Vol. VI No. 1 - Modernist Magazines Project

THE STONE AND THE ANT
to trouble him. But at long last he realised that he was tired and weak.
He threw himself down on a bank by the roadside, near a gate which
opened into a farm.
Tired though he was, his brain refused to rest. Actually he was
on the verge of a brain-storm.
An ant crawled across his hand and he watched it as it scampered
across to a hole in the hedge. Perhaps it gave a warning to its fellowants,
for presently there issued from the hole a veritable stream of
ants. They seemed as if they were being marshalled, for although they
appeared to be hurtling hither and thither, he noticed that they never
ventured beyond a certain distance from the hole. He saw this the
more particularly as he was waiting for one to venture near enough
to be crushed by his doubled fist.
He had read something, somewhere, about ants—their habits and
communal lives, and had always had the impression that there was
some kind of individuality existing among them. If there was, he
could not perceive it. The marshalling was apparently done for safety
only.
Each ant was like every other ant. If, to these little creatures life
was a serious business, to him watching, the whole colony seemed a
monotonous purposeless world. He began to think in comparisons. He
tried to liken one of the ants to the cashier at the bank.
The cashier wore kid-gloves and a high collar. He was bald and
rather skinny. He was very pompous as only a man with a house
up-river and a sidesman's job on Sundays, can be.
But Wileman, having singled out an ant, couldn't get the little
beggar to stand still and be scrutinised. Darting hither and thither
it soon disappeared into the ruck of ants.
He tried another and compared it with the bank-manager. He was
bald, but fat instead of skinny. He was very pompous, but whether
it was his house or his Sunday occupation, is hard to state.
But at length Wileman came to the conclusion, that all the ants
are alike, and that all men are alike, and that men are like ants. Three
conclusions altogether.
He got up and made for the nearest big road, his thoughts now
transferred from ants to man. To get a clear conception of the value
of men, their opinions and influences on his own life, he realised
that he must get above them and look down at them.
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