Once upon a time there was a frog: One day she came out of her house, from the round lake. And jump-jump - I went for a walk. Jump-jump - and she lost her way home.
And then, as luck would have it, she ended up on an ant trail. Dozens of ants ran up onto her back. Hundreds of them grabbed her stomach.
“Oh,” the frog cried, “ah!” Aren’t you ashamed to bite the lost and suck the blood of the hungry?!
The ants actually felt very ashamed. They bowed low to her and said:
- Dear frog! Come visit us - eat our food, drink our honey.
The frog agreed. She doesn’t remember what she ate. I didn’t understand what kind of conversation I was having at the table. She doesn’t even know what she slept on. She drank so much honey - she was completely drunk.
In the morning I woke up and asked one ant:
“Please climb this larch and see which way my house is.”
An ant climbed a tree and said:
“There’s a sparkling lake over there in the west.” Would you like me to show you a shortcut?
- Oh, how kind you are! - the frog was happy. - Let's go, let's go. I'll treat you well for this.
“No,” the ant answers, “I don’t agree to help myself.” We all gave you water and food yesterday. Today, if you want, call us all too. We are friendly people. We can neither work nor rest separately.
And the frog invited all the ants to visit him. Here is a young woman jumping and jumping like a green pebble, and the ants are flowing behind her like a stream.
Everything, everything, how many there were in this anthill - and in that, and in the third, and in the tenth, and in the thousandth - all the ants from the forest come to visit the frog.
We came to the lake. And the frog says:
“You ants, wait here, I’ll go and make arrangements for the treat,” and they plunge into the water.
The ants stand for a day, stand for two days - but still there is no frog.
On the seventh day the queen ant became angry.
“Well,” he says, “wait for a frog treat - you’ll die of hunger!”
She tightened her belt and went home. And all the ants tightened their belts and went home.
So, from then to this day, ants walk with their abdomens pulled tightly together.
They still haven’t eaten enough since that incident.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru