Ants, bees, and wasps belong to the same family of insects. The ant, to begin with the smallest, is a good proof that size has little to do with intelligence.

These little people, as King Solomon said of them long ago, "are exceeding wise." A long chapter might be filled with an account of the wonderful things they do. In this country there are ants who are farmers. They plant their fields, keep them carefully weeded, and gather each year the seed for the new crops. They make roads, build bridges, and fashion wonderful houses with underground storerooms and galleries. If their harvest gets wet, it is brought out to dry on the first sunny day, and then carried back again with the greatest pains.

Other ants are master-builders and make elaborate houses of more than forty stories. These houses are made of bits of stick and straw. Some ants are soldiers, others are gardeners, while still others are famous bridge-builders. The red ants make slaves of black ants and become very dependent upon the faithfulness and industry of their servants. Many ants keep as cows the small green plant-lice on the rose-bushes. These tiny green cows fill themselves full of a sweet juice which they make from the plant-leaf. The little people like the sweet juice and have found out that they can get it by stroking the cows. So they keep herds of fat cattle and often mount guard round the branch or tree where their cows are feeding.

Ants have a keen sense of smell and a wonderful way of talking to each other by touching their antennae. They must have a complete set of signals, for they are able to carry on a long conversation.

How do we know so much about them? Wise men have spent years in studying their ways. There was a blind Swiss naturalist, named Huber, who, with the aid of his servant, was able to learn more of ants and their doings than any one had dreamed of before. It was Huber who found out that ants go to war and make slaves. In England another famous observer noticed that ants knew and welcomed each other after ten and twelve months of separation.

It would be interesting to know what the ants think of us, who in some ways are no wiser than themselves. How blundering and clumsy we must seem when with careless feet we crush millions of the innocent dwellers in their underground cities! Surely we might try not to disturb the little people in the wonderful homes they have made.

Bees and wasps are cousins of the ants. They have four wings, the front pair being the larger. In flight the two wings on each side are hooked together so as to form one broad wing.

We all know how helpful bees are to us. They lay up enough honey to feed themselves through the winter, and we think this a very desirable addition to our own table. The wax they make for their houses is useful to us in more ways than one. But they help us in another way, which is still more curious and interesting. While the bee is burrowing for honey in the heart of some deep blossom, the yellow flower-dust, or pollen, sticks to its hairy body and legs. When it flies to the next flower, some of this dust is brushed off and falls in the right place to make the seeds in that flower grow. So, without knowing it, the bee is helping us in our gardening. Some plants would never bear fruit if the bees did not carry the pollen from one flower to another.

Next to the ants, the bees are the most intelligent insects we know. They make wax houses of beautiful shapeliness, and they rear their little ones with great wisdom and care. There is always a queen bee, and no real princess is more royally tended than are the princess bees. They are fed on different food from that of the other babies, and the royal cradles are of the finest quality. Should all the princesses die, one of the common bees is put into the royal cradle and fed upon the dainty food, and she often makes quite as good a queen as if she were born in the purple.

Bees seldom sting if they are let alone. They are easily frightened by a sudden movement and will try to defend themselves. If a bee alights by mistake on your hand or face, it will soon fly away without hurting you if you can keep quite still. As a rule, they are good-tempered and harmless.

Wasps have not earned for themselves a reputation for good-nature or thrift. They have never learned to store up honey, and every winter many of them freeze to death in their elegant paper houses. It is considered wise not to handle a wasp, lest his feelings, which are easily ruffled, get the better of him. But there is room to admire his good looks, his skill in house-building, and his sturdy pluck and courage.

[Illustration: PAPER-MAKERS.]

Wasps do much good in the garden by destroying grubs and caterpillars, and they are quite willing to take their wages in overripe fruit at the end of the season.