Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1915-01-09
FOR THE CHILDREN
Where the Lilies
Would Not
Grou

Once upon time there was a man
who had beautiful garden Roses
grew in 1t, and hollyhocks and sun
flowers; but he wanted lilies more
than anything else, and he could not
have them because the ants would not
allow them to grow. You know that
lilies grow out of dry brown bulbs you
plant in the ground Over and over
again the man bought these little
brown bulbs and planted them, and
every time he did it the ants came
and ate them up. The ants thought
he was very kind to put these lovely
feasts in the ground so often, but af-
ter little while they did not like the
things the man put around the bulbs.
They did not taste good. One night
ne put red pepper around the place
where the bulbs We're planted in nice
little rings. One of the little ants
got its feet in the pepper and cried,
on, dear me, I'm burned awfully-''
Then Of course the other ants stayed
away from the red line. They work
ed all night and dug little roads under
the red pepper, and got to the nice
bulb and ate it up.
Next time the man tried tar, and
then kerosene, and then snuff. and
then camphor. All of them were
things the ants did not like; only they
climbed over them somehow. or dug
under them. or did something very
wise. Anyway, they always ate up
the lily bulbs, so the man had moth
ing left in his garden but roses and
hollyhocks and sunfowers. He was
not really cruel man, but he began
to feel very cruel when he thought Of
these clever little ants who loved to
devour lily bulbs. One night he sat
trying to think of what he could do.
He wanted to kill every little ant that
lived in his garden
What do ants like best of anything
to eat?" he asked.
"A nice, juicy bone,' said his wife.
All right" he said. I'm going to
give them feast tonight" Then he
laughed just as the giant laughed
when he thought he was going to
catch Jack when he climbed the bean
stalk. Just wait till you see what
I'm going to do" That night he fixed
a wonderful trap. On the ground be-
side lily bulb he laid a sheet of
sticky fly-paper. 1t was pegged down
to the ground, so the wind would not
blow it away; and in the middle of it
he laid nice, juicy, meaty little bone.
Now said the cruel man. well
see what will happen"
And the funniest thing did happen.
The man got up very, very early in
the morning.
Come" he cried to his wife and all
his little children, come out to see
my ant-trap. I'll wager there isn't
an ant left alive in our garden
And what do you suppose he found?
All the meat and marrow was gone
from the nice. juicy bone. The ants
had sucked out the sweetness and
there was not one ant caught on the
f1y-paper. not one! Thew had smelled
the nice, juicy bone. and gone to look
for it. hundreds Of them. then smelled
of the fy-paper.
1T smells queer" said one little
ant
1T feels queer" cried another little
ant. II just touched it with one foot,
and it grabbed and pulled me SO
could hardly get away
What shall we do?" said the hun
dreds of little ants.
"Tll tell you." cried the queen. Ev-
cry little ant stopped to listen. Each
one of you must bring grains of sand.
and we will make bridge over that
dish that grabs you by the legs.
Then, after the bridge is laid, Well
have grand supper"
All the little ants set to work. They
brought grains of sand each, till there
were millions of grains and there was
beautiful straight road across the
nasty, sticky fy-paper. 1t was wide
enough for three or four little ants to
travel on at once. so they went across
just as fast as they could travel. If
you had looked out there in the moon
light you would have seen the nice,
juicy bone just black with ants. They
were tired after their hard work, and
they were having nice supper.
The man stood for moment and
looked at the wellpicked bone and
the wonderful little bridge, and then
said: 81 guess we won't try to grow
any lilies. 1 am not so clever as the
little ants
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