“So the company of a hundred ants went off just as Captain Ant had told them, to show Brown Betty the long corridor.”
“What’s a long cor—what is that word, Polly?”
“Corridor; oh! that’s a great long hall, ever and ever so long,” said Polly; “and it was broad and splendid, and the walls were as smooth as a board, and the top was just as smooth too, and out of it ran different rooms, and nooks, and crannies, and funny little places. So, when Brown Betty heard Captain Ant command them to show her the long corridor, she began to set her busy little head to thinking that perhaps she might steal away from them, and hide somewhere in one of these queer little spots.”
“And did she?” cried little Dick eagerly.
“Oh, I can’t tell you now!” said Polly; “wait and see. Well, off they went down the long corridor with the smooth dirt walls, and”—
“You said it was board,” corrected little Dick.
“Oh, no, Dicky!” said Polly, “I said it was as smooth as a board, but they were all made of dirt,—dirt walls; and everything was all polished off by the ants till it was straight, and high, and splendid. Well, off they went.
“‘What a perfectly remarkable place,’ cried Brown Betty, rolling up her little bits of eyes at everything as they marched her along in the middle, which pleased them very much; so they let her drop behind the procession once in a while to admire something or other.”
“Oh! now she is going to run away, I know,” said Dick in great excitement.