side as soon as she see the great big apple, kind of wonderin' if
they couldn't carry it off.

"Little Ant Red had all her children's heads combed and the best
cheers set out, and she had on her good dress and white apron, and
she says right and left, 'Hoddy-do, sir? hoddy-do, marm? Come right
in and take cheers. And they all shook hands with her as if they'd
never dreamt of callin' her a witch, and fell right on to the apple
and begun to eat. And they all e't and e't, till they'd made holes in
the rind and hollered it out. And Big Ant Black she gits her family
started, and they carries off chunk after chunk of that apple till
the road was black and white speckled between her house and the
apple-tree.

"Little Ant Red she walks around urgin' them all to help
theirselves, and that made them all feel pleasant to her. But Big Ant
Black she got so graspin' and eager, that what does she do but try to
help her young ones carry off the whole apple-shell. It did look
jub'ous to see such a big thing movin' off with such little critters
tuggin' it. And then Ant Red got on to a clover-head and showed the
rest of the company what Ant Black was a-doin'. Says Ant Red: 'You
ain't e't more'n a mouthful, Mr. Grasshopper.'

"'No, marm,' says he.

"'I s'ze to myself,' says Ant Red, 'here is this polite company, and
the snake-feeders don't touch nothin,' and everybedy knows Miss
Katydid lives on nothin' but rose-leaf butter, and the bugs and
beetles will hardly take enough, to keep 'em alive.' 'And I s'ze to
myself,' says Ant Red, 'here's this big apple walkin' off with nobody