THE SEVEN LITTLE BASKETS. 39 the place to get into other people’s way. Presently the little brown ant ran up close to the soldier’s face, and touched it with two little horns which were branching out from its head, as if to say, ““ Well, who are you?” Now to tell the truth, the soldier was rather sticky from having been in Sonnie’s pocket, with the lump of sugar-candy, after Sonnie had been sucking it. This little ant was very fond of sweet stuff, as all ants are, and she soon smelt, or found out somehow, that the wooden soldier had sugar upon him, and began to lick it off. “T must carry a mouthful of this to the children at home,” said the little ant; so she scraped up as much as she could hold between her jaws and ran off with it. Soon she came back with a whole string of friends after her; they all set to work at the soldier. First they ran all over him, trying whether it would be possible to carry him back to the nest bodily, for they thought that he might be made of sugar all through. But they found that all their shoving, hauling, pulling, and pushing © would not stir him. Next they began to try the plan of biting him to bits that they might carry him piecemeal, but he was too tough; so at length they all set to work to make the best of him where he was, as a fine feast, but soon found out that he was only good to eat outside, that the nice sweet candy was soon gone, and then they left the soldier in peace and quiet. Except that one little ant—the first which had come—lingered behind to get a nap in a snug little hole under his wooden arm. There she lay, tucked in, till she was quite rested, when she woke up and started on her travels again, running very fast, but keeping an eye always open for stray scraps of food to be carried back to the young ones—a bit of a dead wasp, a grass-grain, or a taste of honey, anything almost that she could find.