The Selfish Red Ant (by Belén Giamberardini and Gisela Koval)

It was almost midday when the big group of ants gathered at the anthill to revise all the work they had been doing up to that moment.

The Queen of the red ants started checking the amount of collected food. There was one grain, pieces of leaves, some grass, pieces of bread and cookies but she realized that the flowers were missing. The Queen got mad at the idea that some of the workers hadn`t done their job properly. “I want to see the ants in charge of the flowers immediately” the Queen said. But nobody answered or moved. “ I said I want to see the ants in charge of the flowers immediately!” she repeated. But again nobody answered. “They are missing!” One of the ants shouted. Everybody were horrified to hear what has happened, some of them burst into tears.

“What’s wrong with that?” said Little Red Ant. “it makes room for new people”. “What a selfish comment!” the Queen said angrily. Suddenly, one of the guards of the Queen entered the anthill and cried: “The ants in charge of the flowers were poisoned by the humans”. All the ants cried, even the Queen cried. Little Red Ant felt really sorry for her selfish comment and said: “I want to make up my mistake. I’ve been so selfish! From now on I’ll do my job as usual and I’ll also collect the flowers”. “Oh! That proves that your heart is still kind” the Queen said. And from that moment on Little Red Ant was in charge of the flowers.