rts, they still had courage and patience and industry. They
sought another and a different sort of cliff, and found one made of red
brick and white stone. Near the very high top of this a large colony of
swallows were building; and, because there was no closely protecting
roof, these swallows were making the round part of their nest closed
over at the top with a winding hallway to an outer doorway. They looked,
indeed, like a row of quaint clay pottery, shaped like crook-necked
gourds. For such were the nests these swallows built one hundred years
ago on the wild rock cliffs, if they chose their house-lots where there
was no overhanging shelter; and such are the nests they still build
when there seems to be need of them.

They were too far from the pleasant pasture to dig their clay out of the
footprints of cows; but there was a track where the automobiles slushed
through sticky mud, and they swirled down there and filled their little
hods when the road was clear.

Eve and Petro found a nook even higher up than the others, where a
crook-necked jug of a nest did not seem to fit. When they had built
their wall as high as need be, they closed it over with a little rounded
dome, and at the side they left two doorways open, one facing the
southwest and one facing the southeast. And some days after this was
done, had you gone to the foot of their cliff and used a pair of
field-glasses, you might have seen Eve's head sticking out of one door
and Petro's at the other. Ah, they had, then, some good luck left them.
They had had each other in their days of trouble, and now they rested
from their building labors and sat happily together in their second
home, each with a doorway to enjoy.

And later on they had more good luck still. For there came a day when
they spent no more time sitting at ease within doors, but flew hither
and yon, and then, returning to the nest, clung outside with their tiny
feet and stuck their heads in at the open doorway for a brief moment
before they were off again. Their nest was too far up for anyone to hear
or see what went on within; but there must have been some hungry little
mouths yawning all day long, to keep Eve and Petro both so busy hunting
the air for insects.

Soon after this one of the doors was closed, sealed tight with clay.
What had happened? Were the little ones inside crowding about too
recklessly, so that there was danger of one falling out? Had Eve and
Petro come upon an especially