Ant ventures

The next day Anthony Ant came to a bit of marsh. He had not passed this bit of marsh on his way out from home for the reason that he was not following his exact footsteps back. His many little side trips and Ant Ventures where things made it not so easy to get along made him take a different path back. But by traveling always toward the left he knew he would come out in time to the brook, which was a sort of landmark—I should say, watermark, to make it exactly true.

This marsh was a most interesting place. He crawled up a tall cat-tail to see if he could catch a glimpse of the brook, for he knew the brook had many marshy spots near its banks on either side from place to place along its course. This might be one of the brook’s marshes.

At the top of the cat-tail he found he was not yet able to see far ahead. There were other cat-tails taller than the one he tried, and he had made a mistake in guessing he could see far from this one. As he was thinking about the matter, a beautiful Dragon Fly with gauzy wings came sailing across the cat-tails and lighted upon the one nearest him—within speaking distance. He was not a bit afraid of the Dragon Fly. Dragon Flies may catch Mosquitoes and Gnats and such things, but Anthony Ant knew the Dragon Fly did not eat Ants.

“Good morning, Mr. Dragon Fly,” said Anthony Ant politely.

“The same to you,” replied the Dragon Fly in a friendly voice.

“You are so wise,” said Anthony, “and see so much of the world, that I should like to ask you if this is a marsh belonging to the brook or just a marshy spot in the field and not near a brook at all. Which is it?”

“Both!” answered the Dragon Fly with a little grin.

“How could it be both?” asked Anthony Ant.

“I’ll tell you,” said the Dragon Fly. “It really is a little spot by itself, not connected at all with the brook, because there is a good stretch of land between this marsh and the brook. But it is also a sort of a belonging of the brook, because, when there are rains and rains and rains in the spring, sometimes the brook flows right over this way, and this marsh spreads over toward the brook, and it is almost like one big marsh, or one big brook, whichever you would rather call it.”

“I see,” said the Ant. “Can you see the brook from the cat-tail where you are sitting?”

“No,” said the Dragon Fly, “but I have seen it, and this very day too. I just came from that way. It doesn’t take an airplane like me long to get as far as the brook, you see. But it would take any one as little as you without wings a good long time, I should think. I should guess you had part of another day’s journey ahead of you if you started right off. Are you in a tearing hurry to get there?”

“Well, the sooner I do, the sooner I shall get back to Ant-Hill Manor,” said the Ant, “and I cannot get there any too soon to suit me.” And he told the Dragon Fly all about his coming away from home and everything.

“Well, well!” said the Dragon Fly. “I don’t blame you for wanting to get back. Now that is a funny thing. It never would do at all for me to go back to the place where I was born. I could not possibly live there.”

“Why not?” asked the Ant.

“Because,” was the Dragon Fly’s answer, “I was born down in the marsh where I was first a water creature living under the water, and crawling about sort of buglike and sort of wormlike, I suppose, till I was old enough to crawl up a weed, and sit and dream by the hour. Then I suddenly found I was the owner of these wings which I did not have when I was living in the water. So I crawled right up into the air, and my wings dried to this lovely gauze. The sun put into them all the colors of the rainbow. Here I have lived ever since, around these cat-tails where I can sail up and off for ever and ever so far to see the sights, and then come back here to sit and think about it all. But I never could live in the water again where I was born, you see, or I should drown.”

“That is so,” said the Ant. “And what is the best thing you have seen in your air trips?”

“The best thing I have seen in any sort of trip I ever have taken is the sun,” replied the Dragon Fly. “There is nothing that can match it—not even the moon on the loveliest night when the Whippoorwill calls, and the Owl cries, and the Bat frisks, and the Fireflies dance with their lanterns, and the whole marsh is more like a Japanese picture than like anything that possibly could be just plain marsh. Yes, sir, the sun is the best thing in the world. I have often tried to fly to it to thank it for my rainbow colors it gave me after my stupid sort of life in the water.”

“It is lovely,” remarked the Ant thoughtfully, “but don’t you like the dew too? It was lovely early this morning, and so refreshing to bathe in. Then I thought nothing could be so lovely in the world as dew.”

“Oh, yes,” said the Dragon Fly. “Dew is all right in its way, but give me the sun every time. The sun drinks up the dew after awhile, anyway.”

“So it does,” said the Ant. “I have noticed that.”

“By the way,” the Dragon Fly went on, “between the marsh and the brook you want to look out for the sundew when you sit down to rest anywhere.”

“Oh, but the sun won’t hurt me,” said Anthony Ant. “It never has, and I’ve traveled on the hottest days. As for the dew, why, it couldn’t possibly hurt me. Haven’t I bathed in it right along?”

“Oh, I see you don’t know what I mean, but you’ll find out if you happen to meet the sundew. You may not meet it, anyway, and if you should, it won’t hurt you much. I know you won’t linger with it too long, and you are strong.”

“What is it like?” asked the Ant.

The Dragon Fly chuckled.

“I’m not going to tell you,” was his answer. “Just for fun, I’m going to let you find out for yourself. Don’t be alarmed, though. I’d surely tell you if it was too dangerous for you. It is for smaller things than you. I’ll risk you. Anyway, you may not even see a glimpse of it. Lots of people spend too much time thinking about unpleasant things that after all never happen to them, so don’t waste a second’s thought on it. Good luck to you!” And away he sailed to take a nearer look at the sun.