The frog and the ant

The frog and the ant

Once upon a time there were a frog and an ant on friendly terms.

So they lived on, being best friends.

The frog had fun all summer long.

The ant worked all summer long and carried food. The frog had fun too much and forgot to store up food.

Suddenly winter came. The frog got hungry and felt cold. He was hungry, but he had not any food provisions. So he lived on, suffering. The frog came to his friend.

'Hello, friend’, he said.

‘Hi’, the ant said; ‘Why have you come so early?’ the ant asked.

‘Can you help me, friend? I had too much fun and I did not store up food. So I have come to you’, the frog said.

‘You should not have fun so much without thinking about the future. We cannot be friends. I worked all summer long and you had fun all summer long. And now you are asking me for food’, the ant scolded him.

‘Well, I will not offend you. Take that leg of the grasshopper’, he said and gave him the leg of the grasshopper.

‘You are making fun of me, giving such a small piece’, the frog quarrelled with the ant.

So since that time the frog and the ant are not friends any more.

Translated from Kalmyk into English by Danara Balayeva-Kokayeva
Перевод с калмыцкого на английский Данары Балаевой-Кокаевой

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