Little Tom

by Václav Tille

From the gates were coming ants who stretched themselves in long, well-ordered lines and then disappeared in the moss. Work in the town ceased, and at once the whole surface was deserted; but from all the roads, crowds of ants came quickly into the square, where they formed themselves in battle array.

Tom finally recognized that the preparations were for battle. At that moment, Mirmex came up to him and started leading him into the town, telling him that news had come of a marauding expedition of the Redheads.

The guards on the borders had seen some Redheads spying about and had caught some black slaves, from whom they learned that, since early morning, the Redheads had been planning a most formidable expedition. At first, they thought the Redheads were planning to attack a small town by the brook, in the forest, but they sent out some spies of their own who came upon a great crowd of Redheads gathering by the stumps on the clearing leading to Black Town, and they at once sent in the messenger to give the alarm.

»This will be a battle such as we have never seen,« said Mirmex. »The Redheads have all gone into this attack in which they have formed great armies. In all probability, they wish to rob us, not only of our children but of our large harvests. They themselves live deep in the valley, where there is little grass and the country is not rich, while they know that we are close to the fields and gardens from which we have, this year, gathered great stores of food. This time it will be a fight for life or death. Fortunately, we have time to send out messengers and collect all our strength and to form our army.«

Tom was trembling with excitement and asked to be allowed to fight in the first rank and to help in the victory over the robbers. Mirmex thanked him. »You will be most welcome,« he said, »but you cannot go into the field, for you do not know our way of fighting. It is not a question of personal bravery but of a sound plan based on our knowledge of the ground. We are not afraid of the result, for we are well prepared and all that we need is the full strength of our numbers to equalize the greater weight and the better fighting equipment of our enemies. The only thing we fear is the treacherous attack of some reserve force, for the Redheads are very crafty and know how to conceal their plans and we are quite likely to be attacked in the town while our forces are all in the field.«

»We ought to leave a garrison to defend the town. Therefore, we will ask you to remain for its defense, in which case a small group with you will be sufficient. Then we will not fear that anything will happen behind our backs, while we are out in the field.«

Tom thanked Mirmex for this confidence and promised him that he would defend the town to his last breath.

In the meantime, the last divisions were disappearing in the moss and in the grass. The town became quiet; only some guards were running on the stones at the top and crawling up the flowers in the square. A small garrison remained at the crossroads and watched the last of the soldiers marching toward the depths of the wood. Mirmex quickly said good-bye and also disappeared. Tom returned to the town, as he wanted to mount to the top and take a look around the country.

Thus a terrible war started which completely changed Tom's fate.