$2 



"What Is that?" she asked of one of her com- 

 rades. 



" What do you mean ?" 



" That sound we hear. That beating sound." 



"I hear nothing," said her companion, "and if 

 you were attending to your work you wouldn't have 

 time to be bothering about sounds, either." 



So reproved, Nipper turned to her work again, 

 but it was with a sense of fear weighing on her. 



Nearer and nearer came the sound, louder and 

 louder. Now every one in the nest, slaves and 

 mistresses, workers, guards, and all, could hear it. 



Nearer and nearer it came, and the ants looked 

 at each other in dismay. Louder and louder, and 

 now suddenly it was upon them. The roofs were 

 broken, the earth crushed down into the nest. 

 Terrified ants ran this way and that, trying to 

 escape. A whole drove of cattle was passing over 

 the place where the ants' nest had been. 



Even in their terror, however, the larvae and 

 cocoons were not forgotten. Each little slave 

 seized one in her mouth before trying to escape 

 from the falling nest. 



Many ants, slaves and mistresses, were buried in 

 the ruins of the nest that day. 



