CHAPTER VII
THE ANTS GO MILKING
"You know," said Dick, as the boys threw themselves down at the side ofthe mound and looked at it with an entirely new interest, "if these wereAfrican ants, you wouldn't be taking any such liberties with them.Instead of hanging around this mound you would be running away like allpossessed. And if you didn't make tracks in a hurry the only thing lefthere would be your skeleton picked as clean as the one you saw the otherday in old Dr. Sanford's office."
"What?" cried Jim, "do you mean to say that I would run away from alittle thing like an ant. Not on your life, I wouldn't."
"Let's see," said Dick, "you'd run away from a boa-constrictor, wouldn'tyou?"
"Who wouldn't," retorted Jim.
"Well, if you'd run away from the boa-constrictor, and he'd run awayfrom the ants, where do _you_ get any license to face the ants."
"Do you mean to say that those monster snakes are afraid of such tinythings?"
"I should say they were," replied Dick, "the ants go from place toplace through the great African forest in countless numbers, millions ata time, a regular army of them. Nothing can stand before them. Theystrip every shrub, eat every blade of grass. They swarm over everyliving thing they find in their way. Sometimes they come across a snakeunawares, and climb all over him. He squirms and twists and rushes away,trying to brush them off, against the bushes. At last he turns and bitesfrantically, but they never let up. They actually eat him alive, and inless than ten minutes they pass on leaving his bones picked clean as awhistle. The natives take their wives and children and flee for theirlives whenever they see an army of ants approaching."
"But that, of course, has nothing to do with these little Americanneighbors of ours. They are perfectly harmless and though they arefierce scrappers among themselves, inflict no injury on any one else.And there is nothing in the whole animal or insect world, except perhapsthe bees, that have a society and government so much like that of men."
"In one respect they are like their African brothers and that is intheir fondness for travel. Every once in a while they make up theirminds to emigrate and then they fly in swarms of millions----"
"What?" interrupted Frank, "do you mean to say they fly? I never knewthat an ant had wings."
"Of course they have," said Dick, "they often have to cross rivers toget to their new home. How could they do that without wings?"
"Oh, I don't know," hummed Shorty:
"The bed bug has no wings at all But he gets there just the same."
A rather severe glance from Dick quenched Phil's exuberant spirits whichhad all come back to him since his ducking.
"Now," continued Dick, "these swarms are sometimes so vast that theydarken the sun in certain localities. Men working on high buildings havebeen surrounded and almost blinded by them. While these emigrations lastthey are a bother, if not a peril, and the only ones that are reallyhappy are the fish in the brooks and rivers over which they pass.Sometimes the surface is fairly black with them and the trout and littletroutlings have the time of their lives. Once the flight is ended,however, and the new locality chosen, the wings disappear. Nature has nouse for needless things and from that time on the air knows them nomore. The carpenter ants get busy right away. The place is marked off asaccurately as a surveyor marks out a plot in the suburbs of a city. Thequeen ant is given a royal room apart from all the others. She is a goodmother and takes the best of care of her little ones. As they growolder, they in turn help the queen to care for their little brothers andsisters. They are excessively neat and clean in their personal habits.They spend hours preening and combing and cleaning until they areimmaculate----"
"Regular dudes," muttered Jim.
"Well," said Tom, "that's something that will never be laid up againstyou, Jim."
Jim, who indeed had a hard time keeping up to a high ideal ofcleanliness, and whose hair was usually tumbled while his nails toooften were draped in mourning, looked a little confused, and while hewas thinking up something to hurl back at Tom, Dick went on.
"There is one thing, however, about the ants that I don't admire. Theylike to get somebody else to do their work. A certain number of theirown colony are 'hewers of wood and drawers of water' for the rest.Indeed, the aristocrats among them get so lazy after a while that theywill not even feed themselves. The workers not only have to hustle forthe grub, but actually have to feed it to the lords and dukes. Andtalking of hustling for grub, just look here."
The boys followed the direction of Dick's finger, and there coming up alittle beaten path they saw a procession of ants dragging along a bigfat caterpillar. It had evidently put up a good fight, judging from thenumbers that had been necessary to capture it, but they had proved toostrong. A little convulsive movement showed that it was not yet quitedead, but it no longer made any resistance. The formic acid that theants secrete had partly paralyzed it and made defence impossible. Therewas an almost comical disproportion between its large helpless bulk andthe tiny size of its conquerors, but this was a case where numberscounted. The victors all pulled like good fellows and passing throughone of the entrances of the mound finally dragged their booty into theinner cave.
"Another thing," said Dick, when the keenly interested boys had againgathered about him, "the red ants are slaveholders. When their workingforce has been weakened or diminished, they get a big army together andraid some colony of black ants a few hundred feet or yards distant inorder to carry them away as slaves. There is nothing haphazard orslouchy about the way they go about it. Everything is arranged ascarefully and precisely as in the case of an American or European powergetting ready to go to war. At a given signal the troops come out andget in order of battle. There is perfect order and system everywhere.When there is a very large army, a sort of hum or buzz arises from italmost as though they were beating drums to inspire the soldiers forbattle. They march forward in perfect time and dash upon the enemy withirresistible fury. The black ants through their scouts have been told ofthe enemy's approach and have made all the preparation they can to beatthem off. The infant ants, together with their household goods, havebeen tucked away in upper galleries where they can see the fight but notbe in it."
"Reserved seats as it were," murmured Frank.
"The ants have two weapons. One is the nipper, that can cut off theirenemy's head as neatly as a pair of shears. Then they have the formicacid that, used against ants or other insects, has a poisonous quality.With both of these weapons they fight with the greatest desperationuntil victory declares for one side or the other. The red ants areusually victorious, as they are larger and stronger and more aggressive.In case they win, they carry away all the little ones of their blackopponents and bring them up as slaves. They are treated kindly, andafter a while seem to grow content and take their place as the humblermembers of the community. After the battle is over the wounded ants arecarried home by their companions and the dead are buried in a regularants' cemetery."
The boys had listened with a fascinated interest to these marvelousstories of life going on all around them and to which they had nevergiven more than a passing thought.
"Well," said Jim, "it sure is the queerest thing I ever heard about. Ifanyone else but Dick 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 mostimportant of the whole bunch. What about the king? It must be a regularsuffragette colony."
"Yes," replied Dick, "in a certain sense it is. The males of thecommunity don't amount to much. One by one their privileges are takenaway from them. They even lose their wings before the females do. Afterthey have taken their flight and safely escorted the queen to her futurehome they drop out of sight. Their wings fall off and in some cases arepulled off by the more ill-tempered females of the family. They hangaround a little while and then drop out of sight altogether. Nobodyseems to care what becomes of them. They can't even get back to theplace f
rom which they started. Their wings are gone and they can'twalk. They remind me of the cat--they are so different--the cat cameback--the male ants can't."
"Gee," said Jim, "how do the rest get on without them?"
"Oh," replied Dick, "they don't seem to mind the males at all. It takesaway some of the conceit of the male sex when they see how easily onecan get along without them."
"Well," said Shorty, who was never partial to work, "they at least getrid 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 Dick. "It is a regular colony of Amazons."
"It seems to me," said Shorty, "that in all the bunch the queen is theonly one who has a snap."
"Don't you believe it," returned Dick, "as a matter of fact, she is thehardest worker of all, that is, at the start. She is the busiest kind ofa mother, brings up all the little ants, washing their faces, combingtheir hair----"
"Oh, say," interrupted Shorty, "aren't you putting it a little bit toostrong, Dick?"
"Not at all," said Dick; "here, take up this ant and look at it throughthe magnifying glass."
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 Dick, "as in every other part of the animal or insectworld, this only lasts for a little while. Men and women are the onlycreatures in the whole universe that stick by their children throughthick 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 asthey are able to shift for themselves, nothing more doing for Mrs. Cat.Out they go to hustle for their own living, and if some of the slowerand lazier ones still hang around, the mother's claws soon give them asharp reminder that it is time to be up and doing. The same is true ofthe birds. See how the mother bird sits brooding over her eggs. Withwhat tender care she watches them while they are still unable to feedthemselves. How the father bird scratches from morning to night to findworms 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 stretchtheir wings and drop off the edge. And with the laggards, the parentalbeak is ready to push them off into the new world where they hustle forthemselves. It is only a fellow's father and mother that stand by him tothe 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, themother heart clings to him to the end. I tell you what, boys, you can'tmake 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 Dick, "it sure does seem that afterthe kids have grown up she'd have a dandy time. She is by far the biggestfigure in the colony. The worker ants can't do too much for her. She hasthe finest room and the choicest food, and yet, after all, I suppose thisbecomes tiresome. It is just as it is with human queens. So many thingsare done for them, so much pomp and ceremony surrounds them, that nodoubt they often sigh for freedom and would exchange their places withalmost any of their subjects. They are something like a little girl thatwas a rich man's daughter. Her milk was pasteurized, the water she drankwas sterilized, so that after a while her only thought was to grow bigenough to do as she chose and the very first thing she was going to dowas to eat a germ."
The boys laughed and Dick 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 themiddle she is all right, but the minute she strays to one side orattempts to go further, this surrounding group push her back. Sometimesthey thrust their shoulders against her and at other times simply massthemselves in front of her, and even, at times, are undignified enough,if these hints are not sufficient, to take her by one of her antennaeand lead her back into the center of the circle, for all the world likea mother taking home a naughty child by the ear. No, you can bet it isnot all 'peaches and cream' where the queen is concerned."
"Well," said Shorty, only partly convinced, "even if the queen hastroubles of her own, it must be nice to be the aristocrat. Think ofhaving nothing to do but just hang around and let the carpenter antsbuild your house and the farmer ants store up the grain and the foragingants bring in the caterpillars and the soldier ants do the fighting."
"No," said Dick, "you are wrong again, Shorty. They do so little andbecome so dependent upon the work of others that after a while they seemto 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 andhelpless that they can't even eat without help."
"Can't eat!" said Jim, whose appetite was a standing joke in camp; "thenno lords and dukes for me."
"I really think," resumed Dick, "that just as it is in human life, theworkers are the lucky ones after all. There is something doing everyminute. Their lives are full of interest. They are too busy to beunhappy. Don't make any mistake, fellows, work is the salvation of theworld. The happiest are the busiest; the drones and sluggards arealmost, without exception, the most miserable creatures on the face ofthe earth. If I were----"
But just at this moment a curious thing happened. The afternoon had wornon while the boys were talking, and so keen was their interest in thewonders that were being brought before their eyes that they had failedto realize how late it was. The ants had been wandering around in anaimless way--that is, it seemed aimless to the boys, but doubtless theyknew what they were about and had a definite object, even though theboys couldn't understand it. But now a sudden stir and bustle seemed toarouse the colony. From numerous gates the throng came forth with almostmilitary order and precision.
"Ah," said Dick, "here's just the thing you want to see, boys. It ismilking time and the ants are going to herd their cows. Now we willfollow one of these lines and see just how they do it."
At a few feet distant from the mound there was a little shrub aboutthree feet high, covered with foliage and with widely extended branches.The column of ants reached the foot of this, climbed it, and scatteredamong the branches.
The boys at a signal from Dick followed him softly, so that the antsmight not be disturbed.
"See," said Dick, gently taking hold of a branch that projected beyondthe others, "look through this magnifying glass."
One by one the boys stole up, each eager for a sight that they had neverbefore seen or dreamed of. On the upper side of the branch which Dickheld 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 beenfeeding upon the sap that came from a branch until their bodies wereswollen with a transparent honey dew. An ant approached one of them,placed its antennae over the throat and extracted a tiny drop of thecolorless liquid. Again and again this was repeated. It seemed like rankrobbery, but there was no resistance on the part of the herd. Theyseemed just as glad that milking time had come as do the cows that standlowing at the bars of the fence and calling for the farmer. Drop afterdrop of the honey dew was extracted, until finally the aphid, as thelittle creature is called, grew lank and thin, while the ant becamecorrespondingly large. From time to time the antennae of the ant strokedthe tiny hair on the back, just as a farmer would stroke the cow inorder to soothe it and keep it perfectly still.
Finally the milking was completed and the farmer ants retraced their wayalong the branch and down the stem and, falling into line with theircomrades similarly laden, resumed their march to the colony. The boyshad watched with bated breath and almost awe-struck interest.
"Well," said Jim, at last breaking the silence, "those ants are surelynot going hungry to bed."
"Gee," said Shorty, "I bet they will suffer from indigestion."
"Not a bit of it," said Dick. "You don't suppose they keep this all tothemselves, do you? Just look here."
He lifted a stone about eighteen inches from the foot of the mound. Underthe magnifying glass the
y could see a number of tiny apertures thatevidently led in the direction of the colony, and on one side an antwaiting for the return of the milking party. As Dick selected one andplaced his magnifying glass directly upon the opening, the boys could seeone of the ants laden with the honey dew stop and, placing its mouthclose to that of the waiting ant, exude a tiny drop of its burden. Movingthe glass around quickly in the arc of a circle, they saw this processrepeated until finally the round was finished and the farmer ants, morelightly laden than before, went on toward the main entrance of thecolony.
"Those," said Dick, "are the lords and dukes getting their supper."
"Well," said Tom, "after this I am ready to believe anything. I tell youwhat, Dick, 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 toreturn to camp, "I am glad enough now that I didn't smash that ant nestwhen I tried to. After all, they are good sports and I would hate tospoil their fun."
"Yes," replied Dick, "you know that one of the most important principlesin life is kindness to anything that breathes. Of course there arecertain pests that are harmful to human life and we are compelled tokill in self-defense, but for anything that is harmless the one greatprinciple that should govern us always is found in those two lines thatMr. Hollis repeated the other day:
"'Never to blend our pleasure or our pride With sorrow to the meanest thing that feels.'"