Travels in a Tree-top 



I was not the only occupant of the tree ; 

 there were hundreds of other and more adlive 

 travellers, who often stopped to think or con- 

 verse with their fellows and then hurried on. 

 I refer to the great, shining, black ants that 

 have such a variety of meaningless nicknames. 

 Its English cousin is asserted to be ill-tem- 

 pered, if not venomous, and both Chaucer 

 and Shakespeare refer to them as often mad 

 and always treacherous. I saw nothing of 

 this to-day. They were ever on the go and 

 always in a hurry. They seemed not to dis- 

 sociate me from the tree ; perhaps thought 

 me an odd excrescence and of no importance. 

 No one thinks of himself as such, and I forced 

 myself upon the attention of some of the hur- 

 rying throng. It was easy to intercept them, 

 and they grew quickly frantic ; but their fel- 

 lows paid no attention to such as I held cap- 

 tive for the moment. I had a small paper 

 box with me, and this I stuck full of pin-holes 

 on every side and then put half a dozen of 

 the ants in it. Holding it in the line of the 

 inse6ls' march, it immediately became a source 

 of wonderment, and every ant that came by 

 stopped and parleyed with the prisoners. A 

 few returned earthward, and then a number 



