It was like the story of the little grasshopper who plays and fiddles all summer, and the industrious ant who hoards stuff for the winter.

I am the industrious ant," Gerrault looked down at his enormous torso and chuckled at the metaphor, "who has diligently worked to maintain garrisons from Oslo to Capetown.

I suppose, Dear Diary, that at times I am very much like that wastrel grasshopper who fails to anticipate the hardships of winter, unlike the industrious and thrifty ant.

Suited crews moved like industrious ants, shuttling components and raw materials to construction spacedocks.

You remember, the industrious ants and the fly-by-night grasshoppers.

And if there is one bug that just about everyone will encounter in much greater numbers this summer, it is almost certain to be the ubiquitous and industrious ant.

Avery remembered his boast of being the industrious ant who built armies and secret police while the American and Chinese Directors depended on the people's good will and trust.

Teacher or nanny or mom or dad would quote the response of the industrious ant to the spendthrift, hedonistic cricket who, fearful of a hungry autumn, comes begging for a loan: "You've sung the summer away?

Before we got to the main event, we were offered another appetizer: an ant farm to end all ant farms, a quirky metropolis of small commercial plastic containers connected by tubular walkways, all teeming with industrious black ants.

She'd never seen so many people in one place, all rushing like industrious ants to somewhere even more compelling.