Page 120 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Robin Hood and

Will Scarlet

HUS THEY traveled along the sunny road, three stout
Tfellows such as you could hardly match anywhere else in
all merry England. Many stopped to gaze after them as they
strode along, so broad were their shoulders and so sturdy
their gait.
Quoth Robin Hood to Little John, ‘Why didst thou not
go straight to Ancaster, yesterday, as I told thee? Thou hadst
not gotten thyself into such a coil hadst thou done as I or-
dered.’
‘I feared the rain that threatened,’ said Little John in a
sullen tone, for he was vexed at being so chaffed by Robin
with what had happened to him.
‘The rain!’ cried Robin, stopping of a sudden in the mid-
dle of the road, and looking at Little John in wonder. ‘Why,
thou great oaf! not a drop of rain has fallen these three days,
neither has any threatened, nor hath there been a sign of
foul weather in earth or sky or water.’
‘Nevertheless,’ growled Little John, ‘the holy Saint Swith-
in holdeth the waters of the heavens in his pewter pot, and
he could have poured them out, had he chosen, even from a
clear sky; and wouldst thou have had me wet to the skin?’
At this Robin Hood burst into a roar of laughter. ‘O Lit-

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