292 LIFE AND HER CHILDREN. 
attempt to eat, and many died. At last, taking pity 
on them, he put one little negro ant into the box, 
and at once she set to work, made a chamber in the 
earth, fed the grubs, attended to the cocoons, and 
even saved the lives of those few full-grown red 
ants which remained. Sir J. Lubbock has lately 
repeated this experiment, keeping one of these red 
ants alive for months by putting in a slave for two 
or three hours a day to clean and feed it. 
Even when it is necessary to migrate to a new 
nest, these red ants will not trouble themselves to 
walk there, but lie on their backs, and are carried by 
the faithful blacks, who never seem to lose their 
temper, or to mind the work which falls upon them. 
The only time that we ever hear of the blacks being 
angry, was once when Huber saw the red ants return 
from a slave-making expedition without any cocoons. 
This was too much, that the only one thing they ever 
did for the community should be neglected ! The 
exasperated slaves hustled them and dragged them 
out of the nest again, but after a few moments re- 
lented and allowed them to come home. 
And now from ants degraded by indolence, let 
us turn to those which have become so industrious 
as even to lay up stores for the future. Our English 
ants being in a cold climate sleep through the winter 
deep down in their lower chambers, and in this way 
have no need of food ; though the yellow meadow ants 
show great forethought, according to Sir J. Lubbock, 
by carrying aphides' eggs down into their nest early 
in October, and tending them with the utmost care, so 
as to secure a crop of young ones, which they bring 
