Page 152 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Robin Hood and

Allan a Dale

T HAS just been told how three unlucky adventures fell
Iupon Robin Hood and Little John all in one day bringing
them sore ribs and aching bones. So next we will tell how
they made up for those ill happenings by a good action that
came about not without some small pain to Robin.
Two days had passed by, and somewhat of the soreness
had passed away from Robin Hood’s joints, yet still, when
he moved of a sudden and without thinking, pain here and
there would, as it were, jog him, crying, ‘Thou hast had a
drubbing, good fellow.’
The day was bright and jocund, and the morning dew
still lay upon the grass. Under the greenwood tree sat Rob-
in Hood; on one side was Will Scarlet, lying at full length
upon his back, gazing up into the clear sky, with hands
clasped behind his head; upon the other side sat Little John,
fashioning a cudgel out of a stout crab-tree limb; elsewhere
upon the grass sat or lay many others of the band.
‘By the faith of my heart,’ quoth merry Robin, ‘I do be-
think me that we have had no one to dine with us for this
long time. Our money groweth low in the purse, for no one
hath come to pay a reckoning for many a day. Now busk thee,
good Stutely, and choose thee six men, and get thee gone to

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