240 ANTS AND CHILDREN OP THE GARDEN 



KENNETH. This Carpenter was herding forty cows on 

 this twig when I broke it oft'. I've carried it sixty feet, 

 and the ant still attends the herd. I'll lay the twig by the 

 door of our ants. Look at the Carpenter jump and snap at 

 ours. Here come a dozen Acrobats, and away goes the 

 Carpenter, but not until she had been shot at, The cows 

 don't move on the twig. 



FLORENCE. Some of the Acrobats are milking in the 

 right way, some are in a hurry, and art* squeezing the 

 abdomens with their jaws, and others are biting the cows 

 in two. Now the Acrobats are carrying all the cows into 

 their nest. 



KENNETH. The Acrobats haven't nerve enough to 

 tackle the Carpenters at the herds up in the oak or in the 

 cedar tree, even if they did chase this lone one away. 



FLORENCE. Just think how this Carpenter stuck by 

 her cows while you broke the twig off and carried it far 

 away, and how that other Carpenter defended the body of 

 the cow that got killed. 



DOROTHY. Yes. The Carpenters defend their herds 

 about the same as shepherd dogs attend theirs. 



FLORENCE. I wonder what the Carpenters are getting 

 on that sunflower? 



ALBERT. They're getting something to fill their craws 

 with from the skin of that plant or from the bulbs at the 

 roots of the stiff hairs or from little sweet balls of sap on 

 the bark that I haven't found yet. Besides this, they are 

 herding cows on that plant. 



FLORENCE. It's something sweet, I suppose, for I see 

 flies, wasps, ladybugs, Acrobats, and other insects dining 

 on that sunflower. 



ALBERT. Yes, and, as usual, the Carpenters have an 



