I decided to do an Aesop's fable for you today, and I found a whole bunch of them too. Except I could't quite figure out what the heck they were talking about. This is the one I chose, because I just happen to have a picture that would go well with it.

The Bald Knight

"A BALD KNIGHT, who wore a wig, went out to hunt. A sudden puff of wind blew off his hat and wig, at which a loud laugh rang forth from his companions. He pulled up his horse, and with great glee joined in the joke by saying, "What a marvel it is that hairs which are not mine should fly from me, when they have forsaken even the man on whose head they grew."

I guess that means that the bald knight could laugh at himself. It is a mystery to me what humans will do, or the stories they will tell. Here I thought a fable was a story with a moral lesson. This is not at all what I wanted to talk about, so I looked further.

And I found The Grasshopper and the Ants fable by Aesop. It goes like this....

"In a field one summer's day a grasshopper was hopping about, chirping and singing to its heart's content. A group of ants walked by, grunting as they struggled to carry plump kernels of corn.

"Where are you going with those heavy things?" asked the grasshopper.

Without stopping, the first ant replied, "To our ant hill. This is the third kernel I've delivered today."

"Why not come and sing with me," teased the grasshopper, "instead of working so hard?"

"We are helping to store food for the winter," said the ant, "and think you should do the same."

"Winter is far away and it is a glorious day to play," sang the grasshopper.

But the ants went on their way and continued their hard work.

The weather soon turned cold. All the food lying in the field was covered with a thick white blanket of snow that even the grasshopper could not dig through. Soon the grasshopper found itself dying of hunger.

He staggered to the ants' hill and saw them handing out corn from the stores they had collected in the summer. He begged them for something to eat.

"What!" cried the ants in surprise, "haven't you stored anything away for the winter? What in the world were you doing all last summer?"

"I didn't have time to store any food," complained the grasshopper; "I was so busy playing music, then before I knew it the summer was gone."

The ants shook their heads in disgust, turned their backs on the grasshopper and went on with their work.

Don't forget -- there is a time for work and a time for play!

I don't know what the moral of that story would be, that ants are stinkers, or the grasshoppers are lazy. I think I will continue my quest for a fable that shall inspire me to greater things. Maybe a new way to get Meowmie to give me more treats, hummmm.......

 

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