Orange County observer. [volume] (Hillsborough, N.C.) 1880-1918, 1885-05-16

proved false alarm. One OF the ont
posts had indeed seen legion of soldier
ants Ii the distance, tending toward the
nest They were simply rounding a
hill, however, and then made for a nest
OF negro ants, intent on making slaves.
This was the explanation of scout,
who had heen sent out to see how the
thing Won turn.
TomS was utterly dumfounded when he
heard OF ant slaves.
"Do ants really make and hold
slaves ?" he asked, in utter astonish-
ment, of his guide.
eyes, some; not oil. We have no
slaves, but do all our work ourselves.
There is one tribe of ants, the ANA
IONS, great shareholders; but they 90
nothing but fight and lounge. They are
very brave in war, however, ana never
take or kill the up-grown ants of nest,
except these try to hinder them from
carrying off their young, which they
want to bring up and make into slaves.
But they have to pay dearly for their
laziness." Tom WINGED.
"Thev are called the Workers : but
they are just the opposite when not
fighting. They neither feed nor clean
themselves nor their young, ones. All
this is done for them by slaves, who
actually have to carry them on their
backs when they go to new settle
ment In fact they have lost the power
of doing anything for themselves through
having every thing done for them and
not using the power they had Their
Jaws have lost their teeth, and are now
simply nippers with which they kill
their foes. And all this results from in
dolence.
Tom WINGED again. Was she pointing
at him?
''But," she went on, II know another
tribe. the Round!aws. who have become
moee helpless still in the same way.
They are even losing their nipping
power and if it wero not for their
| slaves, who carry them to the field and
then fight by their side, they would
| never win battle. There is one other
tribe which sloth has plunged into yet
deeper depths of degradation, the Worn
| outs TLay are the Nero puppet mas
ters of their slaves, who have become
| the real masters. Laziness Is terrible
curse it can blight the finest powers. y
The speakers thousand eyes flashed
fire as she spoke these words, and made
Tom tremble.
He shuddered at the picture of the
ants on whom the curse of idleness had
fallen. It made him think of the pic
ture in bis bedroom. Did he really see
what his future might be-and would
be, did he not change-in these pic
lures? And he groaned aloud, in an.
guish of heart, at the thought.
| TON, Tom, rouse up, my boy You
will get your death of cold sleeping like
that in the grass. Come in and ge
some warm supper.
This was Toms father, who had beer
seeking him, high and low, for som
time, and had found him at last, fas
asleep in the orchard.
Toms adventure in an ant-hill was
dream yet not all al>~dream, passinl
away with his waking thoughts, like til
morning cloud. The last words of hi
guide rang througAhhis mind for man.
a day: "Laziness is terrible curse ant
can blight the finest powers. It wa
the turning-po in his life, which suf
fered as great change as that whicl
turned the white, legless grub, III hi
dream, into light airy insect. 1t wa
new birth A few months later b
went to business, and soon won a char
acter for patient industry which be KEEP
throughout his life.