THE LITTLE CHIMNEY-SWEEPS.
One rainy day Tommie was standing by the window watching the great drops roll down the window-panes. He did n't like rainy days.
All at once he heard a great noise in the fireplace. Such a chattering! The screen was taken down, and there were four poor little swallows clinging to the sides of the chimney. Tommie called them "chimney-sweeps," and tried to catch one. It clung so fast to the chimney sides that he could scarcely pull it off.
There was no nest to be seen. Tommie and his mamma thought the poor little sweeps must have been frightened by the storm.
Tommie wondered what he could do with them. They could not go up the chimney, and the old birds would never come down. If he put them in the yard the cat would catch them.
Then Tommie told his mamma that he could carry them to the observatory on the house-top, and got his papa to put them in the chimney. He got a little basket, caught the poor little birds, and put them in it. His mamma tied a handkerchief over the top of the basket to keep the birds in. By noon the sun was out, and Tommie's papa came home to dinner. They went to the observatory, Tommie carrying the basket of "chimney-sweeps."
The little boy held the basket while his papa put the birds in the chimney-top, one at a time. They clung to the bricks and began to cry again.
Tommie was held up to see the little birds, and then they went down stairs, so that the old birds might take care of their little ones and not be frightened.
After Tommie had gone, the mamma and papa birds came up and showed the little ones how to get to their nest again.