220 ANTS AND CHILDREN OF THE GARDEN 



ALBERT. As I just said, maybe the bodies are kept for 

 food. Moulds and bacteria don't seem to attack them. Ours 

 carry home the bodies of the Carpenter and other insects 

 for food. Why not eat the Robbers? 



DOROTHY. Why may the bodies not be left for little 

 Horny, so he won't eat ours or be left as scarecrows? 



KENNETH. Another colony of Harvesters has been 

 driven from home or moved of its own accord, and the 

 Longlegs have moved into the vacated nest, same as they 

 did when ours were chased from their nest at the telephone 

 pole. 



DOROTHY. Ours never piled the Robbers anywhere but 

 around the door, except once when they put a hundred of 

 them in a can lid for a day. 



FLORENCE. The next morning after the battle I saw 

 two winged queens and eleven kings walking over the 

 battlefield. Once before I counted eight of our winged 

 queens and thirty-four kings that were out on the yard 

 taking exercise. I saw the first winged Harvester queen in 

 May. It was two months after we saw the first eggs time 

 enough to hatch and grow up. 



KENNETH. Sometimes, I suppose, a single ant may 

 start a battle that causes the death of hundreds. 



FLORENCE. How about man? Only it's millions of 

 deaths, instead of hundreds. Ant or man may start a battle 

 without any good cause. Ants have civil war, too, the 

 same as man. Judging from ants, it'll be a long time before 

 we learn to do without war. 



ALBERT. There's this difference in the battles of ants 

 and men the soldiers of ants never rebel and overthrow 

 the government. When food is scarce, the workers of some 

 ants are not afraid to eat their soldiers. 



