254 NATURE-STUDY REVIEW [14:6— Sept., 1918 



round abdomen she was three-eights of an inch long. The workers 

 who were passing up and down the city streets were nearly blind, 

 although they walked so swiftly. They each had two compound 

 eyes and three tiny simple ones, but they could see only dim lights 

 and shadows. It was with their delicate antennae that they 

 smelled and felt their way about as they worked. But the Princess 

 had eyes that could see! There was another thing she has, of 

 which she was proudest of all. It was much better than a crown. 

 On her high shoulders she bore four wings of magic, silvery gauze 

 with fine brown veins making a delicate pattern. The tiny second 

 pair were hidden beneath the first, which reached beyond her body 

 as they lay folded on her back. The workers had never had such 

 wings although they were her sisters, for they were not royal. 

 They had always had to run along the earth and climb up the 

 grass blades and flower stalks in search of food, but she could fly ! 



The Princess could wait no longer to go for the first time out of 

 the city gate, and to use her eyes and wings. She hurried along the 

 widest street, scarcely meeting anyone, until she came near the 

 entrance. Here were groups of guards and road makers, the latter 

 hurrying excitedly about making the street wider. The Princess 

 was very angry on being seized by two of her legs and dragged 

 gently back to a place where four workers were standing. They 

 escorted her to the royal chamber from which she had escaped. 

 Here she found twenty-five of her winged sisters and ten little 

 winged brothers hurrying about and being washed and combed and 

 fed by swarms of excited waiitng maids and pages. Your eyes 

 would have to be very sharp to have seen the tiny tongues with 

 which they cleaned the smooth, hard bodies and thin wings of their 

 charges. All the princesses were very large and their bodies were 

 round and strong with the food which the eager, half -starved work- 

 ers had been bringing home to them for many weeks. The princes 

 were no bigger than their pages but they had wings, too. They 

 were slim and graceful and quick of motion. 



Early in the afternoon the Princess who had tried to escape was 

 on the broad street by the entrance, again. Now the street was 

 crowded and the whole city seemed full of holiday gaiety. Behind 

 her were all her princess sisters and the ten princes, with hundreds of 

 attendants, and every street at the top of the city was seething 

 with ants. The Princess at the front ran back and forth feverishly. 

 Could she have known what a glorious thing was soon to happen to 



