MISS FORMICA’S DAY 
43 
“Well,” said the ant, waving her 
antennae up and down to make sure 
that there were no disagreeable crea¬ 
tures about, to interrupt her when 
she was well started with her story, 
“the first thing that I did this morn¬ 
ing was to help some of the pupae 
out of their cocoons.” 
“We let ours get out as best 
they can,” the wasp put in. “But 
do tell us how you go about it.” 
“First I tap, tap, tap, on the shell 
of the cocoon with my antennae until 
I make a little opening; then I make 
it bigger and bigger, until the help¬ 
less little thing is out. As soon as 
it can stand alone, I straighten out 
its antennae, pick the bits of cocoon 
from its legs, and finally bring a 
