TINY BUILDERS 
23 
had each taken their separate ways, no doubt all 
the more ready to work after their brief play. 
“ Well,” observed Mabel, then, with an odd 
little murmur of satisfaction, “ who says that ants 
don’t know that ‘ All work and no play makes 
Jack a dull boy’? It’s a wonder you didn’t 
frighten them though, Tommy; they must have 
heard you clear down to Blake’s.” 
“ Stuff! ” scoffed Tommy. “ Ants are deaf as 
posts, at least to the kind of sounds we hear. 
Though I read the other day that they do have 
an organ of hearing, and that scientists think 
they make sounds which are inaudible to us, but 
which serve to carry on a language between them. 
Edison is quoted as saying that some day the 
radio amplifier will be developed until we shall 
be able to hear ants talk, if they do talk.” 
“ We can be very sure of that,” Uncle John 
confirmed, seating himself so evidently prepared 
to go deeper into the subject, that Auntie and the 
children—all the members of the family at home 
at the time—grouped themselves restfully, eager 
to listen. “ Ants could scarcely carry on their 
extensive community organizations without some 
means of understanding one another. For all are 
tiny builders of Liliputian kingdoms, you know. 
No doubt you boys know this moment where 
there is a thriving city of black ants, and another 
of big red citizens, not to mention various colonies 
