Page 206 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

will pass in time to come, while we come and go like leaves
of the tree that fall and are soon forgotten.
Quoth Robin Hood, snuffing the air, ‘Here is a fair day,
Little John, and one that we can ill waste in idleness. Choose
such men as thou dost need, and go thou east while I will
wend to the west, and see that each of us bringeth back some
goodly guest to dine this day beneath the greenwood tree.’
‘Marry,’ cried Little John, clapping his palms together for
joy, ‘thy bidding fitteth my liking like heft to blade. I’ll bring
thee back a guest this day, or come not back mine own self.’
Then they each chose such of the band as they wished,
and so went forth by different paths from the forest.
Now, you and I cannot go two ways at the same time
while we join in these merry doings; so we will e’en let Little
John follow his own path while we tuck up our skirts and
trudge after Robin Hood. And here is good company, too;
Robin Hood, Will Scarlet, Allan a Dale, Will Scathelock,
Midge, the Miller’s son, and others. A score or more of stout
fellows had abided in the forest, with Friar Tuck, to make
ready for the homecoming, but all the rest were gone either
with Robin Hood or Little John.
They traveled onward, Robin following his fancy and
the others following Robin. Now they wended their way
through an open dale with cottage and farm lying therein,
and now again they entered woodlands once more. Pass-
ing by fair Mansfield Town, with its towers and battlements
and spires all smiling in the sun, they came at last out of the
forest lands. Onward they journeyed, through highway and
byway, through villages where goodwives and merry lasses

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