Now I have read that every ant-city has its wary sentinel, to keep watch
and ward, and give warning of the approach of the foe. And when he does
give warning there is a great hurry-scurry in the town; young ants, whether
in their larva or pupa stage, must be carried down to the cellars for
safety, and all the provisions which have been collected and stored with
so much care must also be removed to a secure hiding-place. But who is to
accomplish all this?
If you notice carefully, you will see that it is a mistake to think of
these insects as all of one kind, and you may have heard that they have
been divided by those who have studied them, into three classes--males,
females, and neuters.
It is about the neuters we will talk now, for these busy, unselfish little
creatures do all that has to be done; the whole work of the ant-city is
left to them. It is they who collect the food--and very clever hunters they
are, carrying their prey, whether alive or dead, right home to the nest; it
is they who build the nests with their chambers and galleries, and bring up
the little ones. Yet these earnest little workers have no wings, and must
toil along upon their feet, while the ladies and gentlemen lead much easier
lives, and fly about at will.
Still I do not think the workers are to be pitied, for they know their
work, and do it in a very beautiful and unselfish way; and we must not
forget that when the earth was in all the freshness of its beauty--no
serpent's trail, no touch of fallen ruined man to mar its perfectness--"the
Lord God took Adam, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and to
keep it.
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