n his legs. His
tail was brown. His wings were brown, marked with black and white and
slate. His bill was thick and rather short.

"Who are you?" demanded Peter very bluntly and impolitely.

"I'm Piny the Pine Grosbeak," replied the stranger, seemingly not at all
put out by Peter's bluntness.

"Oh," said Peter. "Are you related to Rosebreast the Grosbeak who nested
last summer in the Old Orchard?"

"I certainly am," replied Piny. "He is my very own cousin. I've never
seen him because he never ventures up where I live and I don't go down
where he spends the winter, but all members of the Grosbeak family are
cousins."

"Rosebreast is very lovely and I'm very fond of him," said Peter. "We
are very good friends."

"Then I know we are going to be good friends," replied Piny. As he said
this he turned and Peter noticed that his tail was distinctly forked
instead of being square across like that of Welcome Robin. Piny
whistled, and almost at once he was joined by another bird who in shape
was just like him, but who was dressed in slaty-gray and olive-yellow,
instead of the bright red that he himself wore. Piny introduced the
newcomer as Mrs. Grosbeak.

"Lovely weather, isn't it?" said she. "I love the snow. I wouldn't feel
at home with no snow about. Why, last spring I even built my nest before
the snow was gone in the Far North. We certainly hated to leave up
there, but food was getting so scarce that we had to. We have just
arrived. Can you tell me if there are any cedar-trees or ash-trees or
sumacs near here?"

Peter hastened to tell her just where she would find these trees and
then rather timidly asked why she wanted to find them.

"Because they hold their berries all winter," replied Mrs. Grosbeak
promptly, "and those berries make very good eating. I rather thought
there must be some around here. If there are enough of them we certainly
shall stay a while."

"I hope you will," replied Peter. "I want to get better acquainted with
you. You know, if it were not for you folks who come down from the Far
North the Green Forest would be rather a lonely place in winter. There
are times when I like to be alone, but I like to feel that there is
someone I can call on when I feel lonesome. Did you and Piny come down
alone?"

"No, indeed," replied Mrs. Grosbeak. "There is a flock of our relatives
not far away. We came down with the Crossbills. All together we made
quite a party."

Peter and Jumper stayed a while to g