"SERMONS TN'^^ANTS. 337 



sides by the weedy jungle, and not a scrap of vegeta- 

 tion of any kind upon them. Here is one of these 

 jungle-nests. (Fig. 108.) 



" The door or gate of the nest is in the center of the 

 yard. It is a single, or sometimes a double, opening, 

 which leads down into the ground, where are a series 

 of rooms and galleries that I shall presently describe. 

 Long roads, usually three or four in number, and occa- 

 sionally as many as seven, lead from the yard into the 

 surrounding grass. They vary in length from forty feet 

 or less to three hundred, and are kept smooth and 

 clean. Indeed, our farmers would do well to take pat- 

 tern after these wise little fellows in the matter of 

 road-building and repairing, as well as in other things. 

 You see these roads in the pictures, gradually narrow- 

 ing as they run out into the grass. These are not the 

 only ants that have the habit of road-building. We 

 have ants in our own State who have great skill in that 

 line of public industry ; and here is a pretty under- 

 grade highway, made at Rockland, in Fairmount Park, 

 by a large colony of ants dwelling there. (Fig. 109.) 

 You see how daintily the roads are bowered by avenues 

 of grass, moss, and wild-flowers. Having told you 

 this much, I will now show you what all this has to 

 do with our Sabbath lessons. How many of you have 

 Bibles ?" 



The answer to this question quite startled me. From 

 every part of the room — to the right and left of me, 

 in front of the desk, and even from the chancel-space 

 where the children were crowded directly beneath my 



