The Insect

CHAPTER IV.--THE ANTS: CIVIL WAR--EXTERMINATION OF THE COMMUNITY.

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It is the punishment of the tyrant that he cannot readily set free his captive, 271 The caged nightingale, and the clod of earth, 272 This clod proves to contain a republic of carpenter-ants, 272 An effort is made to found a new community; difficulties in the way, 273 An encounter between the carpenter-ants and some mason-ants, 274 In which the victory is on the side of the Little, 275 Who carry off the young of the conquered, 276 A digression comments on the helplessness of the nymph, or larva, 277 And points out its exceeding suffering in the hands of a victorious enemy, 278 The writer is shocked by the relentless cruelty of the conquerors, 279 Who have left but one poor fugitive to mourn the death of his companions, 280