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.