A CHAPTER OF NOTHINGS 127 



morning and was undressing for my tub when I 

 noticed ants running about in all directions, then 

 they began to run over my feet and also to nip pretty 

 hard. I flung on a dressing-gown more ants in 

 that ! I rushed outside and shouted for all the 

 available servants and coolies and they came running 

 up. They tried to beat the ants off me and soon 

 were covered with them themselves. We looked at 

 the tent and the top of it was thick with them, 

 hardly standing room. They were swarming down 

 a branch that touched the tent roof, using it as a 

 bridge, and another stream of them was coming in 

 along the ground. The men tried to burn some 

 grass round the tent, but that was no use at all, and 

 we were all hopping and skipping about in our 

 endeavours to avoid them. The tent had to come 

 down, so some really valiant men ran inside and 

 dragged out one thing after another, being badly 

 bitten all the time. They pulled up the tent pegs, 

 the tent fell with a crash and they dragged it off and 

 spread it out in the sun. I stood at a distance trying 

 to knock off the remaining ants, quite overcome with 

 their bites and the swollen blotches left by the 

 caterpillar that were now turning into thousands of 

 little red marks. The ants happily did no permanent 

 damage to any one. I sat homeless and bathless out 

 in the middle of a field, while the servants burnt the 

 place out where the tent had been standing. A sort 

 of Punch and Judy show happened to come to 

 enliven me while I was waiting. An Indian girl 

 came up with a basket, out of which she took a doll 

 whose head waggled by means of her hand ; and she 



