Page 116 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

enjoy the merry sight at his ease.
As you may have seen two dogs that think to fight, walk-
ing slowly round and round each other, neither cur wishing
to begin the combat, so those two stout yeomen moved
slowly around, each watching for a chance to take the oth-
er unaware, and so get in the first blow. At last Little John
struck like a flash, and—‘rap!’—the Tanner met the blow
and turned it aside, and then smote back at Little John, who
also turned the blow; and so this mighty battle began. Then
up and down and back and forth they trod, the blows falling
so thick and fast that, at a distance, one would have thought
that half a score of men were fighting. Thus they fought for
nigh a half an hour, until the ground was all plowed up with
the digging of their heels, and their breathing grew labored
like the ox in the furrow. But Little John suffered the most,
for he had become unused to such stiff labor, and his joints
were not as supple as they had been before he went to dwell
with the Sheriff.
All this time Robin Hood lay beneath the bush, rejoic-
ing at such a comely bout of quarterstaff. ‘By my faith!’
quoth he to himself, ‘never had I thought to see Little John
so evenly matched in all my life. Belike, though, he would
have overcome yon fellow before this had he been in his for-
mer trim.’
At last Little John saw his chance, and, throwing all the
strength he felt going from him into one blow that might
have felled an ox, he struck at the Tanner with might and
main. And now did the Tanner’s cowhide cap stand him in
good stead, and but for it he might never have held staff in

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