2o6 Birds of Buzzard's Roost 



the world's history. I have witnessed the evolution of the cut- 

 ting of wheat with the sickle and threshing it out with a flail 

 to cutting it with a McCormick harvester and threshing it out 

 with a Cyclone thresher. When I was a boy we harvested it 

 with the sickle and cradle and tramped out the grain with our 

 horses. In our neighborhood there was but one barn and it 

 was a very large one with a threshing floor. To it my father 

 hauled his wheat and threshed it. We opened the sheaves of 

 wheat and laid them on the barn floor in a circle with the heads 

 inward. Then we unhitched our horses, led them in on the 

 wheat, and brother and I rode them around and around over 

 the wheat until the grain was separated from the straw. This 

 I have done for days at a time, and it got to be very tire- 

 some and monotonous. About the only things to divert our 

 attention were the nests of the wasps and barn swallows over- 

 head against the rafters of the barn. These I watched with 

 wonder and increasing interest. I knew nothing about the 

 legend of "that wonderful stone which the swallow brings 

 from the shore of the sea," but I did wish that I could get up 

 there, so high, and learn how the swallows fastened their 

 nests to the rafters. There must have been more than a 

 hundred of the nests in that barn. The twittering of the 

 swallows constantly reminded us of their presence. In addi- 

 tion to the twittering song, their call note is a "soft and affec- 

 tionate twitt, twitt, and the cry given in time of danger a 

 harsh trrrr, trrrr." 



There is a beautiful legend of the swallow which Leland 

 puts in verse : 



"When Jesus hung upon the cross 

 The birds, 'tis said, bewailed the loss 

 Of Him who first to mortals taught, 

 Guiding with love the life of all, 

 And heeding e'en the sparrow's fall. 

 But as old Sweedish legends say, 

 Of all the birds upon that day, 

 The swallows felt the deepest grief, 

 And longed to give the Lord relief, 

 And chirped when any near would come, 

 'Hugswalaa swala, swal homon!' 

 Meaning as they who tell it deem, 

 'Oh cool, oh cool, and comfort Him!" 



