“‘That is not a chair,’ said the ants all together, ‘that is the throne.’
“‘What’s a throne?’ asked Brown Betty, to gain time to think out things by keeping them talking. Besides, she was trembling so with fright, that her poor little knees knocked together, and she had to say something or she would have dropped in a dead faint.
“‘Oh,—oh,—so wise a creature not to know what a throne is!’ exclaimed all the ants together in astonishment; and they ran around and around worse than ever, till poor Brown Betty’s head spun to see them go, they made her so giddy.
“‘It’s where the Queen Ant sits to’”—
“You said you’d call her Captain Ant,” broke in Dick.
“Oh, yes, so I did!—well, Captain Ant,” corrected Polly. “‘Well, it’s where the Captain sits,’ said the ants all together, still running around and around, ‘to try the prisoners.’
“‘Oh!’ said Brown Betty, her poor knees knocking together worse than ever. Then she managed to pick up courage to ask the first thing that came into her head. ‘How does she try them?’
“One of the hundred ants ran out from the company, and close up to Brown Betty. ‘She is so wise,’ he said to himself, ‘I want to show her that I am wise too.’ So he hurried up to her side. ‘Do you see that sword hanging up there?’ he whispered; and the other ninety-nine ants were all talking together and running about so they didn’t hear him.
“‘Where?’ asked Brown Betty, peering up above the throne. ‘I see nothing.’