94 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
or playthings. As his far-sight was rather poor, he did not 
notice that the lady with the children was not Miss Wilde. 
‘Wal, teacher,” he called, as he leaned against his load, 
and tried in vain to discover the object at which the 
group was gazing, “what’s up thet there pole, a possum 
or arunaway hand-orgin monkey, or mebbe it’s the balloon 
got loose from Newbury Fair grounds?” 
“‘No, nothing so unusual as that ; we have been watching 
the flocking of the Swallows,” said Gray Lady, her silvery 
voice sounding clearly even in these deaf ears. 
“Swallers!— out er school watchin’ Swallers?” ex- 
claimed old Mr. Hill, taking the long straw that he was 
chewing from between his teeth in questioning amazement. 
“Shucks! what’s Swallers good fer, anyhow? Gee— haw, 
Cain! Shish, Abel! We’d best move on; I reckon this 
isn’t any place fer folks with something to do!”’ And thus 
addressing his oxen, the load went slowly on. 
With the mischievous twinkle still lingering in her 
eyes, Gray Lady asked Tommy Todd to go to the black- 
board as soon as the children settled down to their work 
again, and this is what he wrote at Gray Lady’s dicta- 
tion :— 
Barn Swatiow. You will know it by its glistening steel-blue 
and chestnut feathers and forked tail. Builds mud nests in 
barns and outbuildings. Comes in middle April; leaves in Sep- 
tember and early October. Nests all through North Amer- 
ica up to Arctic regions. Winters in tropics as far south as 
Brazil. 
TREE SwALLow. Glistening cloak — pure white breast. Nests 
in hollow trees or, lacking these, in bird-boxes. Comes in April; 
leaves in October. Nests in places up to Alaska and Labrador 
and winters in our southern states south to the tropics. 
