“So I am,” said the little ant. “But we servants of Beechtown have an easy place. A bit of dusting now and then, and a little light needlework; that’s all.”
“I heard a very different story only the other day,” said the soldier.
“Ah, but everything’s changed since the Beetles came,” said the little worker. “They do all the dirty work; and, my goodness! they can work, you may take my word for that! It’s worth something, I can tell you, to have two fine Beetles like that in the town!”
“Aha!” thought the soldier-woman to herself, “here’s something for us!”
And she was so taken up with thinking that she forgot to bid the little ant good night, and there and then she marched straight back to her town to tell the general what she had heard.
But the little ant went home well pleased with herself. And, sure enough, what she expected would happen did happen.
The robber-ants, as soon as they heard the soldier’s story, were as eager as possible to carry off the two Beetles who could work so well.
And to prevent any fuss and bother, this is what they did:
They took a great pitcher of ant-cow’s milk and mixed with it a few drops of the poison, which, as every one knows, an ant always carries about with her in her poison-bag. Then twelve soldiers took the pitcher to Beechtown and waited outside the gate for the Beetles to come out. And directly they saw them coming they put down the pitcher and hid behind a mountain of dead leaves.
But the Beetles drank up the sweet stuff till there was not a drop left at the bottom of the pail, and immediately the poison began to work, and both the Beetle and his wife fell back in a heap on to the grass, and there they lay, and could stir neither hand nor foot.