Page 111 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

the morrow.
Now it was an ill piece of luck for Little John that he left
his duty for his pleasure, and he paid a great score for it, as
we are all apt to do in the same case, as you shall see.
Up he rose at the dawn of the next day, and, taking his
stout pikestaff in his hand, he set forth upon his journey
once more, as though he would make up for lost time.
In the good town of Blyth there lived a stout tanner, cel-
ebrated far and near for feats of strength and many tough
bouts at wrestling and the quarterstaff. For five years he had
held the mid-country champion belt for wrestling, till the
great Adam o’ Lincoln cast him in the ring and broke one of
his ribs; but at quarterstaff he had never yet met his match
in all the country about. Besides all this, he dearly loved the
longbow, and a sly jaunt in the forest when the moon was
full and the dun deer in season; so that the King’s rangers
kept a shrewd eye upon him and his doings, for Arthur a
Bland’s house was apt to have aplenty of meat in it that was
more like venison than the law allowed.
Now Arthur had been to Nottingham Town the day
before Little John set forth on his errand, there to sell a
halfscore of tanned cowhides. At the dawn of the same day
that Little John left the inn, he started from Nottingham,
homeward for Blyth. His way led, all in the dewy morn, past
the verge of Sherwood Forest, where the birds were welcom-
ing the lovely day with a great and merry jubilee. Across
the Tanner’s shoulders was slung his stout quarterstaff, ever
near enough to him to be gripped quickly, and on his head
was a cap of doubled cowhide, so tough that it could hardly

110 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood