374 GRAY LADY AND THE BIRDS 
house where Miss Wilde lives, we used to sit before the 
wide fireplace and listen to the Swifts twittering and 
whirling in and out of the chimney, and by looking up on 
a bright day their nests could be seen plainly. Once in 
a while an accident would happen, and Goldilocks will 
show you a beautiful bracket nest and five white eggs that 
became loosened after a storm and fell out on to the 
hearth.” 
“But now that there is a fire all the time and a coal 
stove at Swallow Chimney, won’t the birds choke if they 
live there?” asked Sarah Barnes. ‘Grandma says they 
can stand wood smoke, but that coal-gas ‘spixiates’ ’em; 
’cause we’ve never had any at our house since we’ve been 
burning coal.” 
“T believe that your grandmother is right,” said Gray 
Lady, “and for this reason I have planned to have a new 
outside chimney for the cooking stove, so that the real 
‘Swallow Chimney’ may be only used for the wood 
hearth fires, and so continue to be their home for as long 
as I live or the birds wish to rent it. 
TO A CHIMNEY SWIFT 
Uncumbered neighbour of our race! 
Thou only of thy clan 
Hast made thy haunt and dwelling-place 
Within the walls of man. 
Thy haughty wing, which rides the storm, 
Hath stooped to Earth’s desires, 
And round thy eery rises warm 
The smoke of human fires. 
