142 CONVERSATIONS ON 



"Fighters, Uncle Philip! What do they 

 fight about ?" 



"About trifles, boys, just as men do. They 

 have terrible wars, and will dispute with and 

 kill each other for a few inches of dirt, when 

 certainly this world is large enough for them 

 all. But animals wiser than ants, boys, act 

 in the same foolish way. Men sometimes 

 go to war and kill each other to determine 

 who shall have a river, or a small town, or a 

 fort, or some little spot of ground ; while the 

 poor creatures who do the fighting, and get 

 all the wounds, and lose their lives, had they 

 been let alone, would have lived on in peace, 

 and never cared a straw who had the mise- 

 rable little spot they fight for. But let me go 

 on with the account of these ants. In the 

 forests, where the fallow ants live, you may 

 see these wars. The battle will be between 

 the ants of different hills, but they are all 

 ants of the same sort. Thousands and thou- 

 sands of them will meet on the ground be- 

 tween their hills, and the battle begins by two 

 ants, who seize each other by the claws (or 

 mandibles, as they are called), and rising up 

 on their hind-legs, they bring their bodies near 



