Ant ventures

The Ant noticed that before they left the Wild-Rose Tea House the Ladybug and the small Spider, Size Two, after a talk aside with the waiter, each had a confectioner’s box to carry. He thought probably they had bought some of the wild-rose fancy cakes to take home to their families. But he was so busy thinking how to say “Thank you” to them for their present to him, and for the party too, that he thought no more about the boxes, and they all went back down the bush to the place where the log would bring them to the boat once more.

They spied the white chip gleaming against the dark water below them, as safe as possible. It did not take them many minutes to get aboard and to stow their parcels in a space in the middle where no bobbling would jubble them off into the water. Jubble is a most uncommon word too, and means what would happen if the boat should bobble so hard that the things would be thrown off into the water. Then they sat down to wait, as there was nothing else to do. They all three tried to poke the boat away from the log by pushing against the log as hard as they could with their hands all at once. But, in spite of all the hands they had among the three of them, there was not strength enough, with all of them pushing, to send the boat out into the free water.

“The wind will change sooner or later,” said the small Spider, Size Two. “That is one thing always true about wind—it has to change sooner or later. Sometimes it is sooner and sometimes it is later. This may be one of the later times, but there is nothing easier to do than waiting. While we are waiting we can plan about how far we can go and how long we can stay.”

“If we have to start late, we cannot stay long nor go far,” said the Ladybug, “for there will be the journey back to take, except for you, Mr. Ant. You won’t have to go back, of course, since you are traveling around the world. All you will have to do will be to land when we do, and keep on going to the right. But we have families who need us, so we have to go back.”

“That is so,” the Ant answered, and already he felt sorry to think that the trip with these friends could not go right on. If only they would go around the world with him! He teased them to say they would, but they said that, as much as they would like to travel with him, they must not. Besides, they added, they were not in need of a change, as they were so happy at home with their families that the families were quite all the change they needed.

“Anyway, we can have a happy time all the afternoon,” said the Ladybug, “for our families will not need us till night. Never think about the saying good-by part of a pleasure until the good-by part of it comes, is my motto.”

“That is a fine motto,” said the small Spider, Size Two. “I wish I had it embroidered and framed to hang over the mantelpiece in every house I build.”

“Some day I shall be glad to embroider it for you,” said the Ladybug.

“Oh, and will you embroider one for me, too?” asked the Ant eagerly. “I am sure Mother would be so pleased, for she says things that sound like that. I’ll ask her to invite you to pay us a long visit when I get back, if you will. You’d love Ant-Hill Manor, I know!”

“But you don’t love it, do you?” said the Ladybug. “You were so eager to leave it, you see.”

“Well,” replied the Ant, looking much ashamed of himself, “to tell you the truth, I think it was the work I wanted to leave more than it was the home.”

“Well, the change will show you a grand mistake in that way of thinking,” the Ladybug told him, “but I shall be glad to embroider the motto for you if you really care to have it.”

“Oh, thank you!” cried the Ant. “Give me your address, and when I come back from my trip I shall be glad to call for it some day, and bring you the invitation to our home at the same time.”

“It is Knot-Hole Barkalow,” said the Ladybug, “and it is in the knot hole of the big elm tree nearest the place you found us. My house is really a small bungalow, but it fitted the house better to call it a barkalow. You come up the tree and tap seven times, and I shall know who it is. In case you get no answer, you will know I am out on a little marketing trip or doing errands that have to be done, so walk in and make yourself at home till I come back.”

“Thank you,” said the Ant, and wrote the address in his notebook.

And then, oh me, oh my! There was a frightful splash in the water near them, and the little boat bobbled so hard that not only their baggage but they themselves were nearly jubbled into the brook.

“What was that?” cried Anthony Ant, much scared.

“It must have been an earthquake!” said the Ladybug.

“More like a waterquake, I should say!” gasped the small Spider, Size Two, who had swallowed some of the water that splashed into his face.

“Oh, now I know what it was!” cried the Ladybug. “It was only a Bullfrog jumping from the log. This must be his diving pool. Oh, but look! We are sailing at last!”

So they were, and in that plunge Mr. Bullfrog had done them a good turn rather than a bad overturn! The boat was floating out into the brook again, and the voyage downstream had begun. Gently sailed the boat. Though it still bobbled a little from its shaking, it bobbed evenly and was in no danger of giving its passengers an unhappy jubbling at present.

It was the happiest trip on the water ever taken in the whole world, so they all thought. Sometimes the little boat would stick for a few minutes where something stopped it in its course. Then it would get free from the stone or whatever blocked the way, and downstream it would go again. There were many things to see by the way on each side, and the small Spider, Size Two and the Ladybug explained to Anthony all the things he did not know.

The boat stopped at a small island of stones and gravel in the middle of the brook late in the afternoon, and there they thought it best to end the trip. They carried the parcels to the island and left the little boat to itself. It might go on once more, or stay as long as it liked. They would not need it any more, they thought, and they explored the little island for an hour. Then it was that the Ant found out what was in the boxes the others had brought.

As they sat under the shade of a thick weed, the Ladybug opened her box and took out a rose-patterned paper tablecloth and spread it on the clean stones. Then came afternoon tea from both boxes—even a small tea-house stove to boil water for the tea in the tiny tea-kettle. They would not let the Ant open his lunch basket at all. That is why they had brought the things themselves for the picnic—so he could save all his, which he would need on his trip. If you never have eaten wild-rose tea cakes, you have missed cakes worth while. There were pink candies, rose-mint flavored and shaped like roses, and such dainty sandwiches you never saw, nor I, either!

After the tea it was time for the Ladybug and the small Spider, Size Two to go home. Anthony went to see them off, and there was the little white boat that looked so tempting to take once more.

“Well, we might as well take it,” decided the Ladybug. “Mr. Ant can come too, for, when it once starts, it may bump us against something from which we can crawl to a stone nearer shore. He can stay on and sail farther, for there is a bend in the brook that will take him a long distance toward the right, and he can get off when the brook bends back again.”

It was as though the whole thing had been planned to give the three the best surprise yet. Almost as soon as they were aboard, with Anthony’s baggage too, the boat started down again, and suddenly a sharp turn about a rock made the current send the boat in a slanting push across to a bowlder so near the shore they could easily reach it from such a fine landing place.

They all made the jump from the boat safely, and waved their feelers and hands after the boat, for they could see it was not going to wait for the Ant this time. He would not have that boat ride down the bend after all. He did not care, for he had his things all with him and could cross some way later. He had intended merely to land with them on the bowlder and watch them as they landed, then go back to the boat; but, as it had floated away, he did not care. They clambered to the top of the bowlder to see how the shore looked, and all at once they saw a large sign which said:

Wonderful Insect Band Concert
Here Tonight
Free
Come and Bring Your Friends