136 A SWALLOW-WOOING 



fidgety, till at last she flew furiously at him, 

 and he disappeared before her. 



Once there was a droll little scene. They 

 were on opposite sides of the same rafter, the 

 rafter between them, of course. He sidled 

 close up to his side, drew himself down, and 

 was still. He could hardly be seen. After 

 a while he thrust his head forward and peeked 

 around at her, upon which both flew. 



Sometimes she came alone and spent a 

 long time dressing the old-gold satin plumage 

 of her breast with its dark necklace. 



Matters progressed in this way for a day 

 or two, and I could not see that the bride was 

 any nearer being won, when the wooer sud- 

 denly adopted new tactics : he brought the 

 temptation of earthly possessions to bear 

 upon the obdurate fair one he began to 

 build a house. He chose a certain corner on 

 the beam, and, the first I knew, came with a 

 great mouthful of mud, which he carefully 

 placed and worked over with his beak for 

 some seconds, using great effort, with his 

 whole body jerking. 



His " lady-love " did not appear, nor seem 

 to notice what he was doing for some time, 



