Page 121 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

tle John!’ said he, ‘what butter wits hast thou in that head
of thine! Who could hold anger against such a one as thou
art?’
So saying, they all stepped out once more, with the right
foot foremost, as the saying is.
After they had traveled some distance, the day being
warm and the road dusty, Robin Hood waxed thirsty; so,
there being a fountain of water as cold as ice, just behind the
hedgerow, they crossed the stile and came to where the wa-
ter bubbled up from beneath a mossy stone. Here, kneeling
and making cups of the palms of their hands, they drank
their fill, and then, the spot being cool and shady, they
stretched their limbs and rested them for a space.
In front of them, over beyond the hedge, the dusty road
stretched away across the plain; behind them the mead-
ow lands and bright green fields of tender young corn lay
broadly in the sun, and overhead spread the shade of the
cool, rustling leaves of the beechen tree. Pleasantly to their
nostrils came the tender fragrance of the purple violets and
wild thyme that grew within the dewy moisture of the edge
of the little fountain, and pleasantly came the soft gurgle of
the water. All was so pleasant and so full of the gentle joy of
the bright Maytime, that for a long time no one of the three
cared to speak, but each lay on his back, gazing up through
the trembling leaves of the trees to the bright sky overhead.
At last, Robin, whose thoughts were not quite so busy wool-
gathering as those of the others, and who had been gazing
around him now and then, broke the silence.
‘Heyday!’ quoth he, ‘yon is a gaily feathered bird, I take

1 0 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood