"Are you tired, boys, or do you wish to hear more?"
"Oh, let us hear more, by all means: we are not at all tired."
"I will then tell you of another kind of ants called legionary ants, and sometimes amazons; but I am sorry to say that they are unlike other ants, for they are lazy; and yet they live very comfortably."
"How is that, Uncle Philip? Can they be comfortable without working?"
"Yes, boys, if they can get others to work for them; and these have their work mostly done by their slaves."
"By their slaves! what are their slaves, and where did they get them?"
"As to your first question, boys, their slaves are ants of another kind; as to the second question—where they get them—they stole them when they were young."
"Why you surprise us, Uncle Philip."
"I dare say I do. There are persons much older than you are who have never attended at all to the doings of insects, who would be very much astonished by the history of the legionary ants; and probably would laugh at the whole account as an idle story; and yet it is all true, and those who have read and seen, know it to be true; and they know, too, that to deny it shows nothing but ignorance. However, I always let such persons alone. I can do them no good; for they are apt to be very conceited, and will not be convinced. And now for the legionary ant. This is a fighting ant, as well as the last I mentioned; and it actually steals the young of another kind, rears them, and puts all the work on them, so as to be idle itself. This curious fact was first found out by Mr. Huber; another gentleman, named Latreille, afterward saw the same thing; and now a great many naturalists know it, because they have sought for and seen it. The ant which it steals is of a dark ash colour; the legionary is of light colour. The dark-coloured ant is now called the negro ant, and is a very industrious, peaceable insect, without any sting. The legionary is a strong, brave ant, with a sting, but very lazy. I shall relate to you the account which Mr. Huber gives of the legionary. He was walking near the city of Geneva during an afternoon in the summer of 1804, when he saw quite an army of these legionary ants crossing the road; they passed through a thick hedge, entered a pasture, and kept on through the grass without separating; and Mr. Huber followed them until he saw them come near a nest of negro ants. Some of these negro ants seemed to be guarding the holes into their nest; but as soon as they saw the legionaries, they, with a great many more from the inside of the nest, attacked the thieves. The legionary ants, however, were too powerful for them, and after a short but severe fight they conquered the negroes, who ran into the lower part of their nests. The legionaries then mounted their ant-hill, some entered it by the holes already made, and others began with their teeth to break other holes, so that all the army might get into the hill. They went in and remained but a few minutes, when they came out, each one having in his mouth a young negro ant, and off they scampered, without any order among them, every one going his own way, until Mr. Huber lost sight of them. The next day he set out to go back and examine further, and on his way he found a large ant-hill full of legionaries, and saw an army start from it, which he followed. They made the attack as before, and each one came off with a young negro ant in his mouth, and on going back to their hill, from which Mr. Huber saw them start, he had an opportunity of seeing them return, and was very much surprised to find all around the nest of the legionaries a great many full-grown negro ants. At first he thought that perhaps they had gone there to fight the legionaries, but he soon saw that instead of fighting, the negro ants went out to meet the legionaries returning, and would caress them, and give them food, and finally take the young negro ants and carry them within the nest."
"But, Uncle Philip, why do the legionaries always take the young ones?"