Ant ventures

Oh, but the next morning was a morning worth looking at twice! Anthony Ant looked at it twice too. All the time he was scrubbing up he sang the little tune he liked best as played by the phonograph at home, and all the time he ate his breakfast he thought about the tune when he could not sing it. He was not long in getting on his way, either. He was homesick for a look at the brook. Who knows how much more homesick for the home far over on the other side!

The Dragon Fly, you remember, told Anthony Ant it might not take more than a part of the day for an Ant like Anthony to reach it. But, though the Ant started early and traveled fast, he had to make a number of long side trips to get out of the way of things that cluttered up his path and to keep out of the way of several jumpy Spiders. Besides, there were several things that chased him out of his path a number of times and nearly caught him. So not until late in the afternoon did the traveler come to the brook.

As Anthony Ant drew nearer and nearer the brook, he thought something was calling him down toward the right. It was something that did not have a voice, and yet it was something that called him so plainly that he had to go to see what it was. And what do you think the something was? Why, nothing more nor less than a wireless message! Yes, sir, a wireless message! It told him to come down to the right, and then straight ahead.

He did this, and as he went on he heard the brook. It was bubbling softly in the distance somewhere. Then, after a little more traveling, he saw a sight that made him really toss up his hat for joy. No wonder he had received a wireless message! Why, there was the famous rose bush of the Wild-Rose Tea House! Oh, my! The wireless message must have been sent by the small Spider, Size Two, or by the Ladybug herself!

He lost no more time standing there tossing up his hat, but clapped it upon his head as fast as he could and began to climb the rose bush.

He was up at last. Ah, yes! And there sat the Ladybug and the small Spider, Size Two, smiling for all they were worth. They had known how to make him find the proper place for a supper that night! They had studied broadcasting carefully, you see.

If it had not been an impolite thing to do, they would have danced around and around to show how happy they were at meeting again. But in a tea house so famous as the Wild-Rose Tea House you cannot get up and jump around without making people wonder where your manners are, you know. So they merely shook hands with a good, hard grip of all the hands they three had, and told him his place was all set at their table, and his supper all ordered, and they had not had theirs yet but were waiting for him. So it was not many seconds before one of the best suppers ever served at that famous tea house was placed before one of the happiest parties of three that ever took place there.

“Well, well, well!” cried the small Spider, Size Two. “Your Ant Ventures by land and sea, as they say in stories, would fill a book! You ought to write a book about it all when you get home.”

“Yes, indeed, you surely ought to!” said the Ladybug.

Anthony Ant laughed.

“I know a place I’d never go to try to sell the book,” said he, “and that is Mrs. Angleworm’s house. She has no use for books, I could see that plainly!”

Anthony took out the little jar of Clover Lodge honey to add to the treat. The keeper of this fine tea house of the Wild-Rose came to taste it too. He said he thought it paid to help other tea houses along, and he would order some right off, and advertise it as being used at the Wild-Rose Tea House. It would help Clover Lodge along to have so fine an advertisement, he knew.

The Ladybug said she would come here often, then, for her afternoon tea, and always call for Clover Lodge honey with the delicious Wild-Rose tea cakes he knew so well how to make. This pleased the keeper of the tea house so much that he told them that if they would stay for the evening he would serve them large portions of his newly invented Wild-Rose Ice Cream free of charge. He knew they would like to have it. At a certain table he would give them they could hear the band concert with the brook accompaniment and have the best view of the Firefly illumination. Though it was late in the season for Fireflies, he had engaged some to come for the evening, and it might be worth while. They accepted his kind invitation at once.

It was one of the happiest evenings the Ant ever knew. They talked of the trip on the boat and wondered where the poor thing was now. The new ice cream must have been magic. It was different from any they ever had tasted before, and sent little thrills of joy all through them. Yet each one somehow knew that the whole happiness of the feelings they all had, came from the fact that Anthony Ant had at last come to his full cure. They and he all knew he was doing the right thing in going home hard and fast.

“I am not going to write a book when I go home,” said he thoughtfully, before they separated that night.

“Oh, aren’t you?” asked the Ladybug. “What are you going to do?”

“Just work!” said Anthony Ant joyfully.