of grass nor a weed to
grow, and the whole clearing is as smooth and hard as a barn floor. This
is no light labor, I can tell you, for wild plants grow very fast and
strong under the hot suns of Texas."

"But how do they do it?" asked Harry.

"You would laugh to see them," continued his uncle. "They bite off every
blade of grass near the root, some seize it with their fore-legs, and
twist and pull at it, while others run up to the top of the blade, and
bend it down with their weight. It is not long before the great tree, as
it must seem to the ants, comes toppling down. The roots are left in the
ground to die out, just as a Western wood-cutter leaves the roots of his
trees."

"It must be a funny sight," exclaimed Harry.

"Does they keep stables for their cows?" asked Willie, who could not get
over his interest in the ants' milking operations.

"Not they. These ants do not keep cows," returned Uncle Ben.

"They're mighty queer farmers, then," replied Willie, contemptuously.

"They are grain farmers, not dairy farmers," was the amused reply. "But
I have not finished telling you about their clearings. There is nothing
stranger in the world, when we consider how they are made. They may
often be seen surrounded by a circle of tall weeds, great, fast-growing
fellows, two or three feet high, that look very much as if they would
like to step in on the ants' play-ground. But the active little
creatures do not suffer any intrusion upon their domain."

"It is odd how they can cut down so many grass trees without tools,"
said Harry.

"They have better tools than you think," replied Uncle Ben. "Their hard,
horny mandibles are good cutting instruments, and are used for teeth,
saws, chisels, and pincers all in one. They form a sort of compound
tool."

"I'd like to see them ever so much," cried Willie. "But, Uncle Ben,
where does they live? Cos they can't be running 'bout all the time
out-of-doors. I know that."

"And they must have some place to put their crops in," said Harry.

"Their houses are in the centre of the clearing," continued their uncle.
"They are usually rounded mounds of earth, with a depression in the top,
of the shape of a basin. In the centre of this basin is a small hole,
forming the entrance to the ant city, which is all built under-ground.
If you could see one of these mounds cut open, you would be surprised to
behold the multitude of galleries not more than a quarter or half an
inch high, running i