THE COWS 17 



easily guess the cause of the difference in eagerness 

 of those ascending and those descending. The de- 

 ding ants have their stomachs swollen, heavy, 

 deformed, so full are they; those ascending have 

 tlu'ir stomachs thin, folded up, crying hunger. You 

 cannot mistake them: the descending ants are coming 

 back from a feast and, well fed, are returning home 

 with the slowness that a heavy paunch demands; the 

 ascending ants are running to the same feast and 

 put into the assault of the bush the eagerness of an 

 empty stomach. 



' What do they find on the elder to fill their stom- 

 achs f" asked Jules. "Here are some that can 

 hardly drag along. Oh, the gluttons ! ' ' 



"Gluttons! no," Uncle Paul corrected him; "for 

 they have a worthy motive for gorging themselves. 

 There is above, on the elder, an immense number 

 of the cows. The descending ants have just milked 

 them, and it is in their paunch that they carry the 

 milk for the common nourishment of the ant-hill col- 

 ony. Let us look at the cows and the way of milking 

 them. Don't expect, I warn you, herds like ours. 

 One leaf serves them for pasturage." 



Uncle Paul drew down to the children's level the 

 top of a branch, and all looked at it attentively. In- 

 numerable black velvety lice, immobile and so close 

 together as to touch one another, cover the under 

 si.l.- of the leaves and the still tender wood. With 

 a sucker more delicate than a hair plunged into the 

 bark, they fill themselves peacefully with the sap of 

 the elder \\ithout changing their position. At the 

 end of their back, thev have two short and hollow 



