JULY 



31 



One day when I went out to my wood-pile, or 

 rather my pile of stumps, I observed two large 

 ants, the one red, the other much larger, nearly 

 half an inch long, and black, fiercely contending 

 with one another. Having once got hold they 

 never let go, but struggled and wrestled and rolled 

 on the chips incessantly. Looking farther, I was 

 surprised to find that the chips were covered with 

 such combatants, that it was not a duellum, but 

 a bellum, a war between two races of ants, the red 

 always pitted against the black, and frequently 

 two red ones to one black. The legions of these 

 myrmidons covered all the hills and vales in my 

 wood-yard, and the ground was already strewn 

 with the dead and dying, both red and black. . . . 

 On every side they were engaged in deadly combat, 

 yet without any noise that I could hear, and human 

 soldiers never fought so resolutely. 



THOREAU: Walden. 



