ing, and had no idea one was so near until that 
moment. He sprang into the air with a shriek 
just as the gull lunged a terrible blow at him 
with its bill. It was indeed a very narrow es- 
cape, and as Longtoe fled into the bushes he 
might have been even more frightened if he 
had known that the big, fierce bird that attacked 
him was none other than Hardheart of No- 
Man’s-Land, the most dreaded gull on all the 
waters about the city. 
It may have been several weeks before this 
band of robins felt the impulse to move on to 
some other place. But we may be very sure 
that this desire to seek a new region came to 
them just as it comes to all robins at this time 
of the year. One night they flew up high over 
the trees and the tall buildings. Then they 
crossed the river with its Palisades. On and 
on they went, until the lights of the great city 
grew dim and faded in the distance. Where 
they stopped next I cannot undertake to say 
any more than I[ can tell the names of all the 
places they visited during the next few months. 
One of the reasons for this is that in winter robins 
60 
