A Swallow and One Who Isn't ] 



tree, a hole which had been cut some years before 

 by one of the Woodpeckers. I 



Johnny and Skimmer were the best of friends. 

 Johnny used to delight in watching Skimmer dart 

 out from beneath the branches of the trees and 

 wheel and turn and glide, now sometimes high in 

 the blue, blue sky, and again just skimming the 

 tops of the grass, on wings which seemed never 

 to tire. But he liked still better the bits of 

 gossip when Skimmer would sit in his doorway 

 and chat about his neighbors of the Old Orchard 

 and his adventures out in the Great World during 

 his long journeys to and from the far-away South. 



To Johnny Chuck's way of thinking, there was 

 no one quite so trim and neat appearing as Skim- 

 mer with his snowy white breast and blue-green 

 back and wings. Two things Johnny always 

 used to wonder at, Skimmer's small bill and short 

 legs. Finally he ventured to ask Skimmer about 

 them. 



"Gracious, Johnny!" exclaimed Skimmer. "I 

 wouldn't have a big bill for anything. I wouldn't 

 know what to do with it ; it would be in the way. 

 You see, I get nearly all my food in the air when 

 I am flying, mosquitoes and flies and all sorts of 

 small insects with wings. I don't have to pick 

 them off trees and bushes or from the ground and 

 so I don't need any more of a bill than I have. 

 [107] 



