Mother said I might, so I scattered some on the snow under the pine trees, and we went in the house and peeped out of the kitchen window.

At first the Robins chattered and talked for a while, looking squint-eyed at the berries, but then the bird that came on the clothes-line started down and began to eat." "How did you know that Robin from all the others ?" asked Dodo.
"He had lost the two longest quills out of his right wing, and so he flew sort of lop-sided," said Rap readily.

"As soon as he began the others came down and just gobbled; in two minutes all the berries were gone, but the birds stayed round all the same, hinting for more.

We hadn't many berries left, so mother said, 'Try if they will eat meal.' I mixed some meal in a pan with hot water and spread it in little puddles on the snow.

The Robins acted real mad at first, because it wasn't berries, but after a while one pecked at it and told the others it was all right, and then thirty Robins all sat in a row and ate that meal up, the same as if they were chickens." Here Rap paused and laughed at the thought of the strange sight.
"Pretty soon after that the snow melted, and by April Robins were building around in our yard, in the maples by the road, and all through this orchard.