n electric shock that a thrill ran up to her
shoulder, her hands fell, and Shiny-pate, seizing his opportunity, ran
swiftly down her back and rushed towards the house, where the scene of
confusion was but little abated.

The ants had by this time slain every living thing which had occupied
the dwelling, and dragged them into the long grass outside; and the
soldiers, after their hard fighting, were endeavouring to satisfy their
hunger. This, however, the officers objected to, for they knew by
experience what would happen; the pittas had not accompanied them on
their march for nothing. The ugly black birds had their eyes wide open,
and knew what they were about; they had been waiting and watching all
this time, hopping about on the neighbouring trees, and now at last
their turn came. The ants gorged with their prey could not escape: down
pounced the pittas, and they certainly made the most of their
opportunity. The hardened veterans, the most agile warriors, were
gobbled up in a moment, and the officers in despair ran here and there,
seeing the carnage, but being quite unable to prevent it.

At last, by the time Mrs. Wolfe and her family ventured back to their
clean and well-swept house, Shiny-pate by frantic exertions had managed
to collect his own troop--he had only lost two of his twenty soldiers.

So our little insects again set out. They were dreadfully tired, and
they lagged behind, though their leader longed to overtake some of the
advance-guard, which had already gone on. Poor little fellow! his first
day's fighting had certainly been an arduous one, and it was not over
yet; his exertions to keep his men in order were wonderful. But after
marching some distance the ants saw before them a little stream of
water, running merrily along, but presenting a serious barrier to their
progress.

Shiny-pate at first thought the water might not extend far, and led his
company along the bank; but as he found to his dismay that the stream
grew wider instead of narrower, his fertile little brain began to devise
a plan, and soon he had hit upon a very ingenious one. He selected a
shrub with a long branch, which extended across part of the stream, and
having marched his men to the very extremity of this bough he caught
hold of it with his fore-legs and hung down, ordering one of the
soldiers to creep down his body and hang on to the end of it; another
followed and clung to the second ant, and so on. By this means the
living ch