ugh an opening in the hedge, and crosses the field
on the other side. Still the soldiers march on, never hindered, never
straggling out of place. It must have been a clever commander-in-chief
to have trained them into such admirable obedience.

Presently a fortress rises before them--_that_ is the object of their
expedition; rather, it is something within the citadel that they are
sent to get, and have it they _will_. Not without a struggle, though,
for the enemy is on guard, and when he sees the hostile army
approaching, he sallies out to battle. He has no idea of surrendering
without a fight for it.

The invaders gather up their forces and charge bravely up the hill,
and in an instant, hand to hand, or something very like it, the foes
are locked together in desperate conflict. Neither have they any guns,
but they carry sharp weapons with them, and soon the field is strewn
with the dead and dying.

The fight thickens--the issue is doubtful, but not long--the defenders
are routed, and the assailants press forward to the citadel. Most
skillful are they, for with neither cannon nor battering-rams they
speedily make a breach in the walls, and in they rush, pouring through
the street and lanes of the devoted city. Yet they do not destroy
it--they do not kill the inhabitants--they do not even stay within the
walls so hardly won. In a very short space of time they return as they
came, save that each bears a portion of the spoil for which they came.
They form in order once again, they march in line, they regain their
own quarters, but each one carrying--would you believe it?--a _young
slave_.

[Illustration: {ANTS HEADING OUT ON AN EXPEDITION.}]

Yes, the army did not care to conquer the strange city; the expedition
was organized solely and entirely that they might steal the young and
bring them up in their own colony as slaves. For, through the long
influence of evil habits, the race to which these warriors belong have
lost their natural powers, and so have now to be waited on, fed, and
altogether taken care of by its slaves. With food before them they
would starve unless the slaves put it into their mouths.

If they want to change their abode, the slaves must make the new
habitation ready, and then carry their masters on their backs to reach
it. If the children have to be taken care of, the slaves must be the
nurses. In fact, _fighting_ is the one single thing they _can_ do, and
that, as we have seen, they do well. As