216 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



CHAPTER XIV. 



April 20 to June 13. 



Our Ants Have a Second Battle With the Eyeless Robbers. 



ALBERT. I'm glad you're all here. Last evening Flor- 

 ence, two other persons and myself visited our ants to find 

 them having another aAvful battle with the eyeless Robbers. 

 You know they killed many of ours in driving them away 

 from the telephone pole. 



FLORENCE. The Robbers came in overland and the 

 fighting was done on top of the ground this time. 



ALBERT. It was one of the most wonderful sights I 

 ever saw. Our 2,000 ants piled themselves up in two 

 embankments reaching clear around the door of the nest. 

 These circular banks of ants looked like two black ropes 

 stretched around the door one inside the other. 



KENNETH. I've read of men throwing up banks of dirt 

 in battle, but not banks of men. 



ALBERT. These ropes of ants were over half an inch 

 high, where the shock attack was made on them, except at 

 three points in the outer wall of ants. At these points 

 three gates were left open for some reason. These gates 

 made me think of ambush, tra^s, shortage of ants, way of 

 escape with .babies, division of work between the two lines 

 of battle, bad generalship but I didn't discover their cause 

 or use. 



FLORENCE. Only a few Robbers went through the 

 gates. I guess they didn't know about them. I think our 



