ass and starred everywhere with the lily blooms that
sprang among it. The wind blew softly, shaking down the dewdrops from
the growing corn, while from every bush and tree came the cooing
of unnumbered doves. Beneath the eave of the _stoep_ the pair of
red-breasted swallows which had built there for so many years were
finishing their nest, and I watched them idly, for to me they were old
friends, and would wheel about my head, touching my cheek with their
wings. Just then they paused from their task, or perhaps it was at
length completed, and flying to a bough of the peach tree a few yards
away, perched there together amidst the bright bloom, and nestling
against each other, twittered forth their song of joy and love.

It was at this moment that Sihamba walked up to the _stoep_ as though to
speak to me.

"The Swallow and the Swallow's mate," she said, following my eyes to
where the little creatures swung together on the beautiful bough.

"Yes," I answered, for her fancy seemed to me of good omen, "they have
built their nest, and now they are thanking God before they begin to
live together and rear their young in love."

As the words left my lips a quick shadow swept across the path of sunlit
ground before the house, two strong wings beat, and a brown hawk, small
but very fierce, being of a sort that preys upon small birds, swooped
downwards upon the swallows. One of them saw it, and slid from the
bough, but the other the hawk caught in its talons, and mounted with
it high into the air. In vain did its mate circle round it swiftly,
uttering shrill notes of distress; up it went steadily as pitiless as
death.

"Oh! my swallow," I cried aloud in grief, "the accursed hawk has carried
away my swallow."

"Nay, look," said Sihamba, pointing upwards.

I looked, and behold! a black crow that appeared from behind the house,
was wheeling about the hawk, striking at it with its beak until, that
it might have its talons free to defend itself, it let go the swallow,
which, followed by its mate, came fluttering to the earth, while the
crow and the falcon passed away fighting, till they were lost in the
blue depths of air.

Springing from the _stoep_ I ran to where the swallow lay, but Sihamba
was there before me and had it in her hands.

"The hawk's beak has wounded it," she said pointing to a blood stain
among the red feathers of the breast, "but none of its bones are broken,
and I think that it will live. Let us put it in