How Two Beetles Took Lodgings
Once upon a time there was a worthy set of ants, who lived together as happily as possible in their little town at the foot of a fine old oak-tree.
They were honest, peaceable folk, and always did as the three queen ants who ruled over them told them to do.
The young men stayed quietly at home until it was time for them to get married, and the young ladies, who had nothing else to do, did the same.
As for the working people—But here’s a curious state of things! You’ll never find a working “man” in an ant city as long as you live, for all the workers are females, even the soldiers, you may take my word for that!
Well, as for these, they were at it morning, noon, and night, digging and building and fetching food for the whole town, looking after the eggs—of which there were so many you could never have counted them—and seeing that all the baby ants were quite happy and comfortable.
Now, things would have gone on very well indeed if other people had only left these worthy ants alone. But they did not—and this is where my story really begins.
One fine day a set of ants belonging to quite another tribe came to the forest, and built themselves a town not far from the first.
And these ants—it grieves me to write it—were far from peaceful and honest like their neighbors. To tell the truth, they were nothing more nor less than robbers.
They had not been very long in the place before their soldiers—all womenfolk, too!—made a raid on the town of the mild and harmless ants, and carried off all the girl babies they could lay hands on. And the moment the children were oldenough to work, they were made into slaves, and had to do all the roughest and hardest work.
Well, you may guess there was sorrow in the town of the peaceful ants. They were too weak to fight their foes, and so they just had to sit down and bear it as best they could.
Now, what happened once, happened again, and yet again, till at last the harmless ants made up their minds to move and build themselves a new city in another part of the forest.
And so they did. But it was all of no use, for the robbers followed them, and then the same thing happened all over again. So soon as there was a fine, fat, promising bunch of girl babies in the town, the robbers came and carried them into slavery.
One misfortune followed fast upon another. Not long after the ants had moved into their new town, a beetle and his wife came stalking in, and demanded lodgings in the queen’s palace.
They were smartly dressed in blue and green coats of the latest cut, but they carried no baggage except a tooth-brush, that stuck out of the Beetle’s wife’s pocket. This was suspicious, and they looked so hungry and thirsty, into the bargain, that it was not to be wondered at that the poor queen ant pulled a long face.
“We’re traveling for pleasure,” said the Beetle’s wife, “and we shall have much pleasure in staying here as long as we like.”
With that she walked straight up to the best bedroom, said she hoped the sheets were aired, and went to bed, while her husband talked pleasantly with the three queens, and ate three dozen new-laid ants’ eggs for his supper.
The unhappy queens soon saw what kind of visitors they had got. The Beetles made themselves at home everywhere—in the palace and out of it—and called for whatever they wanted. The working ants had to wait on them hand and foot. There was the Beetle’s shaving water to be got first thing in the morning, and the Beetle’s wife’s cup of milk fresh from the cow. For ants, you must know, keep their cows,just as human beings do, though the milk of the ant cow is more like sugar water than anything else we have.
Then there never was any one who could do with so many meals in the course of a single day as that Beetle and his wife. They just ate and drank from morning to night, and it was all the ants could do to keep the palace larder stocked.
All the choicest morsels, the finest seeds and salads the workers could bring fell to the Beetles’ share, while the queens got what was left.
There was no peace and quiet in the town. The Beetles pried into every hole and corner, spread themselves in everybody’s parlor, and paraded the streets singing and whistling when quiet folks wanted to rest.
But, what was worst of all, they showed never a sign of moving on.
“I thought you said you were traveling,” the bravest of the queens ventured to remark at last.
“Why, so we were!” said the Beetles. “But one must settle down some time or other, and your air really suits us very well.”
“Did you hear that?” whispered one young working ant to another.
The two had come to the palace with a pitcher of milk just in time to listen to the conversation.
“They’ll never leave us,” said the second ant.
“Not unless some one takes steps,” returned the first ant.
“And, pray, whose steps, and why?” asked the second.
“You always were stupid,” said the first one, and gave her waist a twitch—which is a way ants have when they are put out. “Now, if some one were to take my advice,” she went on, “but there’s nobody in all the town with two pennyworth of spirit. Nobody would take my advice.”
“I suppose you couldn’t take it yourself?” asked the second ant, who really was not quite as stupid as people thought.
“It never occurred to me,” said the first ant; “but now you mention it, perhaps I might.”
And then the first ant thought and thought, and the end of it was that she slipped out of the town so soon as her day’s work was finished and strolled away toward the town where the robber ants lived.
And presently a fierce old soldier-ant came marching out at the gate.
Then the little worker’s heart beat very fast, and she turned as pale as an ant can turn.
“‘Nothing venture, nothing win,’” she said to herself, and walked straight up to the soldier.
“Hallo! Who are you?” said the soldier.
“Oh, I’m a neighbor of yours, from Beechtown,” said the little ant. “I’m just taking a stroll before supper.”
“A stroll before supper!” cried the soldier, staring very hard. “You don’t seem to have much work to do over there.”
“Why, no, I can’t say I have,” said the little ant.
“But I can see by your dress you’re a servant,” said the soldier-woman.
“So I am,” said the little ant. “But we servants of Beechtown have an easy place. A bit of dusting now and then, and a little light needlework; that’s all.”
“I heard a very different story only the other day,” said the soldier.
“Ah, but everything’s changed since the Beetles came,” said the little worker. “They do all the dirty work; and, my goodness! they can work, you may take my word for that! It’s worth something, I can tell you, to have two fine Beetles like that in the town!”
“Aha!” thought the soldier-woman to herself, “here’s something for us!”
And she was so taken up with thinking that she forgot to bid the little ant good night, and there and then she marched straight back to her town to tell the general what she had heard.
But the little ant went home well pleased with herself. And, sure enough, what she expected would happen did happen.
The robber-ants, as soon as they heard the soldier’s story,were as eager as possible to carry off the two Beetles who could work so well.
And to prevent any fuss and bother, this is what they did:
They took a great pitcher of ant-cow’s milk and mixed with it a few drops of the poison, which, as every one knows, an ant always carries about with her in her poison-bag. Then twelve soldiers took the pitcher to Beechtown and waited outside the gate for the Beetles to come out. And directly they saw them coming they put down the pitcher and hid behind a mountain of dead leaves.
But the Beetles drank up the sweet stuff till there was not a drop left at the bottom of the pail, and immediately the poison began to work, and both the Beetle and his wife fell back in a heap on to the grass, and there they lay, and could stir neither hand nor foot.
The robbers, you may fancy, lost no time, bundled the pair on to a stout rhubarb leaf, and dragged them away to their own city as fast as they could go.
Now, scarcely had they got them there when the poison began to wear off—for ants’ poison is not very strong, you see—and pretty soon the Beetle’s wife sat up and pinched her husband. It was not long before he sat up, too; and by and by those two were as clear in their heads and as firm on their legs as any two beetles ever were.
And now there was an unpleasant surprise in store for the robber-ants. When the Beetle’s wife had looked round a bit, she said to her husband:
“Why, it seems comfortable enough here. I don’t think we’ll trouble to go back to Beechtown. I think this will suit us very well.”
“Well, well, we’ll just see what the cooking’s like,” said he, and went straight to the palace where the six queen-ants who ruled over the robbers lived. He just said: “How-d’ye-do?” to the queens in an off-hand way, and then he sat down and helped himself to all the dishes he could find in the larder.
His wife, she did the same, and between them they finished all the food there was.
And so they went on, just as they were used to doing in Beechtown, and it did not take the robbers long to find out the mistake they had made.
The Beetles had never done a day’s work in their lives, and they had no notion of beginning now, just because the robbers expected it.
When they heard how they had been carried off, and why, they thought the whole affair a very good joke, and laughed and laughed till they grew purple in the face, and had to slap each other on the back to keep from choking.
The robbers, you may believe me, were as angry as angry could be. They coaxed and they threatened, but neither the Beetle nor his wife would do a stroke of work. On the contrary, they took such a deal of waiting upon that the robbers were driven well-nigh crazy, and racked their brains for a way to get rid of them.
But the Beetles liked their new quarters very well, and there they stopped.
So things went on, till at last the robbers made up their minds to give the Beetles the slip. And one dark night, while they were asleep, they packed their trunks and left the town. But the gate wanted oiling, and creaked so as they swung it open that the Beetle’s wife got nightmare and woke up.
In a minute, you may be sure, she had found out what was going on, and had wakened her husband. Then the two crept very softly out at the gate and kept the ants at a comfortable distance.
So the end of it all was that, though the robbers went far into the forest, many leagues from their old town, they had no sooner finished building the new one than in marched the Beetles, and went on in their old way as though nothing had happened.
Now, the robbers had settled so far away from Beechtown that it was not worth their while to come and steal the children of the harmless ants, for they found another town nearer to hand.
And so the harmless ants lived together quite happily andpeacefully once more, and the clever little worker, to whom they owed their good fortune, was raised to great honor and glory.
But the robbers had to make the best of the Beetles, for get rid of them they never could. And if ever you should be passing that way, why, I make no doubt you’ll find them there still.