How Treasure Hunting Found Jimmy: The Ant Farm Incident | Lost Cabin Mine

How Treasure Hunting Found Jimmy

The Ant Farm Incident

Jimmy was five when Grandma made what seemed like a perfectly harmless decision.
She bought him an ant farm.

This was adorable for approximately twelve minutes.
Jimmy was staying with Grandma for a week during the summer, and naturally the ant farm created an immediate mission.
Find ants.
Not ordinary ants.
The best ants.

Cropped black-and-white Lost Cabin Mine comic showing young Jimmy searching near her grandmother’s apartment during her ant-farm mission. — Young Jimmy’s ant-farm search seemed harmless enough, right up until the ants strongly disagreed.

Because apparently even at five, Jimmy believed treasure hunting required standards.

Just around the corner from Grandma’s apartment were several holes in the ground.
Jimmy applied advanced childhood science.
Holes equal ants.
Case closed.
So Jimmy began investigating.
There was poking.
There were sticks.
Several holes received what can only be described as completely unauthorized inspections.
Jimmy poked one.
Nothing.
Another.
Nothing.

By about the fifth suspected ant residence, something finally appeared.
And it was magnificent.
At least according to five-year-old Jimmy.
This thing was huge.
Clearly this was no ordinary ant.
Jimmy had found the king.
Possibly the emperor.
Maybe the entire ant government.
Jimmy shoved the stick back into the hole to preserve the discovery and took off running for Grandma.

He burst inside frantically explaining that he had found the biggest ant ever and was fairly certain it was the king.
Grandma looked mildly concerned, but she was also pleased that Jimmy was enjoying the ant farm.
So she followed.
Jimmy, naturally, ran ahead.

By the time Grandma rounded the corner, Jimmy was already on his knees beside the hole, enthusiastically retrieving the stick from what had now become a very irritated piece of real estate.
Jimmy pulled.
Grandma saw what came out.
And Grandma’s face changed.
This was not the proud grandmother expression Jimmy had been expecting.
This was the expression of a woman realizing that her grandchild had spent the morning repeatedly jamming sticks into a yellow-jacket nest.
Jimmy remembers only a few words.
“Yellow jackets.”
“Bees.”
And then considerably more volume.
The king ant theory collapsed immediately.
So did the scientific method.
Jimmy ran.
Grandma ran.
The yellow jackets, having apparently decided the investigation had gone on long enough, joined the pursuit.
Jimmy made it back toward the apartment with several extremely angry giant “bee ants” behind him and managed to collect a couple of stings along the way.
The ant farm never received its royal family.
Probably for the best.

What Jimmy did receive was another early lesson in treasure hunting.
Sometimes the mysterious hole contains treasure.
Sometimes it contains information.
And sometimes it contains several hundred residents who would very much like you to stop putting sticks through their ceiling.
Nearly fifty years later, Jimmy still investigates strange holes, old places, maps, trails, and anything else that looks suspiciously interesting.
Management would like to report that progress has been made.
Jimmy now usually identifies the bees first.
Usually.

Present-day Jimmy would like to add:
Do not poke unidentified holes in the ground with sticks.
Especially repeatedly.
Jimmy already tested this method.
The results were energetic.
The raccoon has reviewed the incident and would like it formally recorded that even he knows the difference between an ant and a yellow jacket.
Jimmy finds this criticism unnecessary.
Also accurate.

Jimmy is a fictional treasure-hunting persona created by M. Hayward. Stories in this series may be inspired by real experiences, with details adapted or exaggerated for storytelling and humor. Nothing Jimmy does is intended as a recommendation or instruction. The raccoon insists he is real.