Part 7 (1/2)

”The ants have two weapons. One is the nipper, that can cut off their enemy's head as neatly as a pair of shears. Then they have the formic acid that, used against ants or other insects, has a poisonous quality.

With both of these weapons they fight with the greatest desperation until victory declares for one side or the other. The red ants are usually victorious, as they are larger and stronger and more aggressive.

In case they win, they carry away all the little ones of their black opponents and bring them up as slaves. They are treated kindly, and after a while seem to grow content and take their place as the humbler members of the community. After the battle is over the wounded ants are carried home by their companions and the dead are buried in a regular ants' cemetery.”

The boys had listened with a fascinated interest to these marvelous stories of life going on all around them and to which they had never given more than a pa.s.sing thought.

”Well,” said Jim, ”it sure is the queerest thing I ever heard about. If anyone else but d.i.c.k had told me this I wouldn't have believed it.”

”Yes,” said Tom, ”it certainly sounds like a fairy story.”

”What gets me,” said Shorty, ”is that the queen seems to be the most important of the whole bunch. What about the king? It must be a regular suffragette colony.”

”Yes,” replied d.i.c.k, ”in a certain sense it is. The males of the community don't amount to much. One by one their privileges are taken away from them. They even lose their wings before the females do. After they have taken their flight and safely escorted the queen to her future home they drop out of sight. Their wings fall off and in some cases are pulled off by the more ill-tempered females of the family. They hang around a little while and then drop out of sight altogether. n.o.body seems to care what becomes of them. They can't even get back to the place from which they started. Their wings are gone and they can't walk. They remind me of the cat--they are so different--the cat came back--the male ants can't.”

”Gee,” said Jim, ”how do the rest get on without them?”

”Oh,” replied d.i.c.k, ”they don't seem to mind the males at all. It takes away some of the conceit of the male s.e.x when they see how easily one can get along without them.”

”Well,” said Shorty, who was never partial to work, ”they at least get rid of a lot of trouble. How about the carpenter ants, the soldier ants, the foraging ants? Are they all females?”

”Every one of them,” said d.i.c.k. ”It is a regular colony of Amazons.”

”It seems to me,” said Shorty, ”that in all the bunch the queen is the only one who has a snap.”

”Don't you believe it,” returned d.i.c.k, ”as a matter of fact, she is the hardest worker of all, that is, at the start. She is the busiest kind of a mother, brings up all the little ants, was.h.i.+ng their faces, combing their hair----”

”Oh, say,” interrupted Shorty, ”aren't you putting it a little bit too strong, d.i.c.k?”

”Not at all,” said d.i.c.k; ”here, take up this ant and look at it through the magnifying gla.s.s.”

Under the lens the boys, crowding around, saw that there, sure enough, was a fine silky down resembling very much the hair upon the human head.

”Of course,” said d.i.c.k, ”as in every other part of the animal or insect world, this only lasts for a little while. Men and women are the only creatures in the whole universe that stick by their children through thick and thin. There is no better mother than a cat, for instance, while the kittens are small and they need her help, but just as soon as they are able to s.h.i.+ft for themselves, nothing more doing for Mrs. Cat.

Out they go to hustle for their own living, and if some of the slower and lazier ones still hang around, the mother's claws soon give them a sharp reminder that it is time to be up and doing. The same is true of the birds. See how the mother bird sits brooding over her eggs. With what tender care she watches them while they are still unable to feed themselves. How the father bird scratches from morning to night to find worms to put down those scrawny little beaks. But after a while they, too, go to the edge of the nest, and with many a timid flutter stretch their wings and drop off the edge. And with the laggards, the parental beak is ready to push them off into the new world where they hustle for themselves. It is only a fellow's father and mother that stand by him to the end. No matter how bad he is, how often he wrenches their hearts, how many times he has sinned and been forgiven and sinned again, the mother heart clings to him to the end. I tell you what, boys, you can't make too much of that father and mother of yours.”

”You bet,” came in a responsive murmur from the boys.

”Now, going back to the queen,” said d.i.c.k, ”it sure does seem that after the kids have grown up she'd have a dandy time. She is by far the biggest figure in the colony. The worker ants can't do too much for her. She has the finest room and the choicest food, and yet, after all, I suppose this becomes tiresome. It is just as it is with human queens. So many things are done for them, so much pomp and ceremony surrounds them, that no doubt they often sigh for freedom and would exchange their places with almost any of their subjects. They are something like a little girl that was a rich man's daughter. Her milk was pasteurized, the water she drank was sterilized, so that after a while her only thought was to grow big enough to do as she chose and the very first thing she was going to do was to eat a germ.”

The boys laughed and d.i.c.k resumed.

”It is almost pathetic to see the poor old queen going out for a walk.

She moves in a perfect circle of courtiers. As long as she keeps in the middle she is all right, but the minute she strays to one side or attempts to go further, this surrounding group push her back. Sometimes they thrust their shoulders against her and at other times simply ma.s.s themselves in front of her, and even, at times, are undignified enough, if these hints are not sufficient, to take her by one of her antennae and lead her back into the center of the circle, for all the world like a mother taking home a naughty child by the ear. No, you can bet it is not all 'peaches and cream' where the queen is concerned.”

”Well,” said Shorty, only partly convinced, ”even if the queen has troubles of her own, it must be nice to be the aristocrat. Think of having nothing to do but just hang around and let the carpenter ants build your house and the farmer ants store up the grain and the foraging ants bring in the caterpillars and the soldier ants do the fighting.”

”No,” said d.i.c.k, ”you are wrong again, Shorty. They do so little and become so dependent upon the work of others that after a while they seem to lose their faculties. They wander around in a crazy and feeble way, trying to kill time, I suppose, and after a while become so lazy and helpless that they can't even eat without help.”