■CARPENTERS, MASONS, AND MINERS 
eave^swallows his only victims ? . And if so,, 
why ? / 
On the inside of the barn were the cup- 
shaped nests of the barn-swallow. These 
are made quite 
differently, of al- 
ternate layers of 
mud pellets and 
hay. Were the 
farmers, so the 
legend goes, to 
allow one of them 
to be torn down, 
lightning would 
. . Nest of barn swallow 
Strike the barn, 
or the crops would fail and- the store- 
house remain empty. ' So, also, to cherish 
them brings good fortune, and windows for 
ventilation are never screened against their 
entrance. Once during a never-to-be-for- 
gotten' Summer spent .on a farm, I lay on 
the hay all day and watched ' these little 
masons build. They came, male and female, 
bringing little pellets of mud in their bills 
