A Tale of Two Martins 
some of them left, fresh parties of birds 
would fly up, until the telegraph wires 
were quite crowded with long strings of 
birds, and bent down with their weight. 
For these lovers of the sun had already 
begun to feel the cold nip in the air, 
and no longer felt so joyous and so 
strong as they had done all the summer 
when the sunshine cheered them with 
its warmth and brightness, and when 
their food was so much more plentiful. 
They were now glad to rest every now 
and then, and day by day small parties 
of them would move off, always to the 
south, for they felt in some mysterious 
way that that was the only direction 
which would lead them to warmth and 
plenty. Presently our two martins and 
their two broods, and many others, flying 
ever southwards, and resting and feeding 
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