The Boy and the Birds, with Designs by T. Landseer (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE CHIMNEY SWALLOW. So! Good morning, my young friend. I am really very sorry to have broken your slumbers, by my tumble down the chimney this morning. It was the farthest from my intentions, I assure you; but that father of mine is such a clumsy fellow ! I heard my mother scolding him, only yesterday, and telling him he would certainly push me, and my brother and sister down the shaft, if he did not take care. But he does brandish his forked tail about, and flourish at such a rate, that thereis no getting him to hear reason;?and so here I am. Now do not hunt me about the room, as if I were a savage thing. Let me sit quietly on the stove, and recover myself; then, if you please, I will tell you all I know about myself and friends; and, after that, you have nothing to do but to set your window wide open, and leave the rest to me: ?but if you call in Betty and Susan, with brooms and sticks, I am such a nervous creature that I shall never find my way out. Perhaps you are surprised to hear me talk offlying, when I am but a young nestling. I have no doubt, however, that I can fly, ? for several days past my parents have shown me the way up the shaft, to the top of thechimney; and there I have flapped my wings, and taken a view of the country round, and delightful it is. This morning my affectionate mother promised herself the pleasure of taking us all to a tree at a little distance; and there, I believe, we were to have remained for a day or two. No doubt my fall has made her extremely unhappy; but if you are kind enough to let me go, I have little doubt but I can find her in the garden, and it will be very pleasant to give her this proof of my strength. You " wonder at our taste in choosing chimneys to build in." Why, yes; it is rather a singular fancy in a bird;?but m...