夏天到了，有一隻紡織娘躲在大樹裡乘涼，並高興地唱著歌。紡織娘唱呀唱，發現樹下有一長排黑色的點點，就飛下去看個究竟，原來是螞蟻正扛著食物往樹下的洞裡走，紡織娘嘲笑著說：「天氣這麼熱，你們不躲在洞裡避暑，還在大太陽底下工作，真是一群傻瓜。」螞蟻回答：「我們才不傻呢！只要現在努力儲存食物，冬天就不怕沒食物吃。你呢？開始儲存食物了嗎？」紡織娘大笑說：「冬天還早呢！我要去唱歌了，再見。」
秋天到了，天氣越來越涼爽，樹上的紡織娘則越唱越起勁，螞蟻依舊辛苦搬著食物。這一天，螞蟻又提醒紡織娘說：「冬天快到了，不要只顧著唱歌，趕快去儲存食物吧！ 」紡織娘回答：「還早，過幾天再找食物還來得及。」
幾天後，當紡織娘在唱歌時，一陣北風颳來，紡織娘冷得發抖，心想：「冬天來了，我得快點去找食物。」於是，紡織娘開始到處尋找，可是食物越來越難找，最後連三餐都有問題。又餓又冷的牠，只好厚臉皮去敲螞蟻家的門，紡織娘顫抖地說：「我快要餓死了，請分一些食物給我好嗎？」螞蟻回答：「之前叫你儲存食物，你卻只顧著唱歌，我們的食物只夠這個冬天自己吃，所以無法幫你！」
門一關上，又一陣北風吹過來，紡織娘只能獨自站在寒風中，後悔著.....。
It was summer. A cricket was resting under the shade of a tree and singing happily. While she was singing, she saw a line of black dots on the ground below. So, she flew down to see what it was. It turned out to be a trail of ants carrying food back to their home under the tree. The cricket laughed and said,“The weather is so hot, why don’t you hide underground to avoid the heat? What fools you are to keep working under such a hot sun.”The ants replied,“We are no fools! If we keep storing food right now, there will be enough food to tide us through winter. What about you? Have you started to store food?”The cricket laughed and said,“Winter is still far away! I’m going off to sing, goodbye!”
When autumn came, the weather grew cool, and the cricket sang even louder than before, while the ants continued to carry food back home. One day, the ants reminded the cricket,“Winter is almost here. Don’t keep singing all day. Quickly go and find some food to store!”The cricket replied,“It is still too early! It is not too late to find food a few days later.”
A few days later, the cricket was singing, when a sudden gust of wind blew in from the north and made the cricket shiver. She thought,“Winter is here, I had better find myself some food.”And so, the cricket began searching high and low for food to last her through the winter. But food had already become scarce and soon she had trouble feeding herself. Eventually, the hungry and cold cricket had no choice but to knock on the ants’ door. The cricket shivered and said,“I’m starving to death. Could you spare me some food?”The ants replied,“We told you to store food, but you insisted on singing. We only have enough food for ourselves this winter and are unable to help you!”
After the door closed, a gust of northern wind came again, and the cricket could only shiver in the cold, full of regret.
