OUR WINGED HOUSE-FELLOWS. 



The house-martins abide under the same 

 roof with ourselves ; literally under the same 

 roof, for their tiny mud nests cling close 

 beneath the eaves of our two spare bed- 

 rooms, familiarly known as the Maiden's 

 Bower and the Prophet's Chamber the 

 last because it is most often inhabited 

 by our friend the curate, and furnished, 

 after the scriptural precedent, with "a 

 bed, and a table, and a stool, and a 

 candlestick" "Every luxury that wealth 

 can afford," said the Shunammite lady. 

 " Under our roof," we say, when we speak 

 of it ; but the house-martins think otherwise. 

 " Goodness gracious," I heard one of them 

 twitter amazed to his wife the day we moved 

 in for the first time to our newly - built 

 cottage, " how terribly inconvenient ! Here 

 are some of those great nasty creatures, that 

 walk so awkwardly erect, come to live in 

 o^lr house without so much as asking us. 

 How they'll frighten the children ! " For to 

 tell you the truth, they were here before us. 



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