["They Came Like Swallows"] is one of those rare tales in which childhood is reflected in the simplicity and intensity of its own experience…. Mr. Maxwell has a warmth of comprehension, a delicacy of insight not only into the mood and emotions of youth but into those of maturity which augurs well for his future as a novelist…. His story is compact, economical, and straightforward, and has a deliberate inarticulateness of emotion which lends it strength and beauty.

"They Came Like Swallows" is the simplest of tales…. [The] pivot and inspiration of daily life is the wise, undemonstrative, tender woman who is awaiting another child and in the meanwhile counseling, laughing at, soothing, and loving her men folk big and little. Mr. Maxwell has drawn her with sure and loving skill and made her real and convincing. With subtle strokes, a half sentence, a glance, a caress, she...