"You neber tole us one word yet 'bout them soldiers an' cows an' tings,
'mong the ants, Uncle Ben," he earnestly remarked, "an' you knows you
said you was goin' to tell us all an' all an' all about 'em. An' I don't
think it's fair."

"Why, I certainly must have done so," replied Uncle Ben, with affected
surprise. "You have surely forgotten. I shall have to leave this affair
for Harry to settle."

"Then Willie is right," returned Harry, from his grassy nest. "You told
us everything else about them, but you never said one thing about the
cows or the soldiers."

"Everything else about them!" exclaimed Uncle Ben, with a sly smile.
"Why, I know I did not say a word about the parasol ants, or the
foraging ants, or the--"

"The parasol ants!" cried Willie, quite forgetting the cows and the
soldiers in his surprise. "You doesn't mean, Uncle Ben, that they
carries parasols--jes like mamma, now?"

Harry, too, had lifted himself up on his elbow, the light of curiosity
gleaming in his eyes.

"They are the most comical things in the world," replied their uncle.
"Just imagine now a great line of ants, marching along like a school of
young ladies out on a holiday, each of them holding a piece of green
leaf over its head like a parasol. It is not strange that people fancied
that this was done to keep the sun off, and called them parasol ants."

"What do they do it for, then?" asked Harry, eagerly.

"Maybe them's the soldiers," suggested Willie; "maybe it's ant guns
they's carryin'."

"We have not got to the soldiers yet," said his uncle, smiling. "These
leaves are really used in building their nests. But the whole thing is
very curious. The ants climb up the bushes, and run out on the leaves.
There they cut, with their sharp jaws, a little round piece from the
leaf. Then they pick this up, getting a tight hold on it, you may be
sure, and away they scamper for the nest. But these ants are not the
nest-builders; they are only like the laborers who carry bricks to the
bricklayers. They drop their leaves beside the nest, and run back for
more, leaving the real builders to finish the work."

"Regular little hod-carriers," suggested Harry. "But they don't build a
nest of little bits of leaf, I hope?"

"Not exactly. The leaves are mingled through the earth to sustain the
great domes which they erect. The houses which these tropical ants build
are wonderfully different from the little ant-hills we see about here.
They are not