Page 255 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

or two about a certain hoarseness that troubled him, sang
thus:

‘Ah, pretty, pretty maid, whither dost thou go?
I prythee, prythee, wait for thy lover also,
And we’ll gather the rose
As it sweetly blows,
For the merry, merry winds are blo-o-o-wing.’

Now it seemed as though Little John’s songs were never to
get sung, for he had got no farther than this when the door of
the inn opened and out came the two brothers of Fountain
Abbey, the landlord following them, and, as the saying is,
washing his hands with humble soap. But when the broth-
ers of Fountain Abbey saw who it was that sang, and how he
was clad in the robes of a Gray Friar, they stopped suddenly,
the fat little Brother drawing his heavy eyebrows together
in a mighty frown, and the thin Brother twisting up his face
as though he had sour beer in his mouth. Then, as Little
John gathered his breath for a new verse, ‘How, now,’ roared
forth the fat Brother, his voice coming from him like loud
thunder from a little cloud, ‘thou naughty fellow, is this a fit
place for one in thy garb to tipple and sing profane songs?’
‘Nay,’ quoth Little John, ‘sin’ I cannot tipple and sing, like
Your Worship’s reverence, in such a goodly place as Foun-
tain Abbey, I must e’en tipple and sing where I can.’
‘Now, out upon thee,’ cried the tall lean Brother in a
harsh voice, ‘now, out upon thee, that thou shouldst so dis-
grace thy cloth by this talk and bearing.’

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood