Page 91 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

ing how sweet was everything on this fair morn. Just then
he heard, faint and far away, a distant bugle note sounding
thin and clear. The sound was small, but, like a little peb-
ble dropped into a glassy fountain, it broke all the smooth
surface of his thoughts, until his whole soul was filled with
disturbance. His spirit seemed to awaken from its sluggish-
ness, and his memory brought back to him all the merry
greenwood life—how the birds were singing blithely there
this bright morning, and how his loved companions and
friends were feasting and making merry, or perhaps talk-
ing of him with sober speech; for when he first entered the
Sheriff’s service he did so in jest; but the hearthstone was
warm during the winter, and the fare was full, and so he
had abided, putting off from day to day his going back to
Sherwood, until six long months had passed. But now he
thought of his good master and of Will Stutely, whom he
loved better than anyone in all the world, and of young Da-
vid of Doncaster, whom he had trained so well in all manly
sports, till there came over his heart a great and bitter long-
ing for them all, so that his eyes filled with tears. Then he
said aloud, ‘Here I grow fat like a stall-fed ox and all my
manliness departeth from me while I become a sluggard
and dolt. But I will arouse me and go back to mine own
dear friends once more, and never will I leave them again
till life doth leave my lips.’ So saying, he leaped from bed,
for he hated his sluggishness now.
When he came downstairs he saw the Steward standing
near the pantry door— a great, fat man, with a huge bun-
dle of keys hanging to his girdle. Then Little John said, ‘Ho,

0 The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood