The Andrew County Republican. [volume] (Savannah, Mo.) 1871-1876, 1874-11-13

'OUS AL Aulp uVSl IoA Jul, III
not because they need food? If 1 had
been sure of this, 1 would have spoiled
Mr.. Ants sport for him very soon,
you may be sure, and set the poor cat
erpillar free. But l never heard of an
ants being cruel ; and if it were really
for dinner for his family that he was
working so hard, I thought he ought to
be helped and not hindered. Just then
my attention was diverted from him by
a sharp cry overhead. looked up, and
there was an enormous hawk sailing
round in circles, with two small birds
flying after him, bouncing down on his
head, and then darting away, and all
the time making shrill cries of fright
and hatred. Iknew very well what that
meant. Mr.. Hawk was also ont irving
to do come marketing for his dinner,
and he had had his eye on some little
birds in their nests !; and there were
the father and mother birds driving
him away. You wouldn't have believed
two such little birds could have driven
off such a big creature as the hawk, but
they did. They seemed to fairly buzz
round his head as flies do round a
horses head, and at last he Just gave
up and flew off so far that he vanished
in the blue sky, and the little birds
came skimming home again into the
wood.
"Well, WE'LL" said 1, "the little
people are stronger than the big ones,
after all! Where has nv ant gone ?"
Sure enough 1t hadn't been two
minutes that l had been watching the
hawk and the birds, but in that two
minutes the ant and the caterpillar had
disappeared. At last ] found them
where do You think? In q fold of my
waterproof cloak, on which I was sit
ting! The ant had let go of the cater
pillar, and was running round and
round him, perfectly ~bewildered and
the caterpillar was too neal dead to
stir. l shook the fold ont, and as soon
as The cloth lay straight and smooth,
the ant fastened his nippers in the
caterpillar again, and started off as fast
as eve l suppose ii l could have
seen his face, and had understood the
language of ants features, l should
have seen plainly written there, dear
me, what sort of a country was that !
tumbled into, SO frightfully black and
smooth ?" By this time the caterpillar
had the breath pretty well knocked out
of his body, and was so limp and help
less that the ant was not afraid of his
getting away from him. SO he stopped
a second now and then to rest. Some
times he would spring on the caterpil-
lars back, and stretch himself out
there ; sometimes he would stand still
on one side and look at him sharply,
keeping n nipper on his head. All
the time, though, he was working stead
lily in one direction he was headed for
home now, l felt very certain. 1t
astonished me very much at first that
none of the ants he met took any notice
of him /; they all went on their own way,
and never took so much as n sniff at
the caterpillar. But pretty soon / said
to myself
lyon stupid woman, not to suppose
that ants can be az well behaved as peo-
pie! When you passed Mr.. Jones yes
terday, you didn't peep into his market
basket, nor touch the big cabbage he
had under his arm"
Presently the ant dropped the cater
pillar, and ran on a few steps-I mean
inches-to meet another ant who was
coming toward him. They put their
heads together for a second. l could
not hear what they said, but l could
easily imagine, for they both ran quick
Iy back to the caterpillar, and one took
him by the head and the other by the
tail, and then they lugged him along
finely. 1t was only a few steps, how
ever, to the ants house :; that was the
reason he happened to meet this friend
Just coming out. The door wa around
mole in the ground, about as big as my
little finger. Several ants were stand
ing in the doorway, watching these
two come up with the caterpillar. They
all took hold as soon as the caterpillar
was on the doorstep, and almost before
I knew he was fairly there, they had
tumbled him down, heels yer head,