At length all is measurably quiet. A dispute commences between Mrs. Brown and Mrs. White, in which all take sides, as to which has had the most children. This is hardly over, and all about to compose themselves for the night, when the old white rooster espies a younger one on the end of the same beam, close to the eaves, and instantly calls out, “Ah, you thought I didn’t see you! Get off that beam, you miserable upstart!”
“I won’t. I’ve as good right here on this beam as you have. It ain’t any of your beam.”
Upon this, outraged dignity, to avenge himself, goes walking along the beam, knocking the hens off, who, sputtering and fluttering, fly down into the floor, where they are followed by the young upstart.
The pugnacious fowls have become quiet at last, except that occasionally some aggrieved one cries in angry tones, “You crowd,” while the other replies, “I don’t—’tis yourself.”
How different the swallows, who, having tarried later out of doors than the fowls, to catch the insects that are then abundant, now come gliding on swift and noiseless wing to their nests, through the holes Charlie had cut for them. Here all is harmony, love, and social affection. No bickerings, no struggle for preëminence, but, sitting on the edge of the nest, they bid each other good night in a pleasant twitter, and with head beneath their wing, sink to rest.
He also took pleasure in seeing the male swallow put flies into the mouth of his mate, as she sat patiently upon her eggs, or watch them feed their young on the wing. It amused him to see the ducks coming up from the brook in Indian file.
As he had derived much pleasure from watching the eave-swallows as they built their nests, he was equally interested in looking at them after they were built and filled with birds,—their heads protruding from the doors of their dwellings,—also the courage they displayed in driving intruders from their premises.
He found they were not quite so mild in their dispositions as the swallows that built within, and frequently engaged in contests with them, in which they were generally the aggressors.