TWO YOUNG NATURALISTS. 129 



The sugar-basin, to them a precipitous fortress, was 

 a special object for repeated assaults from these hungry 

 little creatures. Unfortunately for them, the doctor, 

 who much preferred sugar to formic acid, had resolved 

 to make an energetic defence of his goods, and as the 

 ants, in spite of all his precautions, always found some 

 way of slipping under the cover, he had surrounded 

 the fortress with a large moat filled with water. This 

 strategic moat was nothing less than a plate. 



Uncle Bob was as proud of his invention as a gene- 

 ral would be of a successful, unexpected manoeuvre. 

 Ants, it must be admitted, have no aquatic capacities, 

 so that when he discovered that his precautions had 

 been frustrated, he did not attempt to disguise his 

 surprise and annoyance, and his first impulse was to 

 lay the blame on the cook. 



" So you have neglected my instructions ! " 



Dame Theresa, however, would not admit this, and 

 made the most solemn asseverations that the sugar- 

 basin had, like a true fortification, never for a single 

 moment been without its surrounding zone of water. 



" I am unable to understand it," said the savant. 



" I think I can explain it," said Eene. " The sugar- 

 basin was, I believe, in the middle of the dumb-waiter 

 on the second shelf?" 



"Yes, well?" 



u Well, this morning, I observed two or three ants 

 walking about on the under side of the third shelf, 



