96 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
house covered with a cloth all winter, so that the Sparrows 
cannot move in before the Martins return, and in this way 
we may coax them to come back again and live with us. 
Then, who knows, perhaps some one of the Kind Hearts’ 
Club may have patience and take the trouble to build a 
house and then Purple Martins may become plentiful 
in Fair Meadow township. 
“You heard what Farmer Hill asked a few minutes ago, 
—‘What’s Swallers good fer, anyhow?’ I want you all 
to be able to answer this question whenever you hear it 
asked. 
“In the first place Swallows do no manner of harm; 
they neither eat fruits nor useful berries, nor do they 
disturb the nests and eggs of other birds. They are 
beautiful objects in the air, and their laughing twitter 
when on the wing is a sound that we should miss as much 
as many real bird songs. 
“<«These are pleasant qualities,’ some may say, ‘but 
not exactly useful.’ Listen! As these Swallows are 
Fleetwings and always birds of the air, so they are sky- 
sweepers, living upon flying insects that few other birds 
may take, and the large amount of these that they con- 
sume is almost beyond belief; so watch when they come 
back next spring on their return as they fly over the cattle 
in the pasture, or over the pond surface teeming with 
insect life. If they do nothing else, they earn their living 
one and all by mosquito-killing, and the Wise Men of to-day 
know that the sting of one sort of mosquito is not merely 
an annoyance, but that it pushes the germ of malaria and 
other bad diseases straight into the blood. 
“Not only are Swallows harmless and useful in the 
