Page 188 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

friend Scarlet knew thee and thy dogs. I tell thee seriously
that I felt my heart crumble away from me when I saw my
shaft so miss its aim, and those great beasts of thine coming
straight at me.’
‘Thou mayst indeed be thankful, friend,’ said the Friar
gravely. ‘But, Master Will, how cometh it that thou dost
now abide in Sherwood?’
‘Why, Tuck, dost thou not know of my ill happening with
my father’s steward?’ answered Scarlet.
‘Yea, truly, yet I knew not that thou wert in hiding be-
cause of it. Marry, the times are all awry when a gentleman
must lie hidden for so small a thing.’
‘But we are losing time,’ quoth Robin, ‘and I have yet to
find that same Curtal Friar.’
‘Why, uncle, thou hast not far to go,’ said Will Scarlet,
pointing to the Friar, ‘for there he stands beside thee.’
‘How?’ quoth Robin, ‘art thou the man that I have been at
such pains to seek all day, and have got such a ducking for?’
‘Why, truly,’ said the Friar demurely, ‘some do call me
the Curtal Friar of Fountain Dale; others again call me in
jest the Abbot of Fountain Abbey; others still again call me
simple Friar Tuck.’
‘I like the last name best,’ quoth Robin, ‘for it doth slip
more glibly off the tongue. But why didst thou not tell me
thou wert he I sought, instead of sending me searching for
black moonbeams?’
‘Why, truly, thou didst not ask me, good master,’ quoth
stout Tuck; ‘but what didst thou desire of me?’
‘Nay,’ quoth Robin, ‘the day groweth late, and we cannot

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