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LESSON I

WHAT THE ANT TEACHES.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."-PROVERBS vi. 6. THE ant is a small insect which may often be seen in the fields. It makes its home generally in a mole-hill, or in some light soil. Let us go to the ant-hill and examine it. Let us study the habits of the ant, and see what lessons we may draw from them.

I-Industry. The ants are busy workers. When the sun rises in the morning they start out of their home and travel in all directions in search of food. See how they run, and how carefully they examine every crevice and nook where they are likely to find anything. If they meet with food, they return home with it. One brings a crumb of bread that you have dropped; another has a morsel of sugar; another has a dead fly; another has a small insect. Here they come, one after another, and each one bringing something. Here are two or three of them toiling with a grain of wheat, rolling it because it is too heavy to carry. Two or three

more are bringing a pea; and so they are all working-every one doing something.

They will work all day till the sun sets, and if it be a fine moonlight night they will hardly rest at all. Here is a lesson of industry.

I went one day into a nice garden, that belonged to a good, kind lady. It was a fine, warm, summer's day, and the lady was watching her bees bring honey to the hives. Some wasps came while we were talking, and tried to get into the beehives and steal the honey. The lady said, "I must set

a trap to catch these tiresome wasps. They are too lazy to gather honey themselves, so they want to take what my bees have gathered."

She took a large pitcher, and put in the bottom of it a spoonful of treacle, a little sugar, some beer, and some strong-smelling spirits. She stirred it all together with a spoon, tied a piece of paper tightly over the pitcher, and cut a hole in the middle of the paper large enough for a wasp to get through. She set the pitcher on the ground in front of the hives, and put a saucer of clean water on the board for the bees.

The bees, when they were thirsty, drank of the clean water, and went to work; but the wasps were very curious to know what was in the pitcher. One of them settled on the paper, and put his nose over the hole. As soon as he smelled what was inside, he went down the hole and began to hum and buzz in the pitcher. Two or three of his friends came to see what was in the pot, and they went down the hole. So they disappeared, one by one, till there were scores of them inside. Now the pitcher was like most traps— easy enough to get in, but, once in, there was no getting out. Not a wasp that went down that hole ever came out alive. The old lady took care to kill them all.

I did not pity the wasps at all, but I began to be concerned about the bees. I asked the lady if she was not afraid the bees would go in and be destroyed.

She smiled, and said, "No, sir, the bees have something else to do."

I saw in a moment the lesson. The idle, gossiping, good-for-nothing wasps walked into the trap, lost their lives, and nobody pitied them. The busy, industrious bees minded their own business, worked hard, and were safe.

Industry is the best safeguard you young people can adopt. It will save you from a host of dangers, and many temptations. A witty man has said that Satan seldom enters into partnership with an industrious man, but he is always ready to join a lazy man and find all the capital.

If you want to be safe, be busy. Learn a lesson of industry.

But industry will help you in other ways besides securing your safety. You have heard the proverb, "A blacksmith's arms are the strongest, and a