viii Preface. 



crockery rack save such as were of pewter and 

 stood shining in the bottom row. 



There was no house along the whole countryside 

 more beloved by the Martins than my grandfather's, 

 and scarcely a foot of eave with a southern aspect 

 was without its tiny dwelling of baked nmd. The 

 old man delighted to be awakened at the tirst peep 

 of day by the hajij^y h'ttle birds twittering joyously 

 in their nests, but not so liis woman servant Jane, 

 who railed loudly against " the dirty things," when- 

 ever a heavy thunder shower brought a nest to the 

 ground, and spread the moistened clay over the clean 

 stone flags whereon she used to sweeten her milk pails 

 in the wind and sun. 



It was not long before I knew where to find the nest 

 of every species breeding in our neighbourhood, and 

 to distinguish the cry of any feathered friend almost 

 as soon as it was uttered. Then a terrible calamity 

 befell me. I was chml)ing a wall one day, a thing 

 I often did from sheei* lightness of heart and over- 

 flowing spirits, when I fell and broke my hip. This 

 accident confined me to the house for many weary 

 months, but no sooner had 1 got out on a pair of 

 crutches than 1 was collecting all the nice clean 

 feathers round our fowlhouse and dropping them over 

 the side of an old stone bridsfe that crossed our 

 moorland stream just Avhere it plunged through a 

 rocky defile, in order that the Swallows, skimming 

 like shadows over the surface of the chattering beck 

 below, might catch and carry them away to line their 



