The evening party at Ben Gile's cabin was to be the last of all the
beautiful summer, for the next day Betty and Jimmie were to leave with
their mother for the city, and this was the evening which was to decide
who was to receive the prize.
Betty had been working very hard for it, and wanted it. But Jimmie
couldn't see any use in lying with your nose on an ant-hill. As for
Peter, he giggled whenever ants were mentioned to him, and seemed not to
care much one way or another. Hope, however, was often with Betty, and
the two girls, flat on the grass, tried to discover as many mysteries as
they could about the busy little fellows. As for Jack, he was as busy as
the ants, following them about, lying quietly for hours, and borrowing
any book he could find that would tell about them. It seemed to him that
if he could have that magnifying-glass, that book of colored plates,
and the five-dollar gold piece, he would be the richest boy in all the
world! He thought about it by night and by day, and he was certain that
with the insect book and the glass, he should discover things nobody
else in the world had ever seen.
The poor boy was trembling with eagerness on this evening of the party
at the guide's cabin. The children took their turn in telling what they
knew. Peter giggled, and said they seemed to lug a good deal of food.
Jimmie said they ran in and out of their ant hills very fast, and knew
how to build big hills. Hope was so frightened that, when it came her
turn, the child could not tell even the little she knew.
But Betty, who loved everything in the out-of-door world, forgot herself
and her fright in the true love which she had for natural history. She
said she had spent hours in a neighborhood of ants, near the doorways
they had in the ground. Some of the doorways were large, and some were
small, and the little ants who went in and out of the doors carried off
the pieces of cake she fed to them. Sometimes the crumbs were three or
four times as big as the ants. She had seen two little ants attack a
large piece of cake, but it proved too much for them, so one mounted
guard over it while the other scurried off. In a few moments it came
back with a whole squad of ants, who surrounded the cake and pushed and
pulled with all their might. They actually got it to the door, Betty
said, and after that she could see it no more. Then Betty spoke a little
wistfully: "If only I had been an ant I could have gone down after it. I
could have seen what they did with it, sir."
"Well, my dear," said Ben Gile, "if you want to see what they do, start
a colony of them some day in a glass case. That will solve a good many
of your problems. And now, what else?"
"I saw them doing a good deal that was interesting, sir, but I couldn't
understand it."
"It's your turn, Jack. We will come back to Betty by-and-by."
"I found out, sir, that in every ant colony there are always three kinds
of ants--the queens, the males, and the workers. It's much like what you
told us of the bees. And it seemed to me, sir, every time I looked at
them, that they were happy together, busy with their work and never
quarrelling with one another. I suppose they were happy because each one
had some special work to do. I looked it all up in the books, and I
found that some are born queens, to be waited on, while others are born
workers, to do the serving. But they are all contented.
"The queen ant is not a real queen ruling a little kingdom; she is the
mother ant, and lays all the eggs. She is well cared for and protected
by the workers. These are the active little ants who do the work. They
are happy, too, running about, digging new passageways, clearing the
paths to their front doors, and bringing in food, which they store in
their granaries. Some ants, sir, build their tunnels very deep
underground. A doorway opens into a wide gallery, from which others
branch and wind their way down into the dark ground. Sometimes they
build a high mound around the entrance, and often a large colony will
have many such mounds."
[Illustration:
_A._ Honey ant.
_B._ Ants exchanging greetings.]
"Some ants," added Ben Gile, "dig out their homes in dead logs or hollow
stems. I know of one little fellow who is clever enough to build a shed.
It hunts around to find decayed wood. This it chews into a fine pulp,
then spreads it out into a roof; sometimes it is a good-sized roof. This
same ant dearly loves the honeydew which aphids secrete. So in order to
protect these helpless little green bugs, and make them as comfortable
and contented as possible, they build a neat shed over them. When the
ants wish a dainty luncheon of honeydew they crawl up under the little
shed and get a drink of this sweet juice. Although a colony of ants
lives together so peacefully, Jack, they are apt to be very quarrelsome
with their neighbors; often they go to war with another colony if the
members of that colony happen to trespass on their grounds."
"I found out about some naughty, lazy ants, sir. Instead of taking care
of their own homes and hunting up their own food, they go out to war
against another kind of ant, which is living quietly and attending to
its own business. All the grown-up ants these little fighters either
kill or frighten so that they run away as fast and as far as their legs
will carry them. Then these lazy ants steal the eggs and the babies.
Some of them they eat on the way home, but most of them they carry to
their underground galleries. There they take good care of them until
they are grown up. Then these stolen babies become the slaves of the
lazy ants; but the poor little slaves have never known any other life,
so they cheerfully serve their masters, doing everything for them; in
fact, so long have these masters had little slaves to wait upon them
that they do not know at all how to look out for themselves. They have
been known to starve to death rather than to feed themselves."
"But there are many respectable ants," objected Ben Gile, "and I will
tell you how a well-regulated household behaves. One day last summer,
when I was walking in the afternoon, I found myself suddenly surrounded
by a cloud of winged insects--thousands and thousands of them. I caught
one of them and found that it was a winged ant, for the males and queens
have wings with which to fly away on their wedding journey. This journey
lasts only a short time, and usually many colonies fly up together in
the bright summer air. The wedding journey is a picnic for hungry birds.
Just think of finding such a mass of juicy morsels at one time. They fly
into the crowd and eat as many of the ants as they can. But many escape.
At last they become exhausted. The males fall to the ground and die. The
queens break off their wings, because they never need them after the
wedding journey.
"They look about for a good place to start a new home. The first thing
the queen does is to lay her eggs in a neat little pile. These soon
hatch out into larvæ; tiny, worm-like grubs without any legs. Queen
ants feed their babies faithfully with nice, tender insects, which they
chew for them. Sometimes these larvæ spin a tiny cocoon, in which
they lie quietly while they are being made over into ants--perhaps into
a queen, like the mother, or a male, like the father; perhaps into a
worker, which is the mainstay of the whole colony. This first family of
babies the queen mother must look out for herself, but just as soon as
the baby workers are grown up it is their turn to help her.
"The first set of workers are very small. From morning until night they
are busy. Early in the morning they must go out for food, to catch
insects for the queen's breakfast and for the queen's baby ants. To be
sure, it does not take long to prepare this meal, as it is chewed for
the babies instead of cooked. Then the house must be set to rights,
extra grains of sand must be cleared out of the paths and galleries.
Perhaps some careless little girl or boy may have stepped on the mound
around the entrance and crushed it. The workers hurry to clear away the
ruins, and soon have a new mound neatly piled up. Tell us, Jack, what
you know about these workers."
Jack's face was bright with eagerness. "Well, sir, in ant homes there
are always babies, lots of them, just as in other homes. These little
larvæ must be fed often and kept clean. The workers are the nurses as
well as housekeepers. If the babies happen to be in a cool, damp part of
the house they must be carried into a warmer, drier place. So the
workers pick them up and take them out for an airing. Often they carry
the little cocoons out into the warm sunshine or move them about from
place to place. In some families of ants there are some with very big
heads and strong jaws. These are the soldiers. If there is any trouble
in their village these big-headed fellows go out as scouts or act as
sentinels around the ant-hill. But the head of the worker is rather
small. It's a clever head, though, sir. On it are two antennæ,
bent, sir, like sharp little elbows. You told us that ants talk with
their antennæ. These feelers are very sensitive. I watched two ants
one day and saw them rubbing them together."
"I am sure," said Ben Gile, "that some very exciting and interesting
conversations are carried on by these fellows."
"Back of the head," continued Jack, "is the thorax, with the six legs,
then a very narrow piece joining the thorax and abdomen."
"I know of one ant," added the guide, "who is nothing more or less than
a honey-jar. This honey-ant hangs by its legs from the roof of its home.
The little workers go out and visit the oak-trees and hunt around for
balls called oak galls. From these they get honey, which they carry home
and feed to the little fellows hanging on the ceiling by their heels.
The honey is stored away in their crops. All day these honey-jar ants
are fed, until the abdomens are as big as a currant, and the sweet,
yellow honey shines through the skin. When any of the family gets hungry
it crawls up to one of these fat little fellows and takes a refreshing
sip."
"I know of another ant," began Jack, who could scarcely wait to begin,
"who lives in the home of a larger ant. This one builds small tunnels
connected with the large ones of the big ant, but is careful to make the
doorways so small that the big ones cannot creep in and eat up the
babies. When Little Ant gets hungry it crawls up on Big Ant's back. Very
gently it strokes its head, then licks its cheek until the mouth of Big
Ant fairly waters. This is just what Little Ant intends the mouth shall
do. It laps up the drop of sweetness, crawls down, climbs on the back of
another big ant, and has a second luncheon. Sometimes little thief ants
live in other ants' houses, stealing the food which the workers have
been so busy collecting all the long day."
By this time the children were listening in open-eyed astonishment to
Jack, who had absorbed so much of the spirit and the information of the
old guide that he could talk almost as interestingly.
"Mother aphids," interrupted Ben Gile, "who like corn very well, lay
their eggs at the roots of the corn. But if the babies hatch out before
the corn roots are ready there is a family of ants who come to the
rescue. They carry these babies over to some other roots, where they may
feed until the corn roots grow. Later they carry them carefully back
again. Of course, they do not do this because they care for the welfare
of the aphids, but because they know if the little corn lice have plenty
to eat they themselves will have plenty of honeydew, which they love."
"And there's a harvester, sir, who builds a big mound around its front
door and carefully clears away the grass. Into the long galleries of its
home it carries a great many seeds, and stores them away. All the chaff
and hard parts which it cannot eat it carries out again."
"Leading up to the big mound," added Ben Gile, "are clear pathways as
distinct as any path you or I make through the grassy fields. Perhaps
ants are too little to do very much thinking, but they do many things
which you and I would have to think about a long time before we should
be able to do them. They have a good government which runs along without
friction. They can build roads, dig tunnels, spin silken webs, build
sheds, go to war, harvest grain into the storehouses, and keep a farm of
aphids."
By the time the old guide had finished Betty was waving her hand the way
she did in school. "Please, sir, I don't know half as much as Jack does.
He has told all I know, and more, too."
Ben Gile smiled at Betty, for he was very fond of her. He stroked his
white beard, and went on smiling as if he had some pleasant thought in
the back of his head. "Well, now, we must decide who has won the prize.
Mrs. Reece, what do you think?"
Mrs. Reece was proud of her Betty, and would rather have had her the
generous little girl she was than have her win all the prizes in the
world. "I think Jack has abundantly earned the prize."
"And now, children, what do you think?"
"Jack!" they all shouted.
"Jack," said the guide, bringing forward three parcels, "here is the
five-dollar gold piece--this will help you buy what you need; here is
the book, which will help you to identify what you see; and here is the
magnifying-glass. Remember, my boy, as you look through it, that it is
God's work you are seeing. We have been through the old story of 'Eyes
and No Eyes' with you boys. Peter, I'm afraid, goes out and sees
nothing. You, Jack, have used your eyes, and already you have learned
much that ought to make you a wiser man. As you look through the glass
it is well to reflect that you will never see a cathedral window as
beautiful as some wings you look upon, from the clear lights of the
cicada's wing to the gorgeous dyes of the moth. You will never see groin
or arch or hinge more wonderful than the covers of a wing or the
exquisite joint of some little insect. You may travel the world over
before you can find, made by man's hand, such mystery and beauty as lie
about you in the natural world. All the dynasties of Egypt could not
shape the scale on a moth's wing. All the religion of the past can shape
nothing that will do the Creator so much reverence as the world He has
created, the world we have about us. There, my boy, that is a long
sermon, but you will profit by it, for the world will hear of you yet.
"And now there's a little girl in this room who has worked faithfully to
find out what she could. She is five years younger than you, Jack, and I
want her to have something, too."
For a minute Jack looked troubled; then he said, resolutely, "Let me
give her my book, sir."
"No, no, Jack," replied Ben Gile, pleased with the lad's generosity. "I
have an extra book here." Betty's face was beaming. "Now let me write in
your books; then to supper, around our last camp-fire for this summer."
In a few minutes the children were about the fire, and there was the
smell of roasting corn, the sizzle of broiling partridge tied around
with bacon, and the fragrance of coffee for the older people. The
firelight seemed particularly jolly. Betty was very happy with her book
(nor would she be parted from it the next day on the train), and Jack
was radiant. They ate and talked and sang about the camp-fire, thought
Ben Gile the wisest man in the world, Mrs. Reece the kindest of mothers,
hoped that next year would come soon, and wanted to know what stories
they were to hear when the long winter was over.
"Perhaps it will be birds," said the guide; "perhaps fish; perhaps
flowers; maybe it will be spiders and crabs. Next summer is a long way
off. And now I have to go back to my school."
In a short time a line of lanterns was seen swinging and dancing up the
hill of Rangeley as the children filed homeward. The summer was over.