88 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



FLORENCE. Yes, but you are not smart enough to 

 make your houses and baby cribs all alike, and out of wax 

 or paper, as hornets, wasps and bees do. 



ANT. You mean I am too smart to do this. Why, our 

 house is easier to build, takes less time, may last many 

 years, and we can leave it at any time and build a new 

 one in a few days. Then, we can move back to an old 

 home if we want to. 



KENNETH. But some ants build paper houses, even 

 mud houses, up in trees. 



FLORENCE. Bees have but one queen. Why do you 

 want to bother with taking care of so many? Is it be- 

 cause several queens can lay more eggs than one, or so if 

 one dies you may have others left? Don't your queens 

 fight each other? 



ANT. Not in the nest, but they might if they should 

 meet while out looking for a place to start a new colony. 



FLORENCE. A colony of bees lives in the top of one of 

 the porch columns at our Hamilton school. One lit on a 

 girl's hand the other day. 



DOROTHY. I'm glad no one has been able to figure out 

 a way to get their honey. 



FLORENCE. A bee can fly miles while you are dragging 

 your load sixty feet through dust and tangled weeds, and 

 she can keep herself clean, while you get all over dirt. 



ANT. Well, go on. 



FLORENCE. The bee's food is in a beautiful painted 

 cup, held up in the air where she can see it or smell it, 

 while you have to hunt for yours in the rubbish and dirt. 



ANT. Wrong as usual. Our hard struggle and the lack 

 of it in bees are two more things that have made the ant 

 world surpass the bee world. 



