grain into their storehouses. As they plodded steadily to and fro under their loads, they were watched by a number of grasshoppers. The grasshoppers were not working. Instead, they were sunning themselves by the roadside. Now and then these idle fellows droned out a lazy song, or joined in a dance, or amused themselves by making fun of the ants. But the ants were tireless workers. They kept steadily on. Nothing could take their minds off their business.
"Why don't you come with us and have some fun?" at last called one of the grasshoppers to the ants.
"Oh, stop that work," another cried. "Come and have a good time, as we are doing!"
But the ants kept right on with their work.
"Winter is coming," said an ant. He was busily pushing a rich grain of wheat before him. "We need to get ready for the days when we can gather no food. You had better do the same."
"Ah, let winter take care of itself," the grasshoppers shouted, all together. "We have enough to eat to-day. We are not going to worry about to-morrow."
But the ants kept on with their work. The grasshoppers kept on with their play.
When winter came, the grasshoppers had no food. One after another they died. At last only one was left. Sick with hunger, he went to the house of an ant and knocked at the door.
"Dear ant," he began, "will you not help a poor fellow who has nothing to eat?"
The ant looked him over a few seconds. "So it is you, is it? As I remember, you are the lazy fellow who did not believe in work. I do not care to have anything to do with you." And he turned his back on the lazy fellow.
Sadly the grasshopper made his way to another door and knocked again.
"You have nothing to eat?" cried the ant that lived here, in great surprise. "Tell me, what were you doing while the weather was warm? Did you lay nothing by?"
"No," replied the grasshopper. "I felt so happy and gay that I did nothing but dance and sing."
"Well, then," answered the ant, "you will have to dance and sing now, as best you can. We ants never borrow. We ants never lend." And he showed the lazy fellow out of the place.
The hungry grasshopper dragged himself to a third house.
"I am sorry," said the ant that opened the door. "I can spare you nothing. All that I have I need for my own family. If you spent the summer without working, you will have to spend the winter without eating." And he shut the door in the grasshopper's face.—Æsop
Oral Exercise. 1. Show the class how you would carry a heavy load. Play that a bag of wheat stood before you. Lift it from the ground, balance it on one of your shoulders, walk with it across the room, and set it carefully down in the corner. Then go back for another, and another. Let several classmates do the same.
2. Play that you and several classmates are the ants in the fable, busily carrying loads from the field to the storehouses. What might you ants be saying to each other while you work? Should you speak of the sunny day, of the pleasant field, of the fun of working together? Should you probably speak of the pleasure of seeing the grain pile up in the storehouses? Should you be thinking, now and then, of the long, cold winter ahead? What might you say about it? What might you say to each other as you pass the grasshoppers loafing by the roadside?
3. Show the class how you would walk about if you had nothing to do all day long. Would your walk be brisk? Should you look wide-awake? Play that you and several classmates are the grasshoppers in the fable. What will you do? Will you walk lazily to and fro before the class, one of you twanging a guitar, another singing, and the third dancing about? What might you grasshoppers be saying to each other about the weather? What might you say about the busy ants you see passing by with loads on their backs? What might you say about the coming winter?
4. Play the part of the fable that tells what happened in the summer. First the ants will be seen at their work. They talk with each other as they work. They say what they think about the lazy grasshoppers they see in the distance. Now the grasshoppers slowly come along, humming tunes. They talk about the beautiful summer. They laugh at the hard-working ants. At last they call to the ants and invite these to join them in a dance or in a song. Read the fable to see what each thinks and says and does in this part of the story.
5. Now play that winter has come. You and several classmates may be the grasshoppers. You are shivering in the cold and have no food to eat. Remember, you grasshoppers are not singing and dancing now. What might you say to each other about the summer that is gone? One grasshopper dies of hunger. What might the others say? Another dies. What does the last one say to himself and decide to do?
6. Can you see the last grasshopper going from house to house, begging for food? How does he look? Show the class how he walks and how he talks. What does he say at each door?