ight arm, and there were two children who must be fed.

"What to do! what to do!" he cried; and then, as he saw the tears
running down Madame Agathe's cheeks, he in turn, with the ease of his
nation, wept also.

"That is what has determined me," said Madame Agathe, as not long ago
she told of the day when she had given up hope. "Tears are for women,
and even for them it is not well to shed many. I say to myself, 'I am on
the earth: the good God wills it. There must be something that I may do,
and that will help these even more helpless ones.' And as I say it there
comes in from the Jardin des Plantes a man who has been a companion to
Pierre, and who, as he sees him so despairing, first embraces him and
then tells him this: 'Pierre, it is true you cannot again hold spade or
hoe, but here is something. There are never enough ants' eggs for the
zoological gardens and for those that feed pheasants. I know already one
woman who supplies them, and she will some day be rich. Why not you
also?'

"'I have no hands for any work. This hand is useless,' said Pierre; and
then I spoke: 'But mine are here and are strong; you have eyes, which
for me are well nigh gone. It shall be your eyes and my hands that will
do this work if I may learn all the ways. It is only that ants have
teeth and bite and we must fear that.'

"Then Claude has laughed. 'Teeth! yes, if you will, but they do not gnaw
like hunger. Come with me, Madame Agathe, and we will talk with her of
whom I speak,--she who knows it all and has the good heart and will tell
and help.'

"That is how I begun, madame. It is Blanche who has taught me, and I
have lived with her a month and watched all her ways, and learned all
that these ants can do. At first one must renounce thought to be
anything but bitten, yes, bitten always. See me, I am tanned as leather.
It is the skin of an apple that has dried that you see on me and with
her it is the same. We wear pantaloons and gauntlets of leather. It is
almost a coat of mail, but close it as one may, they are always
underneath. She can sleep when hundreds run on her, but I, I am frantic
at first till I am bitten everywhere; and then, at last, as with
bee-keepers, I can be poisoned no longer, and they may gnaw as they
will. They are very lively. They love the heat, and we must keep up
great heat always and feed them very high, and then they lay many eggs,
which we gather for the bird-breeders and others who want them. Twice we
hav