Attila the Ant

By Mewsette

Attila joined the army when he was a very young ant. He lived in a large colony in a hill at the side of a vegetable garden. Nearly all the ants of the colony were in the army, but there were no ranks. They were all simply called workers, and that is what they did all day. Of course, being a worker was very important, because it was their job to gather food for the entire colony as well as for their Queen and her babies.

The colony was ruled by a very large Queen ant named Maj. Queen Maj spent all her time deep in the hill, hatching out babies and raising them to be more workers. That is just the way of ants. The older workers, such as Attila, were responsible for guarding the entire colony, but especially the Queen and her babies at all times so no harm would come to them.

Attila didn't mind being a guard but he would have preferred to be a gatherer.The gatherers went far and wide in the garden and often brought back great prizes, such as a baby radish or tender young peas. It took a great many of them to get the little peas out of their pods and carry them home. So one morning Attila got a group of the guards together and they all went with the gatherers to help with the peas that day. There were so many guards, they were sure no one would miss them at the hill. They spent a satisfying day working in the shade of the pea vines instead of milling around in the hot sun at the hill. As they all helped carry peas home late in the afternoon, Attila was quite pleased with himself because he knew they had lots of extra peas.

But as the gatherer workers approached the hill, they saw a great commotion. There was a huge beetle trying to get into the entrance! And there were not enough guards to fend him off! Oh, this was terrible! Queen Maj was in danger!

The entire troops of returning workers dropped all the peas and rushed to the assistance of the guards. After a terrible battle, they finally managed to slay the beetle. By then it was quite dark, and they could not see the peas they had dropped, so they all went into the hill for the night with no fresh food. The Queen and her babies were safe, but they were unfed that night.

Attila felt very badly, and so did the guard ants who had gone with him. They knew that they should have stayed at the hill and done their job, to avoid the calamity that almost befell the entire colony. Ater that, Attila never left his post again. He had learned his lesson.