large
ant-hill; and there I settled myself to watch them.

"They are a very respectable tribe, the ants, and full of good sense;
everything among them is as correctly done as a well-calculated sum in
arithmetic. 'To labour and to lay eggs,' say they, 'is to live in the
present, and to provide for the future;' and that they assuredly do.
They divide themselves into the clean ants and the dirty ones. Rank is
distinguished by a number. The queen ant is number one, and her will
is their only law. She has swallowed all the wisdom, and it was of
consequence to me to listen to her; but she said so much and was so
profoundly wise, that I could scarcely comprehend her.

"She said that their hill was the highest in the world; but close to
the hill stood a tree that was higher, certainly much higher. She
could not deny this, so she did not allude to it. One evening an ant
had lost his way, and finding himself on the tree, he crept up the
trunk, not as far as the top, but much higher than any ant had ever
gone before; and when he descended, and found his way home at last, he
imprudently told in the ant-hill of something much higher at a little
distance from it. This was taken by one and all as an affront to the
whole community, and the offending ant was condemned to have his mouth
muzzled, as well as to perpetual solitude. But shortly after another
ant got as far as the tree, and made a similar journey and a similar
discovery. He spoke of it, however, discreetly and mysteriously, and
as he happened to be an ant of consideration--one of the clean--they
believed him; and when he died they placed an egg-shell over him as a
monument in honour of his extensive knowledge.

"I observed," said the little mouse, "that the ants continually move
with their eggs on their backs. One of them dropped hers. She tried
very hard to get it up again, but could not succeed; then two others
came and helped her with all their might, until they had nearly lost
their own eggs, whereupon they let the attempt alone, for one is
nearest to one's self; and the queen ant remarked that both heart and
good sense had been shown. 'These two qualities place us ants among
reasonable beings,' she said. 'Sense ought to be, and is, of the most
consequence; and I have the most of that;' and she raised herself, in
her self-satisfaction, on her hind leg. I could not mistake her, and
I swallowed her. 'Go to the ant; consider her ways, and be wise.' I
had now the queen.