Page 49 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

thy back; thou shalt eat and drink of the best, and at ev-
ery Christmastide fourscore marks shall be thy wage. I
trow thou drawest better bow than that same coward knave
Robin Hood, that dared not show his face here this day. Say,
good fellow, wilt thou join my service?’
‘Nay, that will I not,’ quoth the stranger roughly. ‘I will
be mine own, and no man in all merry England shall be my
master.’
‘Then get thee gone, and a murrain seize thee!’ cried the
Sheriff, and his voice trembled with anger. ‘And by my faith
and troth, I have a good part of a mind to have thee beat-
en for thine insolence!’ Then he turned upon his heel and
strode away.
It was a right motley company that gathered about the
noble greenwood tree in Sherwood’s depths that same day.
A score and more of barefoot friars were there, and some
that looked like tinkers, and some that seemed to be sturdy
beggars and rustic hinds; and seated upon a mossy couch
was one all clad in tattered scarlet, with a patch over one
eye; and in his hand he held the golden arrow that was the
prize of the great shooting match. Then, amidst a noise of
talking and laughter, he took the patch from off his eye
and stripped away the scarlet rags from off his body and
showed himself all clothed in fair Lincoln green; and quoth
he, ‘Easy come these things away, but walnut stain cometh
not so speedily from yellow hair.’ Then all laughed louder
than before, for it was Robin Hood himself that had won
the prize from the Sheriff’s very hands.
Then all sat down to the woodland feast and talked

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood