The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1880-05-19

backward, dragging his booty after him,
tumbles down the other side, jumps up IN q
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
a moment, turns tail and Tugs it after him
another moment, gets madden and madden,
then presently hoists il into the air and goes
tearing away in an entirely new direction;
comes TO a weed; il never occurs to him TO
90 around it. No; he must climb it, and he
does climb it, dragging his worthless property
to the top-which is As bright thing to do
as it would be for me to carry a sack of flour
from Heidelberg to Paris by way of Stras-
burg steeple; when he gets up there he finds
that that is not the place; takes 9 cursory
glance at the scenery, and either climbs down
again or tumbles down, and starts off once
more-as usual, in new direction.
At the end of half an hour he fetches up
within six inches of the place he started
from, and lays his burden down. Mean
time he has been over all 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 violent hurry as ever. He traverses a
good deal of zig-zag country, and by -and-by
sLumDleS OH 0ib sdLl6 DOObN again. liz 0OOc
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,
| finally stops to rest, and friend comes along.
| Evidently the friend remarks that a last
years grasshopper leg is very noble ac-
| quisition, and inquiries where he got it. Ev-
| identity the proprietor does not remember
exactly where he did get it, but thinks he
| got it ssaround here somewhere" Evidently
the friend contracts to help him freight it
home. Then with a judgment peculiarly
antic (pun not Intentionally, they take hold
| of opposite ends of that grasshopper leg and
begin to tug with all their might in oppo-
site directions Presently they take rest,
and confer together. They decide that some
| thing is wrong they can't make out what.
Then they go at it again, just as before.
| Same result. Mutual determinations follow.
| Evidently each accuses the other of being an
obstructionist. They warm up, and the dis
pute ends in fight They lock themselves
| together and chew each others jaws for
while; then they roll and tumble on the
| ground till one loses horn or leg and has
to haul off for repairs. They make up and
| go to work again in thesame old insane way,
but the crippled ant is at disadvantage;
| tug as he may, the other one drags OH the
booty and him at the end of it. In
stead of giving up, he hangs on and gets his
shins bruised against every obstruction that
comes in the way. By-and-by, when that
grasshoppe leg has been dragged all over
the same old ground once more, it is finally
dumped at about the spot where il originally
lay The two perspiring ants inspect it
thoughtfully and decide that dried grass
hopper legs are poor sort of property after
all, and then each starts off in different di-
rection to see if he can't find an old nail or
something else that is heavy enough to af-
ford entertainment and at the same time
valueless enough to make an ant want to
| own it.