Bert Wilson at the Wheel Part 7

"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."

"Can't eat!" said Jim, whose appet.i.te was a standing joke in camp; "then no lords and dukes for me."

"I really think," resumed d.i.c.k, "that just as it is in human life, the workers are the lucky ones after all. There is something doing every minute. Their lives are full of interest. They are too busy to be unhappy. Don't make any mistake, fellows, work is the salvation of the world. The happiest are the busiest; the drones and sluggards are almost, without exception, the most miserable creatures on the face of the earth. If I were----"

But just at this moment a curious thing happened. The afternoon had worn on while the boys were talking, and so keen was their interest in the wonders that were being brought before their eyes that they had failed to realize how late it was. The ants had been wandering around in an aimless way--that is, it seemed aimless to the boys, but doubtless they knew what they were about and had a definite object, even though the boys couldn't understand it. But now a sudden stir and bustle seemed to arouse the colony. From numerous gates the throng came forth with almost military order and precision.

"Ah," said d.i.c.k, "here's just the thing you want to see, boys. It is milking time and the ants are going to herd their cows. Now we will follow one of these lines and see just how they do it."

At a few feet distant from the mound there was a little shrub about three feet high, covered with foliage and with widely extended branches.

The column of ants reached the foot of this, climbed it, and scattered among the branches.

The boys at a signal from d.i.c.k followed him softly, so that the ants might not be disturbed.

"See," said d.i.c.k, gently taking hold of a branch that projected beyond the others, "look through this magnifying gla.s.s."

One by one the boys stole up, each eager for a sight that they had never before seen or dreamed of. On the upper side of the branch which d.i.c.k held between his thumb and finger were little groups of parasites, almost too small to be seen by the naked eye. All day long they had been feeding upon the sap that came from a branch until their bodies were swollen with a transparent honey dew. An ant approached one of them, placed its antennae over the throat and extracted a tiny drop of the colorless liquid. Again and again this was repeated. It seemed like rank robbery, but there was no resistance on the part of the herd. They seemed just as glad that milking time had come as do the cows that stand lowing at the bars of the fence and calling for the farmer. Drop after drop of the honey dew was extracted, until finally the aphid, as the little creature is called, grew lank and thin, while the ant became correspondingly large. From time to time the antennae of the ant stroked the tiny hair on the back, just as a farmer would stroke the cow in order to soothe it and keep it perfectly still.

Finally the milking was completed and the farmer ants retraced their way along the branch and down the stem and, falling into line with their comrades similarly laden, resumed their march to the colony. The boys had watched with bated breath and almost awe-struck interest.

"Well," said Jim, at last breaking the silence, "those ants are surely not going hungry to bed."

"Gee," said Shorty, "I bet they will suffer from indigestion."

"Not a bit of it," said d.i.c.k. "You don't suppose they keep this all to themselves, do you? Just look here."

He lifted a stone about eighteen inches from the foot of the mound. Under the magnifying gla.s.s they could see a number of tiny apertures that evidently led in the direction of the colony, and on one side an ant waiting for the return of the milking party. As d.i.c.k selected one and placed his magnifying gla.s.s directly upon the opening, the boys could see one of the ants laden with the honey dew stop and, placing its mouth close to that of the waiting ant, exude a tiny drop of its burden. Moving the gla.s.s around quickly in the arc of a circle, they saw this process repeated until finally the round was finished and the farmer ants, more lightly laden than before, went on toward the main entrance of the colony.

"Those," said d.i.c.k, "are the lords and dukes getting their supper."

"Well," said Tom, "after this I am ready to believe anything. I tell you what, d.i.c.k, I never learned so much in my life as I have to-day."

"Yes," said Shorty, as the boys picked up their kits and prepared to return to camp, "I am glad enough now that I didn't smash that ant nest when I tried to. After all, they are good sports and I would hate to spoil their fun."

"Yes," replied d.i.c.k, "you know that one of the most important principles in life is kindness to anything that breathes. Of course there are certain pests that are harmful to human life and we are compelled to kill in self-defense, but for anything that is harmless the one great principle that should govern us always is found in those two lines that Mr. Hollis repeated the other day:

"'Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With sorrow to the meanest thing that feels.'"

CHAPTER VIII

THE GIPSY CARAVAN

"h.e.l.lo, fellows. Look at this. Well, of all the----"

The boys looked up at Bob's startled exclamation, and for a moment everything else was forgotten, while they stared with wide-open eyes at the grotesque procession that came into view.

Down the road crawled a little caravan of ten or a dozen ramshackle wagons, drawn by tired-looking horses. At their heads or alongside walked a number of men of various ages, dressed in all sorts of nondescript costumes. Their swarthy faces and dark eyes, together with the large earrings that they wore, gave them a distinctly piratical appearance, and to the boys they looked as though they might have been taken bodily from one of the old romances of the Spanish Main. They might easily have been the blood brothers of the rascals who sang in thundering chorus:

"Fifteen men on the dead man's chest, Sing heigho, and a bottle of rum."