ONE day there happened some words between the Ant and the Fly as to whose course of life was the more to be admired, and the point was argued with great warmth and eagerness on both sides. Says the Fly, "It is well known what my pretensions are, and how justly they are grounded: there is never a sacrifice that is offered, but I taste of the meat before the shrines of the gods themselves. I visit all the most magnificent temples, and am found frequently on the altars. I have a free admission at court; and can never want the king's ear, for I sometimes sit upon his shoulder. There is not a maid of honour nor a

fair young woman that comes in my way, but, if I like her, I settle on her balmy lips. And then, I eat and drink the best of everything, without having to work for my living. What is there that you enjoy to be compared with a life like this?" The Ant, who by this time had composed herself, replied with a considerable degree of severity, "Indeed, to be a guest at an entertainment of the gods is a very great honour, if one is invited; but I should not care to be an unasked guest anywhere. You talk of the king, and the court, and the fine ladies there, with great familiarity; but, as I have been getting in my harvest in summer, I have seen a certain person under the town walls making a hearty meal upon refuse and carrion. You do not work for your living, you say; true: therefore, when you have played away the summer, and winter comes, you have nothing to live upon; and, while you will be starving with cold and hunger, I shall have a good warm house over my head, and plenty of provisions for myself and my children."

MORAL. Bread earned by labour is sweet.

APPLICATION.

Under the emblems of these in

sects, two opposite classes of men are described-the industrious and the idle: those who, like the Ant, redeem their time, and live under a solemn sense of the

greatness of human responsibilities; and those who seek to please themselves, and bask away their life in the summer sunshine of perpetual amusement. With the first lies the solid happiness of life. The curse of labour inflicted upon man contained within itself the seed of a secret blessing. The man who has nothing to do, and who roams about listless and discontented, a burden to himself and to others, is miserable. The man of employment, who most adapts himself to the constitution of his nature, whether his labour be voluntarily undertaken, or whether imposed by the necessity of his circumstances, finds in his diligent and persevering attention to those labours an assured recompence of reward.

Work, work, my boy,-be not afraid;
Look labour boldly in the face:

Take up the hammer or the spade,

And blush not for your humble place.

And easy good brings easy gains,

And things of price are bought with pains.

THE ANT AND THE GRASSHOPPER.

IN the winter season, a commonwealth of Ants was busily employed in the management and preservation of their corn, which they exposed to the air in heaps round about the avenues of their little country habitation. A Grasshopper, who had chanced to outlive the summer, and was ready to starve with cold and hunger, approached them with great humility, and begged that they would relieve his necessity with one grain of wheat or rye. One of the Ants asked him how he had disposed of his time in summer, that he had not taken pains and laid in a stock, as they had done. "Alas, gentlemen!" says he, "I passed

away the time merrily and pleasantly, in drinking, singing, and dancing, and never once thought of winter.""If that be the case," replied the Ant, laughing, "all I have to say is, that they who drink, sing, and dance in the summer, must starve in the winter."

MORAL. Provide for the future.

The future,
The re-

APPLICATION. The troubles of life would be much harder to bear if they were foreseen. therefore, is in mercy concealed from man. quirements of old age, and the need of rest, if life is spared, are things inevitable, and ought to be provided for in the earlier years of strength and opportunity. Work of some kind or other, whether of the hand or of the head, is the lot of humankind.

For all must work; with head or hand,

For self or others, good or ill;

Life is ordained to bear, like land,

Some fruit, be fallow as it will.

This fable teaches the prudent man, while he is in the full strength of his days, to store up something against the wants and infirmities of age, lest he should have to regret, when too late, his time misspent and his opportunities unimproved.

If youth did know what age would crave,
Many a penny youth would save.