Page 66 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Robin Hood Turns Butcher

OW AFTER all these things had happened, and it be-
Ncame known to Robin Hood how the Sheriff had tried
three times to make him captive, he said to himself, ‘If I
have the chance, I will make our worshipful Sheriff pay
right well for that which he hath done to me. Maybe I may
bring him some time into Sherwood Forest and have him to
a right merry feast with us.’ For when Robin Hood caught a
baron or a squire, or a fat abbot or bishop, he brought them
to the greenwood tree and feasted them before he lightened
their purses.
But in the meantime Robin Hood and his band lived
quietly in Sherwood Forest, without showing their faces
abroad, for Robin knew that it would not be wise for him
to be seen in the neighborhood of Nottingham, those in
authority being very wroth with him. But though they did
not go abroad, they lived a merry life within the woodlands,
spending the days in shooting at garlands hung upon a wil-
low wand at the end of the glade, the leafy aisles ringing
with merry jests and laughter: for whoever missed the gar-
land was given a sound buffet, which, if delivered by Little
John, never failed to topple over the unfortunate yeoman.
Then they had bouts of wrestling and of cudgel play, so that
every day they gained in skill and strength.
Thus they dwelled for nearly a year, and in that time