HOW rapidly rolls round the year! If August’s changes told us that summer had got to its height, September, especially the end of it, tells us plainly the year has begun to wane. True, birds sing sweetly, the flowers bloom, and there is a warmth and freshness which must remind us of the beauties of spring. But the shades of evening come on apace, hoar frosts are frequent, the night stretches far into the morning, the trees begin to shed their leaves, and the woods and the fields assume those varied and beautiful, but sombre hues which tell us plainly autumn is nearly gone, and that another winter is fast approaching.
September equally with August is a busy month with the farmer. The remains of harvest must be all housed now, or it may be spoiled or lost. And many a little animal, too, is as busy as the farmer.
Squirrels, hedgehogs, and field mice are actively laying by their winter stores; lizards, snakes, frogs, and toads become more inactive, because at night they feel the torpor of the cold season creeping over them. This is the season when our friends the birds, especially the swallow, prepare for their long journey to warmer climes. You may now see them gather in large flocks on the top of houses and chimneys: day after day they will rise up in companies, wheel about in circles, and again settle down; then they earnestly chatter together as if consulting when they should make their grand start. Just about the end of the month, as if a signal had been given by some old patriarch swallow, up they will all start, mount high in the air, and after whirling round and round, off they will start towards the south, and you will see them no more till another spring comes round. In short, plants and flowers, insects and butterflies, as well as trees and shrubs and swallows, all have one voice now, and tell us the year is fast passing away.
But perhaps the one great lesson that autumn teaches is the necessity of thinking for the future, and providing for that which is to come. Harvest is the time of ingathering, and that neglected, whatever it may be, surely brings sorrow and shame. Among the beautiful sayings of Solomon is this— “He that gathereth in summer is a wise son; but he that sleepeth in harvest is a son that causeth shame.” And which of my readers does not remember what he says of that little insect, the ant? Twice has he held them up for our admiration and profit. In the sixth and the thirtieth chapters of that wonderful book of Proverbs does he allude to them. “Go to the ant thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise; which having no guide, overseer or ruler, provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest;” and again, “The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”
I hope no little boy or girl who is reading this is a sluggard, that is, lazy and idle, not fond of work. This is in one sense the time of your harvest when you should be laying up for future use that which you will need all through life. Your beloved and loving parents have provided books and schools and teachers, and any boy or girl that neglects to profit by these, that slovenly passes over their lessons, nay, that does not give most earnest heel to them, will certainly suffer loss to the end of life. This is your summer, dear young friends, and unlike the ant you have guides and overseers and rulers, who are ready to give you the advantage of all their experience, and who even delight to help you to lay up, if you should tarry in this world for many years to come, that store of knowledge which you will surely need. Your Grammars and Geographies and Histories, your French and German or other languages, if you are able to learn them, are all so much “meat” for future use, and this is your season for preparing and laying it by.
As in former months we have had little talks about the migration of insects, birds, and animals, and bees and their wonderful little ways, and as this month is perhaps the busiest one with the ants, shall I tell you a little of their interesting ways? A great book might be written about them, but I can only tell you a very little, and this I will extract from a book called “Silver Wings and Golden Scales,” and thus he begins. “Of all the most wonderful things in the world, ants are the most wonderful; I really believe we are nothing to them. They build great cities under ground, burrowing sufficiently deep to have large lofty apartments, with long galleries, and roads or streets among them. They roof their houses with beams of wood, which they cross in a clever and curious fashion; and they fill up the spaces between, chiefly with corn and other grains, because their shape and hardness make them very suitable for the purpose. When ants were seen busily carrying corn underground, and at one time when they were seen carrying their eggs, which people mistook for corn, it was thought they were laying up food for winter; but this is not the case. They lie in a half torpid state through the winter, and would not know what to do with food if they had it. Though, I believe in eastern countries, where the cold is not sufficient to make them torpid, they really do lay by stores of grain for the time when they cannot get fresh food. However, the English ants that do not do that, do yet more wonderful things, and provide for their wants in a yet more wonderful manner. What do you think of their keeping cows to give them food, and slaves to work for them? These cows are tiny insects that they capture from flowers, and their slaves are other ants, like themselves, that they make prisoners, and employ to work for them. The tiny insects are called aphides, and are capital cows for the ants, as they have a sweet little liquid within them, which they yield to the touches of an ant’s antennæ, very much as a cow gives up her milk for us. And the ants actually carry off these aphides, and keep them in their cities, and milk them and drink the nice food they yield them. They take great care of them, and feed them, and look after them, just as much as we do after our cattle.
“They also carry away and keep the larvæ of one sort of beetle, which has long hairs, and they suck some sort of pleasant juice, for which they appear to have a particular fancy, out of these hairs. They are very careful creatures, and very affectionate. When the eggs are laid, the workers, as the ordinary ants are called, take the greatest care of them, and sometimes, but not always, the mother assists. The eggs are constantly licked, and turned over and over by the ants, and they are carried about from one part of the house to another; up to the highest chamber in the roof, or down to the lowest underground apartment, according to the time of day, or the weather, so that they get every possible advantage. When the little larvae come out they are treated in the same way, fed and carried about with the utmost care and affection. Some of the ants have beautiful silver wings, and fly here and there and enjoy themselves while they are quite young; but when they grow older, and ought to stay at home to attend to their duties, they actually deprive them selves of their wings, so that they are not able to gad about; and if they do not do this, the workers do it for them. They seize hold of them, and tear of their wings; after which they treat them with the greatest tenderness, and even respect. They form little escorts of eight or ten attendants, who devote themselves to them, lead them, and even carry them about, showing them the different chambers, and allowing them to select those they prefer for themselves to lay their eggs in. They dance round them, in order to afford them amusement, or stand on their hind legs and prance. Yet those queens as they may be called, have no power. They do not decide on, or perform any of the work that is to be done. There are, as Solomon said, no rulers or captains among them. It is a real republic, all are equal; and every hand seems to know what he has to do.
“They have certainly a language, though a silent one; they make signals, which are well understood, and they touch each other with their antennæ, or horns, a never-failing mode of communication. Suppose an ant has been out walking and discovers something very nice to eat; without tasting it, he hastens home, and going up to half-a-dozen ants, one after another, touches them with his antennae; without the slightest hesitation, they all follow him out, and together they bring the food home, rolling it along, and instructing each other how to manage it. In the morning, if it is fine and dry, these sensible creatures open all their doors and windows. Perhaps one of them has gone out, and perceiving that rain is coming, hastens back into the house; after which, a number will come running out, and close every door and every window, and keep them shut till the shower is over, when they will all be opened again, if the sun shines and the weather looks promising.
“In other countries there are some ants that are the most useless idle fellows in the world, and quite incapable of doing anything for themselves. They are red ants; and in their neighborhood, perhaps, are colonies of active, industrious working ants—blacks—or, as I suppose we should call them, Negroes. On some day by a pre-concerted plan, the red ants set forth in a large army. They have first of all sent out scouts or spies, who on their return have communicated that they have discovered a negro fort As soon as they receive this welcome information, the red ants set forth in a compact, well disciplined army, and taking the road pointed out in due time find themselves in front of the negro fort. The sentinels guarding the entrances of the fort rush in to give the alarm, and then rush out again, followed with extraordinary rapidity by numbers of indignant ants, who fling themselves on the invaders with violence, the instant they ascertain what their intentions are. The Negroes are excellent workers, but the red ants are the best soldiers. The attacking army presses into the fort, and for a few moments disappears from sight. The red soldiers enter by the regular doors, or cut their way in through the walls, while some of the black ants resist and fight, and others make their escape, carrying the old and sickly and such of the children and eggs as they can contrive to take with them. Presently back march the invaders out of the fort, but they march not back alone. Here comes a great wonder. Each man carries in his mouth an egg or larva of the Negro colony, and carries it not only out of the fort, but bears it triumphantly home. They never attempt to capture the grown—up ants—who doubtless would run away from them, and not do anything they were told—but, clever and far sighted creatures! they make prisoners of little children, whom they can educate in any way they like, but whom they treat with as great kindness as their own children. As these children enter on the ant-stage of their existence, they lead them through the house, and skew them all the passages and rooms in it, after which the slaves begin to work, and do everything there is to to be done for their masters, who, in all respects, except in capturing slaves and bringing up and feeding children, are the laziest, idlest, and most useless creatures in existence. Everything that ordinary ants do for themselves, these red ants make their black slaves do for them. They will not even take the trouble of feeding themselves.”
Many other interesting things could be told you about ants, but I have no doubt what I have now said will lead you to take a deep interest in all the wonderful little creatures that God has made.