Connecticut western news., 1885-03-18

F a y and appointed me your guide. Please step this way"
 The entrance opened into kind of hall, which again narrowed into lobby, having pillar at the entrance, midway between the walls. Seeing Tom look wonderingly at this pillar, the guide told him it was to make the rest easier of defence when attacked.
 "You'see she said, Ca couple of ants could keep whole army at bay here. !"
 Tom thought it most skillful device. Passing through this lobby. they came to another hall, much larger than the first, with pillars here and there, to SUD- port the roof.
 "This is the grand assembly-room," said the guide.
 Then she led him into another lobby, having a row of cells on each side. They mounted staircase, and passed through a gallery, which also had rows of cells on each side. There was some- thing, or somebody, in every cell.
 Now and again, they met a long string of ants bearing burdens. The leader of one of these-a big-jawed ant siezed Tom with his nippers as they were passing, and would have made them meet in his flesh, had not the guide eignaled that he was friend.
 Tom might have grown weary with his long tramp, but for some entertain ing accounts of other ant nests by the guide. She described one holIowed out of the branches and twigs of thorn tree for the sake of honey hidden there; an- other purse-shaped, made by gluing leaves together while on the tree; and another, stranger still. made with dried cakes of refuse, arranged like tiles on the branches of tree, one large cake form ing the roof.
 As they came to one cell joyous com pany passed out, having among them a large ant of very stately bearing.
 "The queen the queen !" cried the guide. 'Isn't she right noble lady ?"
 Tom took note how very devoted and attentive the ants were to their queen Her body guard lifted her gently over all rough places; and when the royal party met troop of working ants, the latter divided and saluted the former as it passed along.
 Turning into the cell the queen had just left they saw the floor covered with the smallest eggs Tom had ever seen. They were scarcely bigger than pin point. ''But come this way" said the guide, ''and I'll show you the nursery. !"
 This was one of the cosiest cells in the whole nest. Here, ranged against the walls like classes in a school, were rows upon rows of small, white, legless grubs. They looked like tiny sugar loaves, and were made up of eleven or twelve rings. Every little creature had its nurse, who was either feeding it or washing it, or just taking it out for an airing, or bring ing it in.
 "What in the world are these funny little things ?" asked Tom.
 "Why, they have come out of eggs like those you saw just now; and if spared will be full-grown ants some day. Now you must see the spinning room." So saving, the guide led across passage into another cell.
 Here number of fine fat grubs were spinning gauge dresses for themselves, which were to shroud their bodies from top to toe. A few were spinning an ad- ditioral coat of silk to put over the gauge dress.
 "These are their nightgowns," said the guide. "And the moment they are covered from head to foot they will go to sleep for month or six weeks without waking"
 Tom thought that would be nice.
 The spinning room led to the dormi- tory. Here Tom saw what at first looked like piles of broken twigs and tiny balls of silk; but when he examined the bits of stick more closely he could trace the face and limbs of an insect through the ganze covering. They looked, for all the world, like the pictured mummies he had seen in books. The guards in the room looked rather savagely at Tom when he entered. but glance from the guide made all right.
 "Yon need not walk so softly. A thousand cannon, laundering over them, wonld not rouse them until they had slept their sleep out. As soon as they show the least sign of waking, however, taey will be taken into the next room and swathed."
 To this room they now proceeded. The sight Tom saw here interested him much more than anything he had yet seen in the ant-world. The floor was strewn with mummy-like forms, and silk balls like those in the room just left; but they were stirring a little, as if alive. Mounted on each one were three or four ants, who carefully assisted the inmates to unwrap themselves; then they took the limbs from their sheathf and smoothed them out; and as last the released prisoner stood up on It's six legs, in all the freedom of a full-growr ant. What a change from the little helpless worm
 Tom examined one of these brand new ants very minutely. He found tn, mouth had two pairs of jaws, whicI moved from side to side, and not ul and down, like his own. One pair 0 jaws were Ike toothed scissors, with sharp pointed beak. These, he earned were to fight with. From the front c the head sprang two long -jointed things like thrasher's fail, but clrb-shape at the end. The guide said these wer | the most useful things an srt had-armt hand, and nose all in one; and that