EVE AND PETRO 



moment before they were off again. Their nest was too 

 far up for anyone to hear or see what went on within; 

 but there must have been some hungry Httle mouths 

 yawning all day long, to keep Eve and Petro both so 

 busy hunting the air for insects. 



Soon after this one of the doors was closed, sealed 

 tight with clay. What had happened? Were the little 

 ones inside crowding about too recklessly, so that there 

 was danger of one falhng out? Had Eve and Petro come 

 upon an especially good mud-puddle and built a bit 

 more just for the fun of it? 



It was not very many days after this that Eve and 

 Petro and all their comrades ceased coming to the cliff 

 where their curious nests were fastened. Their doorways 

 knew them no more ; but over the meadows from dawn 

 till nearly dusk there flew beautiful old swallows bearing 

 upon their foreheads the pale mark of a new moon, and 

 with them were their young. 



At night they sought the marshes, where their little 

 feet might cUng to slender stems of bending reeds ; and 

 their numbers were very many. 



But winter would be coming, and if it still was a long 

 way off, so were the hunting grounds of South America, 

 where they must be flitting away the days when the 

 northern marshes would be frozen over. 



So off they went, Eve and Petro and their young, 



83 



