"I will tell you, to-day," said Miss Ruth, after the members of her
Society were quietly settled at their work, "about a race of little
people who lived thousands and thousands of years ago. When the great
trees were growing, out of which the coal we use was made, this race
inhabited the earth as they do now in great numbers. We know this
because their bodies are found perfectly preserved in pieces of coal and
amber. Amber, you know, is a kind of gum that drops from certain trees
and hardens, becoming very transparent and of a pretty yellow color. It
is supposed that the little creatures found imbedded in it came to
their death in running up the trunks of these trees, their feet sticking
in the soft gum, and drop by drop trickling down on them till they were
fast imprisoned in a beautiful transparent tomb.

"I remember seeing once at a museum a small black ant preserved in
amber, and he looked so natural and lifelike, so like the ants we see
running about to-day, that it was hard to realize that he came to his
death so long, so very long ago; in fact, before this earth of ours was
ready for the creation of man. What strange sights those little
bead-eyes of his must have seen!

"When our ancestors were rude barbarians, living in caves and in holes
they dug in the ground, the little people dwelt in cities built with
wonderful skill and ingenuity; and while our forefathers were leading a
rude, selfish life,--herding together, it is true, but with no organized
government or fixed principles of industry and good order, living each
one for himself, the strong oppressing the weak,--the little folks were
ruled by a strict civil and military code. They lived together as
brethren, having all things in common--were temperate, cleanly,