it on that account. Ants have a language of their own as much as we have, so the ant that is in trouble goes off and brings others with him, to whom he has no doubt told his difficulties, and, by their help, the straw, or whatever it may be, is at last carried to the hill. 11. The way our ants keep the rain from coming in on them is very curious. Every evening, or whenever it is wet, the workers bring little beams of straw, or the like, and lay them crosswise at the openings of their galleries. Outside these defences they put broad pieces of dry leaves for doors, and then place sentries, inside, at all the doors thus securely closed, to watch that they are not disturbed. 12. Each morning all these doors and defences are removed to let out the workers; but if it be rainy, they remain as they are till the sky clears. 13. The roofs of the chambers are made of little pellets of earth, carefully kneaded, after being moistened with rain-water, and then dried in the sun, as we do with sun-dried bricks. 14. Thus an ant-hill which, outside, seems only a loose heap of earth, is in reality, inside, a perfect marvel of wise contrivance to secure warmth, dryness, and safety from enemies. SPELL AND GIVE THE MEANING PART III. 1. ONE of the strangest things about ants, however, I have not yet told you. Some kinds of RED ANTS are slave-holders, the red ones living idly, and getting their slaves to do all the work for them. These slaves, strange to say, are always black ants, and are always carried off in regular forays of the red ants, their masters, on the hills of black ants. 2. When a nest of Red Ants want new slaves, they sally out in regular armies, with scouts before them, to make an attack on the hill of some black ants. Their first step is to surround the hill, so as to prevent their victims from running off with their treasures—that is, with the eggs and young ants; their next, to fall on the poor black sentries, whom they overpower in a moment ; their third, is to rush-before the unfortunate negroes can recover from their surprise-to the chambers where the eggs and young ones are housed. These they immediately seize and carry off to their own hill, never touching any of the male or female ants of the hill they have thus plundered. 3. Once brought safely home, these eggs and baby slaves are put in charge of the black slaves already in the hill, who attend to them as carefully as if they had come in quite an honest way, and seem to be as glad when the foray of their masters has been fortunate, as the masters themselves are. Indeed, they do not wait till they reach home, but run out to meet them; take the eggs from them, and carry them to the nurseries in the ant-hill; and take the baby ants in charge, carry them home, feed them, keep them clean and tidy, see that they get the air and sun, and are not allowed to get wet, and act the part, every way, of the best nurses in the world. 4. These slave ants grow up with the young red ants, the children of their masters, and live very peaceably with them. When old enough they do all the work of every kind, for the red ants are not made to work, but to fight. The black ones, therefore, go out after the antcows, and attend to them when in their cow-houses, to which they bring new captives from time to time, for their masters to milk. Then they build the ant-hill and repair it, and they are the sentries and house-servants of the hill, opening and shutting all the gates of the antcastle, and the doors of its rooms, night and morning. They even help their masters, sometimes, in fights against their poor black brothers. 5. But the Red Ants have not always an easy victory. Sometimes the field is very fiercely contested. Two rival ant-hills at times go to war, and pour forth armies, ranked in due order, every ant knowing the line of march and the duties expected of him. They advance in order of battle, fearing no danger; the front ranks wheeling to the rear every few minutes, to let others come to the place of honour. These armies often number many thousands, and are well armed, for though the ants in our country have no stings on their tails, as some in foreign countries have, they have large nippers with which they bite, and they can squirt out poison from their bodies, which is quite as deadly to ants as gunpowder is to men. 6. When the two armies meet, each soldier tries to seize his opponent with his nippers, and when two have grappled thus, they struggle till the weaker yields, and lets himself be dragged off a prisoner. If an ant see one of his own side in a hard grapple of this kind, he instantly seizes his comrade, and, pulls him with all his might, the strength of the two together soon making T the enemy a prisoner Some ants attack others twice their own size; trusting to their numbers to make things even between them, and therefore sending twice as many soldiers to the battle as their enemies have, though both sides keep sending in fresh troops all through the battle. 7. The struggle for prisoners is sometimes very hard. Six or eight ants will be seen holding on to each other on each side, as boys do in the game of French and English, till one side yield and are dragged off as slaves. When two are grappling, each turns his body back towards his head and squirts out poison at his foe, to try to kill him if he can. After the battle, great numbers of both sides lie killed and wounded on the field, but still greater numbers are led away prisoners. 8. Sometimes war is made to rob a neighbouring anthill of its herd of cows; they even carry off the eggs of the aphis, to hatch them for themselves, and thus breed cows. 9. One of the strangest things, however, about ants, is that they have a holiday now and then, when even the workers do nothing but enjoy themselves. They run about and seem to make themselves very happy, and appear to play just as children might. When night comes they go back to their hill, and next morning begin their work again, all the more merrily, I daresay, for the happy day they have just spent. SPELL AND GIVE THE MEANING Henry Wordsworth Longfellow was born at Portland, Maine, U.S., in 1807, and has been Professor of Modern Languages at Harvard College, Massachusetts, since 1835. He is a very sweet and tender poet, and is still alive. There was a time when I was very small, When my whole frame was but an ell in height; Sweetly, as I recall it, tears do fall, And therefore I recall it with delight. I sported in my tender mother's arms, And rode a-horseback on best father's knee; Alike were sorrows, passions, and alarms, And gold, and Greek, and love, unknown to me. Then seemed to me this world far less in size, Like points in heaven I saw the stars arise, I saw the moon behind the island fade, And thought, "Oh, were I on that island there, I could find out of what the moon is made, Find out how large it is, how round, how fair !” Wondering, I saw God's sun, through western skies, And yet upon the morrow early rise, And paint the eastern heaven with crimson light; And thought of God, the gracious Heavenly Father, |