Read "The Ant and the Grasshopper" by Joseph C. Lincoln online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
You know the story -- it's centuries old -- / How the Ant and the Grasshopper met, we're told, / On a blustering day, when the wind was cold / And the trees were bare and brown; / And the Grasshopper, being a careless blade, / Who all the summer had danced and played, / Now came to the rich old Ant for aid, / And the latter "turned him down."
It's only fancy, but I suppose / That the Grasshopper wore his summer clothes, / And stood there kicking his frozen toes / And shaking his bones apart; / And the Ant, with a sealskin coat and hat, / Commanded the Grasshopper, brusque and flat, / To "Dance through the winter," and things like that, / Which he thought were "cute" and "smart."