Page 112 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

be cloven even by a broadsword.
‘Now,’ quoth Arthur a Bland to himself, when he had
come to that part of the road that cut through a corner of
the forest, ‘no doubt at this time of year the dun deer are
coming from the forest depths nigher to the open meadow
lands. Mayhap I may chance to catch a sight of the dainty
brown darlings thus early in the morn.’ For there was noth-
ing he loved better than to look upon a tripping herd of deer,
even when he could not tickle their ribs with a clothyard
shaft. Accordingly, quitting the path, he went peeping this
way and that through the underbrush, spying now here and
now there, with all the wiles of a master of woodcraft, and
of one who had more than once donned a doublet of Lin-
coln green.
Now as Little John stepped blithely along, thinking of
nothing but of such things as the sweetness of the haw-
thorn buds that bedecked the hedgerows, or gazing upward
at the lark, that, springing from the dewy grass, hung aloft
on quivering wings in the yellow sunlight, pouring forth its
song that fell like a falling star from the sky, his luck led him
away from the highway, not far from the spot where Arthur
a Bland was peeping this way and that through the leaves of
the thickets. Hearing a rustling of the branches, Little John
stopped and presently caught sight of the brown cowhide
cap of the Tanner moving among the bushes
‘I do much wonder,’ quoth Little John to himself, ‘what
yon knave is after, that he should go thus peeping and peer-
ing about I verily believe that yon scurvy varlet is no better
than a thief, and cometh here after our own and the good

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