ow and his gang!" said Cousin
Phineas. "They are very bad birds! I hope they did not hurt you?"

"Not a scratch!" said Robert Robin, "but see the sparrow feathers on the
ground under this tree!"

"Well! Well!" said Cousin Phineas. "There are enough sparrow feathers to
make a nest!"

"I pulled one out!" shouted little Sheldon, and sure enough the bold
little robin was still holding a sparrow's feather in his bill.

"He is _so_ much like his father!" said Mrs. Robin, "and some day he
will be a great big man-robin and whip all the naughty sparrows, just
like Daddy does!"

"He makes me think of our young Timothy!" said Cousin Phineas. "I am
sorry he is not here! He is a very bright youngster! My folks have gone
south for the Winter, but you must stay overnight with me, just the
same."

"We just dropped in to make a call, but, as you say, it _is_ getting
rather late, so if it is not too much trouble, we will accept your
invitation to remain overnight!" said Robert Robin.

"Good! Then we will spend the night at the Reformatory!" said Cousin
Phineas, as he led the way over to the Reformatory trees.

Neither Cousin Phineas nor Robert Robin felt like singing a "Good-night"
song, so little Sheldon perched on the top of a tall elm and sang one
himself.

"Very good, Sheldon!" said Robert Robin.

"Very good, Sheldon!" said Cousin Phineas. "You have a very remarkable
youngster there, Cousin Robert! He can sing a song and knows neither the
tune nor the words! Very remarkable! Very remarkable!"

CHAPTER X

ROBERT ROBIN AND HIS FAMILY GO SOUTH

The next morning after Robert Robin and his family had stayed overnight
with Cousin Phineas, a heavy frost whitened the roofs of the buildings
and covered the fields with a carpet of frost diamonds. The white smoke
from the many chimneys of the city floated upward in great fluffy cones
until it seemed that the fluffy cones of snowy smoke were columns which
bound the city to the sky.

"What strange-looking clouds you have here in Elmira!" said Mrs. Robin
to Cousin Phineas.

"Yes! We have them go straight up so that we may fly between them!" said
Cousin Phineas. "But how about a little breakfast?"

"I was just thinking about the same thing!" said Robert Robin, "and
after our long trip, I am sure that we are hungry enough to eat almost
anything!"

"There are frozen apples in Arnot's orchard, frozen grapes on Sullivan
Hill, poison-ivy berries near Big Flats, and sumach