112 ANIMALS AND INSECTS 



do their work and provide the plant with sap. The 

 plant will die. Even if there are some leaves still at 

 work so the plant does not die, yet the corn upon the 

 ear will not be good because it needs all the moisture 

 that the roots can drink in and the leaves manufac- 

 ture into sap. 



What, then, can the poor farmer do? He has 

 planted the corn with great care and has spent so 

 much time hoeing it and tending it, and then, alas! 

 those mites of ants turn it into a pasture for their 

 tiny cows. And those same tiny creatures increase 

 so fast that the poor farmer is quite distressed. 



But there is a friendly helper about, and the 

 farmer does not often lose his corn because of the 

 ants and aphids. That is not the way God has 

 planned the world, for a few to have everything. 

 That is selfishness, and selfishness breaks God's law. 



Now, what do you think is there in the cornfield 

 ready to help the farmer? I do not believe you can 

 ever guess, so I will tell you. Young lady-bugs! 

 They crawl down among the roots of the corn and 

 eat up a great many of the ants' cows, but they save 

 the corn. Did you suppose that the lady-bugs that 

 crawl up and down your window-sashes in the winter 

 and early spring are some of the best friends that a 

 farmer has? 



It seems as if they did nothing. But it is just as it 

 was with the toad. They may seem to be doing noth- 

 ing when they are on your window in the winter, but 

 in the spring and summer, when the aphids are eating 

 the farmer's corn and fruit, the lady-bugs are busy 

 enough. Those that we see in om' windows are so 



