The one they always used to teach in my school when I was all young and little was of the grasshopper and the ant.
In Spring the weather is idyllic and the world is full of blooming life. The flowers are full of nectar and the sun is shining, everywhere is coloured in fields of green and eye-catching yellows and reds, blue streams and ponds with croaking frogs and lily-pads arising from beneath. The grasshopper basks in the sun, asking the busy ant:
'Hey, you're missing out on the sun! Why not lay your work to rest for a while and join me?'
'I cannot good friend, because I still have more work to do.'
The grasshopper thinks she's a busy-body and mocks her. But still she keeps on working, digging and digging.
Summer rolls around and the days are long, vibrant and beautiful. The radiant light catches on the morning dew, birdsong fills the air with mirth and the grasshopper dances, for so good are the seasons.
'Come on ant, come and dance with me!' He chirrups.
'I cannot good friend, because I still have more work to do.'
The grasshopper thinks she's no fun at all and mocks her. But still she keeps on working, carrying her grains deeper into her larders.
Autumn arrives and the season of harvest delivers a cornucopia of abundance. Fruits of every variety hang plump and plum from beneath their trees and on their vines, berries and herbs of any and all kinds. The grasshopper sits on a leaf and chews on a strawberry.
'Come on ant. Even you can surely rest a while and feast with me.'
'I cannot good friend, because I still have more work to do.'
Incredulous, the grasshopper engorges himself full and watches as the ant ferries berries and more deeper into her little nest in the ground.
'Some bugs never learn,' the grasshopper sighs.
At last Winter is here, and the sky is grey, the ground is cold and the waters are still. Everything is quiet, but for the chirruping of a lonely grasshopper. There is no food to be found anywhere, even the grasses are gone. The grasshopper shivers, following the only other place he knows to go.
Now there are different versions of this story, in which it ends in different ways. Because my teachers were all very nice and kind peoples, the story ends with the grasshopper learning to appreciate why the ant worked so hard, and the ant in her kindness offers the grasshopper a share of her foodstores and a place by her fire that she worked all year round to maintain.
In the other, the ant closes the gate and admonishes the grasshopper for not thinking ahead.
'This is not my first winter, and it will not be my last.'