March, it came. The small and delicate streamlined body, with a black shiny feathers, light and agile, happy and sweet flying in the spring light, issued a bright and mellow chirping (zhōu) chirp (jiū) sound.
Our Jiangnan water town, spring rain like smoke like powder, noiselessly underground. Newly plucked bamboo, clear water in the field of seedlings, pond side of the willow and just bloomed peach blossom, in the water mist broken rain, green, red moist. At this time, one, two, a pair, two pairs? The little swallows are dancing wonderfully and gently, passing through.
The sky cleared up, and the sun showed up. The swallows are even more lively. It flew diagonally across the clean blue sky, free and easy. In a moment, "ki" sound, the body like a small black dot scurry down, in the mirror-like water, swept across, seems to be about to fall into the water. But then it leapt lightly and shot into the clouds, when the water scattered a small wave, the waves bloomed, rippling out a circle.
I asked my grandmother, "Why is the little swallow's tail different from other birds, like a pair of black shiny shears?"
Grandma said, "It cuts the spring! Look at it flying around, using the shears to cut out a spring coat for the earth."
I believed it and asked Grandma again, "Then why does it keep flying and singing?"
Grandma said, "It's spring! The more the spring is in full swing, the thicker it gets."
Grandma nailed two small bamboo stakes to the wall of the hall near the beams, and put a new tile on the stakes--this is for the swallows to build their nests. A few days later, two swallows, one after the other, flew around the beam a few times and landed on the tile, tilting their heads, their little black-bean eyes darting mischievously toward us, whispering softly, "Kiku, Kiku?"
"What are the swallows saying?" I asked Grandma.
"The swallows are saying," Grandma told me, "Not to borrow your salt, not to borrow your vinegar, but only to borrow your house for us to come and live in."
I was so happy that I shouted to the swallows, "You live!"
After a while, the swallows hatched out four lively and lovely chicks. The swallows were voracious eaters and asked their parents for food all day long.
I didn't understand why Grandma welcomed the swallows in this way, did she just want good luck? In my general knowledge class, I realized that swallows are so valuable. The teacher said that a swallow can eat 500,000 to 1,000,000 pests in a summer. The pests are eliminated, the crops are protected, and the earth is clothed in green spring clothes. It turns out that the swallow dresses up the spring with sweat and protects the spring.