A GUILD OF CARPENTER ANTS 



to be analogous to that of men in like misfortunes 

 — not an angry outbreak of combativeness, but a 

 more or less vigorous struggle with, or quiet sub- 

 mission to, the inevitable. Let an insect or other liv- 

 ing raider trench upon their domain. That is quite 

 another matter! The community is intensely excited. 

 Every individual is violently pugnacious. It is a dif- 

 ferent quality of animation that one now observes. 

 The dullest eye notes it. In short, the differing be- 

 havior of men towards a flood or a snow-storm and 

 towards an assault of bandits one seems to see in di- 

 minished reflection in the behavior of ants under like 

 conditions. It is this intuitive attitude towards the 

 elemental forces, as hostile or friendly, and a corre- 

 sponding acceptance of the same either as matters of 

 course in an inevitable environment, or as casual, ob- 

 truding, or preventable forces in life, which has been 

 suggested by our carpenter ants in accepting the alli- 

 ance of the wind in the bestowal of the chippage from 

 their arboreal homes. In the same spirit in which they 

 adapt themselves to a beneficent attitude of the ele- 

 ments would they accept the reverse. 



Let us return to our colony in the mill beam. What 

 are the ants doing within ? What sort of domicile have 

 they wrought out? "If I could only peep inside!" 



"So you shall!" responded the proprietor to my ex- 

 clamation. And this was not badinage. A squad of 

 carpenters — human carpenters this time! — was called. 

 The corner of the mill was shored up bodily by great 

 supports. A section about five feet long, including the 

 inhabited part, was sawed out and a "splice" of corre- 

 sponding size inserted. The exscinded part was carried 

 into the open, and my coveted opportunity had come! 



119 



