Page 72 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

any of the others.
At last the dinner was ready to be served and the Sher-
iff bade Robin say grace, so Robin stood up and said, ‘Now
Heaven bless us all and eke good meat and good sack within
this house, and may all butchers be and remain as honest
men as I am.’
At this all laughed, the Sheriff loudest of all, for he said
to himself, ‘Surely this is indeed some prodigal, and per-
chance I may empty his purse of some of the money that the
fool throweth about so freely.’ Then he spake aloud to Robin,
saying, ‘Thou art a jolly young blade, and I love thee might-
ily”; and he smote Robin upon the shoulder.
Then Robin laughed loudly too. ‘Yea,’ quoth he, ‘I know
thou dost love a jolly blade, for didst thou not have jolly
Robin Hood at thy shooting match and didst thou not glad-
ly give him a bright golden arrow for his own?’
At this the Sheriff looked grave and all the guild of butch-
ers too, so that none laughed but Robin, only some winked
slyly at each other.
‘Come, fill us some sack!’ cried Robin. ‘Let us e’er be
merry while we may, for man is but dust, and he hath but
a span to live here till the worm getteth him, as our good
gossip Swanthold sayeth; so let life be merry while it lasts,
say I. Nay, never look down i’ the mouth, Sir Sheriff. Who
knowest but that thou mayest catch Robin Hood yet, if thou
drinkest less good sack and Malmsey, and bringest down
the fat about thy paunch and the dust from out thy brain.
Be merry, man.’
Then the Sheriff laughed again, but not as though he

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