The Northern Pacific farmer. [volume] (Wadena, Minn.) 1878-1885, 1880-06-03
THE UNREASONABLE ANT.
Not Much Wisdom to be Found When
g. You go to Him.

Not Much Wisdom to be Found When
You go to Him.
Mark Twain's tramp Abroad
Now and then, while we rested. we
watched the laborious ant at his work.
found nothing new in. him-certainlv
nothing to change my opinion of him.
1t seems to be that in the matter of in
tellect the ant must be strangely over
rated bird. During many summers
now have watched him, when I ought
to have been in better business, and /
have not yet come across living ant
that seemed to haye any more sense
than dead one. I refer to the ordina.
ry ant, of courser; I have had no ex-
perience of those wonderful Swiss and
African ones which vote, keep drilled
armies, hold slaves, and dispute about
religion. Those particular ants may
be all that the naturalists paint them,
but am persuaded that the average
ant is a sham. admit his industry,
of course; he is the Understanding
creature in the world-when anybody
is looking-but his Observation-Disclosures
is the point make against him. He
goes out foraging, he makes capture,
and then what does he do? Go HON
No, he goes anywhere but home. He
doesn't know where home is. His
home may be only three feet away; no
matter, he can't ind it.
He makes his capture, as I have
said; it ia generally something that can
be of no sort of use to him or any one
else; it is usually seven times bigger
than 1t ought to be; he hunts out the
awkwardest place to take hold of; he
lifts it bodily up in the air by main
force, and starts-not toward home,
but in the opposite direction; not calm
ly and wisely, but with frantic haste
which is wasteful of his strength; he
fetches up against q pebble, and, in
stead of going around it, be climbs
over it backwards, dragging his booty
after him, tumbles down the other side,
jumps up in passion, kicks the dust
off his clothes, moistens his hands,
grabs his property viciously, yanks it
this way, then that, shoves it ahead of
him moment, turns tail and Tugs it
after him another moment, gets mad
der ana macder, then presently HOSTS
it into the air and goes tearing away in
an entirely new direction; comes to u
weed; it never occurs to him to 20
around it. No; he must climb it, and
he does climb it, dragging his worthless
property to the top-which is as bright
a thing to do as it would be for me to
carry sack of flour from Heidelberg
to Paris by way Of Strasburg steeple;
when he gets up there he finds that that
is not the place; takes cursory
glance at the scenery, and either climbs
down again or tumbles down, and starts
OH once more-as usual, in a new direc-
ton.
At the end of half an hour ne fetches
up within six inches of the place he
started from, and lays his burden down.
Meantime he has been all over the
ground for two yards around, and
climbed all the weeds and pebbles he
came across. Now he wipes the sweat
from his brow, strokes his limbs, and
then marches aimlessly off, in as vic.
lent a hurry as ever. He traverses a
good deal OF zig.zag country, and by
and by stumbles On the same booty
again. He does not remember to have
ever seen it before; he looks around to
see which is not the way home, grabs |
his bundle and starts. He goes through
the same adventures he had before, f.
nally stops to rest, and friend comes |
along. Evidently the friend remarks |
that a last years arasshopper leg is a |
very noble acquisition. and inquiries
where he got it. Evidently the propri-
etor does not remember exactly where
he did get it, but thinks he got it
"sround here somewhere" Evidently
the friend contracts to help him freight
It home. Then, with judgment pecu-
liarly antic (pun not Intentionally, thew
take hold of opposite ends of that grass |
hopper leg and begin to tug with all
their might in opposite directions.
Presently they take rest and confer
together. They decide that something
is wrong, they can't make out what. |
lhen they go at it again, just as before.
Same result. Mutual recriminations
follow. Evidently each accuses the
other of being an obstructionists. They
warm up, and the dispute ends in a |
fight. They lock themselves together
and chew each others jaws for while;
then they roll and tumble on the ground
till one loses a leg or horn and has to
haul off for repairs. They make up
and go to work again in the same old
insane way; but the crippled ant is at
disadvantage; tug as he may, the other
one drags off the booty and him at the
end of it. Instead of giving up he
hangs on and gets his shins bruised
against every obstruction that comes in
the way: By-and-by, when that grass
hopper leg has been dragged all over
the same old ground once more, it is f.
nally dumped at about the same spot
where it originally lay. The two per-
spring ants inspect it thoughtfully and
decide that dried orasshonner lons aro a