Swallows

Papy likes to sit out in the barn, smoking his pipe, reading, and musing himself about how to keep the tiled floor clean from blown leaves and bird droppings. He decided to remove the old swallows' nests, all but one which was in a place convenient to him, and then he built a special dropping catcher held under the nest on metal brackets.

Here it is - under a nest cobwebbed and abandoned - for the swallow mummy was having none of it and constructed a new nest next door, where she could arrange for all the droppings to be properly cast out onto the floor.

There comes a time when the nest begins to feel too small, and a young bird wonders if he might fly. There comes a time when a swallow mummy must stop shrilling for the babies to stay in the nest, and start shrilling for them to come out.

The moment of flight.