“Well, you see she didn’t,” said Polly, “that’s just the difference; so there she was chained to the wall of that cranny.
“‘They’re waiting till I get fat enough,’ said this poor creature to Brown Betty, ‘then they’ll eat me; I heard them say so.’
“Now, Brown Betty couldn’t act as if she heard anything you know, for all those hundred ants would pounce on them both, and cut their heads off, maybe; so she said, ‘Hush, and I’ll try to save you;’ then she hurried off to the company. ‘Now show me something more wonderful yet,’ she said.
“‘We’ll show her the Hall of Justice,’ said the ants one to another.”
“What is that, Polly?” asked little Dick.
“Oh, you’ll see! [the ants are going to tell Brown Betty] all about it; then you’ll know. Well, so off they went; and by this time they thought so much of Brown Betty’s wisdom, for they were all talking of it together, that they got very careless about keeping her in the middle, but they let her wander at the end of the procession, and stop when she wanted to admire anything very much.”
“Oh, now I know that she is going to run away!” exclaimed little Dick, striking his hands together in great delight.
“And at last there they stood in the middle of the great Hall of Justice. Brown Betty just blinked her eyes, she was so afraid she should cry, when the ants all screamed out together, ‘We try our prisoners here before we eat them up.’ But she pretended she didn’t care; and she said, ‘What’s that big chair up there?’ pointing to the end of the long room.