Mr Aesop's Story Shop by Bob Hartman

Author:Bob Hartman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Lion Hudson
Published: 2010-02-15T00:00:00+00:00

IT IS BETTER TO BE POOR AND SATISFIED THAN RICH AND WORRIED.

THE ANT AND THE DUNG BEETLE

WORD ABOUT AESOP’S STORIES WAS SPREADING. SO THE CROWD WAS PARTICULARLY LARGE ONE DAY – THE CROWD THAT HAD CROWDED AROUND AESOP’S LITTLE STORYTELLING STALL.

They had squeezed in at the front and at the back and at the sides – so squeezed in that when one little girl shifted in her place to make herself more comfortable, she shifted right into Aesop’s table full of refreshments and knocked a pile of cakes onto the floor.

She looked as if she was about to cry but Aesop smiled and reassured her. “Not a problem! Those weren’t my best cakes anyway.” Then he shuffled around the back of the stall and produced a whole new pile.

“These are much better!” he smiled again, setting them on the table. “You see, you have to be prepared for anything!”

Aesop chuckled. “And that reminds me of a story.

A story about an ant and a dung beetle.”

“What’s dung?” asked one of the children.

“What’s dung?” grinned Aesop mischievously. “It’s poo!”

“Poo!” said the child. “Ewww!”

“It’s disgusting, I know,” Aesop admitted. “But not to dung beetles.

If you’re a dung beetle, that’s where

you find your dinner.”

And everyone else went “Ewww!” too.

“Once there was an ant,” Aesop continued. “An ant who worked hard, every single day, preparing for winter. Back and forth he would carry the food he collected – bits of fruit and vegetable and meat – from the places he found it to the place, deep in his anthill, where it was stored.

“Every day, he would pass a dung beetle sitting happily in a pile of dung. And, every day, the dung beetle would poke fun at him.

“‘You must be the saddest creature in the world!’ the dung beetle would shout. ‘Running here and there all day – with no time for fun!’

“At other times, he would call out, ‘You are so boring, Ant! Stop. Rest. Enjoy yourself!’

“Or he would snigger and say, ‘Stupid ant! You’ll work yourself to death!’

“And sometimes he would just lean back on his elbows in the dung and shake his head and laugh.

“The ant, however, never answered back. He never argued. He never complained. In fact, he paid no attention at all to the dung beetle and simply carried on with his work.

“At last, winter came – and with it the winter rains.

“The ant was warm and dry in his anthill and he had plenty of food. But the heavy rain washed all the dung away and the dung beetle was left with nothing. Nowhere to sit and nothing to eat.

“So the dung beetle went to visit the ant. ‘Give me some of the food you stored,’ he pleaded.

“But the ant shook his head sadly and said, ‘No. If you had spent your summer gathering and storing as I did, you would have plenty. But instead you wasted your time making fun of me. And so now you have nothing at all.’”

“That wasn’t very nice of the ant,” grumbled one of the children.

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