78 THE BEAUTIES OF NATURE CHAP. 
animal gifted with the power of enjoying a 
joke, but if animals do not laugh, at any 
rate they sometimes play. We are, indeed, 
apt perhaps to credit them with too much 
of our own attributes and emotions, but we 
can hardly be mistaken in supposing that 
they enjoy certain scents and sounds. It is 
difficult to separate the games of kittens 
and lambs from those of children. Our 
countryman Gould long ago described the 
“amusements or sportive exercises’ which 
he had observed among Ants. Forel was at 
first incredulous, but finally confirmed these 
statements; and, speaking of certain tropical 
Ants, Bates says “the conclusion that they 
were engaged in play was irresistible.” 
SLEEP 
We share with other animals the great 
blessing of Sleep, nature’s soft nurse, “ the 
mantle that covers thought, the food that 
appeases hunger, the drink that quenches 
thirst, the fire that warms cold, the cold that 
