CHAPTER XV 



A SWALLOW AND ONE WHO ISN*T 



JOHNNY and Polly Chuck had made their home 

 between the roots of an old apple-tree in the far 

 corner of the Old Orchard. You know they have 

 their bedroom way down in the ground, and it is 

 reached by a long hall. They had dug their home 

 between the roots of that old apple-tree because 

 they had discovered that there was just room 

 enough between those spreading roots for them to 

 pass in and out, and there wasn't room to dig 

 the entrance any larger. So they felt quite safe 

 from Reddy Fox and Bowser the Hound, either 

 of whom would have delighted to dig them out 

 but for those roots. 



Right in front of their doorway was a very nice 

 doorstep of shining sand where Johnny Chuck 

 delighted to sit when he had a full stomach and 

 nothing else to do. Johnny's nearest neighbors 

 had made their home only about five feet above 

 Johnny's head when he sat up on his doorstep. 

 They were Skimmer the Tree Swallow and his 

 trim little wife, and the doorway of their home 

 was a little round hole in the trunk of that apple- 

 [106] 



