guard cannot take chances. He turns 
all strangers away. 
Into the ground the ants go, into the 
dark tunnel that leads down, down, to 
the rooms of the ant city. The city may 
extend from several feet to several yards 
into the earth. Every bit of this had 
to be dug out by the little ants, with 
their strong jaws. And then all the loose 
dirt had to be carried out to leave the 
tunnels and chambers clear. Think 
what a task this must have been! Now 
the ant home is big enough for a colony 
of thousands of ants. 
THE QUEEN 
The ants pass room after room. At 
one doorway some of them stop to look 
in for just a moment. This is the 
chamber of the Queen, the mother of 
this ant colony. All the ants that live 
here are her children. Sometimes in an 
ant hill there is more than one Queen 
19 
