ars ago, Solomon tells us in the thirtieth chapter
and twenty-fifth verse: "The ants are a people not strong, yet they
prepare their meat in the summer." And in the sixth chapter, sixth,
seventh and eighth verses he says, "Go to the ant, thou sluggard;
consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer, or
ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the
harvest." You have probably noticed the industry, activity and
perseverance of these little ants. They attempt great things. Sometimes
you will see one of these little insects carrying a burden which is
several times larger than its own body. If they come to a stone, or a
log, or some obstacle, over which they must carry their burden, if they
do not succeed the first time, they will try again; and even though they
should fall, or fail as much as a hundred times, they will persevere
until they have accomplished their undertaking. If you watch them, you
will see how rapidly they move. They are not lazy, they do not loiter
along the way, but are always in a hurry. They work with energy and
gather food during the summer, which they lay up for their supply during
the winter. Whatever the little ant can gather, it carries home and lays
up in store, not for itself alone, but all work together, each laboring
for the good and well-being of all the others.

[Illustration: Ants.]

This grasshopper very fittingly represents the feeling and thought which
come into the mind of every boy when he is at first required to work, to
go to school and study, when he is being taught to be industrious and
useful. When the days are pleasant, boys do not like to go to school.
When a pleasant Sunday morning comes in the springtime, they often wish
to stay at home, to go out to the park, or to roam about the fields, and
if most of the boys and girls had their own way about it, in the
beginning, they would live pretty much like the grasshopper. They would
get what pleasure they could out of the days as they pass, grow up in
ignorance and idleness, and in manhood and womanhood find themselves in
poverty and want. I think that pretty much all boys and girls are
naturally lazy, and that feeling can only be cured by being required to
work, being compelled to go to school and study, and being kept
persistently at it from week to week and year to year, until at last
they learn to love to work. If the parents of the grasshopper had not
themselves been lazy and grown up