ole
world. This was just what I wished to acquire. She said a great deal
that was no doubt very clever--yet it sounded like nonsense to me. She
said the ant hill was the loftiest thing in the world, although close to
the mound stood a tall tree which no one could deny was loftier, much
loftier. Yet she made no mention of the tree.

"One evening an ant lost herself on this tree. She had crept up the
stem, not nearly to the top but higher than any ant had ever ventured,
and when at last she returned home she said that she had found something
in her travels much higher than the ant hill. The rest of the ants
considered this an insult to the whole community, and condemned her to
wear a muzzle and live in perpetual solitude.

"A short time afterwards another ant got on the tree and made the same
journey and the same discovery. But she spoke of it cautiously and
indefinitely, and as she was one of the superior ants and very much
respected, they believed her. And when she died they erected an
egg-shell as a monument to her memory, for they cultivated a great
respect for science.

"I saw," said the little mouse, "that the ants were always running to
and fro with their burdens on their backs. Once I saw one of them, who
had dropped her load, try very hard to raise it again, but she did not
succeed. Two others came up and tried with all their strength to help
her, till they nearly dropped their own burdens. Then they were obliged
to stop a moment, for every one must think of himself first. The
ant-queen remarked that their conduct that day showed that they
possessed kind hearts and good understanding. 'These two qualities,' she
continued, 'place us ants in the highest degree above all other
reasonable beings. Understanding must therefore stand out prominently
among us, and my wisdom is greatest.' So saying, she raised herself on
her two hind legs, that no one else might be mistaken for her. I could
not, therefore, have made a mistake, so I ate her up. We are to go to
the ants to learn wisdom, and I had secured the queen.

"I now turned and went nearer to the lofty tree already mentioned, which
was an oak. It had a tall trunk, with a wide-spreading top, and was very
old. I knew that a living being dwelt here, a dryad, as she is called,
who is born with the tree and dies with it. I had heard this in the
library, and here was just such a tree and in it an oak maiden. She
uttered a terrible scream when she caught sight of me so n