"It's true, anyhow," said Lavie. "I know they have been found more than a hundred feet in circumference. It is the enormous number of the ants that enables them to construct such huge dwellings. And, after all, their work is nothing compared with that of the coral insect of the Pacific." "Don't they sometimes build in the trunks of trees?" asked Warley. "Very frequently," answered the surgeon. "Their mode of going to work, when they do, is very much like their house-building. In the latter case, they heap together an immense mass of earth, which they form into innumerable galleries, all leading, inwards, to the central chamber of the structure. When they choose a tree, and they generally pitch upon one of the largest trees they can find--a baobab, perhaps, or a giant fig--they simply eat these galleries out of the wood, taking care never to disturb the outer bark. In this manner they will sometimes destroy the whole inside of a vast fruit tree so completely, that it crumbles to dust as soon as touched." "Well, it is very wonderful," said Frank, "I wonder how it happens that we have seen nothing of them during the two hours or so that we have been here." "That is because they work only by night. It is supposed, I believe, that they are torpid by day." "Well, then, I suppose we must shift our quarters," remarked Nick. "It would not be pleasant to have the clothes eaten off one's back, certainly. We had better start, hadn't we, or it will be late?" "Stop a moment," said Lavie, who had been carefully noting one particular ant-hill for some minutes. "Ay, I thought so," he added presently, "there is a bees' nest in yonder mound, and most likely a large accumulation of honey. If you are fond of honey, you may sup off it without difficulty." "I am very particularly fond of honey," answered Nick, "but I don't know about there being no difficulty. The last time I assisted at the taking of a hive, there was a very considerable `difficulty.' I was stung, in fact, so badly, that I vowed never to go near bees again. However, if _you_ don't mind--" "None of us need mind," said the surgeon; "these bees are different from our English bees. They never sting people. There isn't even any necessity to smoke them." "Really!" returned Nick. "Now that I call the height of amiability. But are you sure, doctor? It seems too good to be possible."