The Ant and the Grasshopper by W.S. Maugham

 

When I was a small boy I was made to learn by heart some fables of La Fontaine and the moral of each was carefully explained to me. Among them was "The Ant and the Grasshopper". In spite of the moral of this f able my sympathies were with the grasshopper and for some time I never saw an ant without putting my foot on it.

I couldn't help thinking of this fable when the other day I saw George Ramsay lunching in a restaurant. I never saw an expressien of such deep gloom. He vras staring into space. I was sorry for him: I suspected at once that his unfortunate brother had been causing trouble again.

I went up to him. "How are you?" I asked. "Is it Tom again?" He sighed. "Yes, it's Tom again."

I suppose every f amily has a black sheep. In this family it had been Tom. He had begun life decently enough: he went into business, married and had two children. The Ramsays were respectable people and everybody supposed that Tom would have a good carrier. But one day he announced that he didn't like work and that he wasn't suited for marriage. He wanted to enjoy himself.

He left his wife and his office. He spent two happy years in the various capitals of Europe. His relations were shocked and wondered what would happen when his money was spent. They soon found out: he borrowed. He was so charming that nobody could refuse him. Very often he turned to George. Once or twice he gave Tom considerable sums so that he could make a fresh start. On these Tom bought a motor-car and some jewellery. But when George washed his hands of him, Tom began to blackmail him. It was not nice for a respectable lawyer to find his brother shaking cocktails behind the bar of his favourite restaurant or driving a taxi. So George paid again.

For twenty years Tom gambled, danced, ate in the most expensive restaurants and dressed beautifully. Though he was forty-six he looked not more than thirty-five. He had high spirits and incredible charm.Tom Ramsay knew everyone and everyone knew him. You couldn't help liking him.

Poor George, only a year older than his brother, looked sixty. He had never taken more than a fortnight's holiday in the year. He was in his office every morning at nine-thirty and never left it till six. He was honest and industrious. He had a good wife and four daughters to whom he was the best of fathers. His plan was to retire at fifty-five to a little house in the country. His life was blameless. He was glad that he was growing old because Tom was growing old, too. He used to say: "It was all well when Tom was young and good-looking. In four years he'll be fifty. He won't find life so easy then. I shall have thirty thousand pounds by the time I'm fifty. We shall see what is really best to work or to be idle."

Poor George! I sympathized with him. I wondered now what else Tom had done. George was very much upset. I was prepared for the worst. George could hardly speak. "A few weeks ago," he said, "Tom became engaged to a woman old enough to be his mother. And now she has died and left him everything she had: half a million pounds, a yacht, a house in London and a house in the country. It is not fair, I tell you, it isn't fair!"

I couldn't help it. I burst into laughter as I looked at George's face, I nearly fell on the floor. George never forgave me. But Tom often asks me to dinners in his charming house and if he sometimes borrows money from me, it is simply from force of habit.

Give Russian equivalents for the following words and expressions from the text and use them in the sentences of your own:

make smb do smth, in spite of smth, cause trouble, enjoy oneself, borrow smth from smb, turn to smb for smth, wash one's hands of smb (smth), be upset, burst into laughter (tears).

 

III Questions on the text:

1) Give a short sketch of the Ramsay Family.

2) How do you understand the expression "a black sheep"? Why is it applied to Tom?

3) What was the "decent" beginning of Tom's life?

4) What did Tom announee one day?

5) What was the point of his life according to his words?

6) How did he spend his time?

7) Why did George give Tom considerable sums of money not once?

8) What did Tom do with the money?

9) In what way and why did Tom blackmail his brother?

10) Describe Tom at the age of forty-six.

11) Was his brother much older than him? Describe his way of life.

12) Why was George glad that he was growing older? What were his plans?

13) What news did George break to the author?

14) What was the author's reaction?

 

IV Discuss the following:

1) Why does the author make such an introduction to the story? Who is the "ant" and who is the "grass-hopper" in the story? Give your grounds.

2) When the author was a small boy and heard the fable for the first time his sympathies were with the grasshopper. Did he remain stick to his sympathies throughout his life? Prove it by the text.

3) What did "causing trouble" mean to the Ramsays? Why?

4) Why couldn't people help liking Tom in spite of everything? He was an idler, wasn't he? How would you explain such a contradiction?

5) Compare the two brothers. Tom's life was pleasure and entertainment. George's life was honesty and labour. Is the end of the story fair? Whom are your sympathies with? Why?

6) All his life George had to help his brother. What did he get in exchange? Could you suggest any other way of behaviour on the part of George?

 

V Retell fhe story on the part of 1) George, 2) Tom, 3) one of the Ramsays, 4) one of Tom's friends.