One bright August morning, as we were walking along the edge of a wood, we found an old tree trunk lying on the ground. I am sure it had been there a long time. Large pieces of bark were loose enough to be lifted up; being naturalists, we took advantage of this fact to see whether anything was living underneath.
What queer little outdoor folk we found: "thousand-legged worms," sow-bugs, a black beetle that looked as if its back were made of patent-leather, and best of all a colony of ants! These ants were large black ones known as carpenter ants. They had made very comfortable quarters in this old log. How alarmed they were when we so rudely exposed them to the light!
One brave ant impressed me more than any other member of the colony. I wish that all of our girls and boys might have seen it. With my knife I commenced to cut down the wall of one of the rooms to see what was inside. The soldier-like ant stood near and, instead of running away, it attacked the large steel blade with its jaws. Was not that a brave thing to do? Are you surprised that I closed the knife and put it into my pocket?
During all this time there was great commotion in the colony. The worker ants were scurrying off with the younger members of the family, trying to find a safe place for them. Some of these little brothers and sisters were tiny white legless creatures; some were covered up in what looked like little bags; others were ghost-like things, very white and apparently lifeless.
Now before you can understand what is going on in an ant's nest, you must know four things:
1. The white oblong eggs are very small. You will not see them readily.
2. The little legless creatures, or larvæ, hatch from the eggs and are fed by the workers. Mrs. Comstock says that an ant larva looks like a crook-neck squash.
3. The larvæ either spin cocoons or rest awhile without any covering before they become fully grown ants. In their resting form they are called pupæ. Children usually think the little sack-like pupæ are the eggs.