Once upon a time, on a very sunny day, a long-legged Ant climbed up a hilltop by itself. There he sat down to rest after his long journey. As he rested, he looked around and saw an Eagle sitting upon a branch above him. This made the Ant very frightened, for it was the Eagle’s custom, when with hungry young ones in its nest, to go and carry home to them the food which it found.
So the Ant thought that the Eagle’s young family were at that time in want of food, and asked himself what bait would be most likely to attract the Eagle’s attention: a little fish would not do, for the Eagle would have to fly down and pick it out from among the ants crawling all over it; and then, again, it would be wasted on all those ants who would not be able to eat fish.
As he was thinking what to do, the Eagle saw him, and swooped down to carry him off to its young ones. But the Ant, mounting as quickly as he could, came to the top piece of food which his colony had been storing up. This he begged of the Eagle to take home to his young ones, for that would serve them much better than he would. So saying, he gave it the corn and immediately the Eagle soared into the air, carrying the good gift home to its young ones in return for the fresh Ant it had just been about to carry off.