200 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



inside digging' the dirt loose. Don't they look happy? The 

 rain must have softened the earth for them. 



ALBERT. See the crowd of ants. They have opened up 

 five new doors that we didn't know of because they were 

 kept closed with clods and stones. Fine scheme to have 

 these all ready when they should need them. 



CECIL. The doors are jammed with dirt carriers two or 

 three ants deep. Look at the rush. Never saw our ants 

 so swift before. Must be getting ready for another world 

 war. I wondered why they didn't go to work and make 

 a decent home out of this earth-crack. They were waiting 

 for this rain. 



KENNETH. Here's a gang at work making a new door. 

 All the doors are within a circle six inches across. I'm 

 going to help. There, I made a new door with my pencil. 



ALBERT. Shucks, yours is no good ! Look at the ants 

 filling it up. 



CECIL. It's wonderful how much dirt a thousand ants 

 can dig and carry out in an hour when mining is good. 

 The rain made the earth easy to dig and mould into balls. 

 You remember the undertaker that made fifty-five round 

 trips in five hours. I think these are beating that record. 



FLORENCE. I've seen a thousand ants out harvesting, 

 but I never saw so many working in the mines before. 



CECIL. Good morning. Well, our ants worked all day 

 yesterday and last night at midnight nearly two hundred 

 were still on the job. See, some of them still wear a top- 

 knot of dried mud, while others have a streak of it the 

 full length of the back. Too busy to clean up. 



ALBERT. They have carried out fourteen cubic inches 

 in thirty-six hours, but only half that if well packed. 



FLORENCE. According to those figures, our ants could 



