THIEVES 
At last the dairy maid ants are close 
to the ant hill. Again it can be seen 
that the ants are very clean. The ground 
around their home is not littered with 
trash. If one crumb or a bit of leaf is 
dropped, the first ant that passes picks it 
up and carries it to the trash heap nearby. 
Some ants are coming out of the hill 
to go about their tasks. Others are 
moving toward it from many directions. 
Almost all of the returning workers carry 
seeds or other food in their mouths. They 
stream up long clean pathways paved 
with bits of stone. 
But though the ants do not know it, 
the food for which they have worked so 
hard is in danger. Stranger ants are 
lying in wait for them! Certainly these 
strangers are up to no good. 
Now a worker ant coming out of the 
ant hill stops one of those going in. The 
returning ant is bringing up a drop of 
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