Page:Wee wee songs for our little pets.djvu/85

Each one takes a grain that you scarcely could see,
And kneads it and moulds it as nice as can be,
    Then pats it down smooth with its feet.

These diligent builders thus work at their trade,
Till hundreds and thousands of houses are made
    Beneath all these little mud balls;
In these tiny ant-hills we see above ground
Small buildings of full twenty stories are found,
    Supported by pillars and walls.

What wonderful instinct these creatures display
In the care of their young on a damp rainy day,
    As they run from one room to another!
And up stairs and down stairs they hasten again,
As each little ant, to be kept from the rain,
    Must be carried up stairs by its mother.

When the clouds are dispersed, again they must run,
These delicate ants could not bear the hot sun;
    And their mothers immediately go
To move their dear children a few stories lower,