Page 258 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

good den. Off we go, we three.’ So saying, he swung his
stout staff over his shoulder and trudged off, measuring his
pace with that of the two nags.
The two brothers glowered at Little John when he so
pushed himself betwixt them, then they drew as far away
from him as they could, so that the yeoman walked in the
middle of the road, while they rode on the footpath on ei-
ther side of the way. As they so went away, the Tinker, the
Peddler, and the Beggar ran skipping out into the middle of
the highway, each with a pot in his hand, and looked after
them laughing.
While they were in sight of those at the inn, the brothers
walked their horses soberly, not caring to make ill matters
worse by seeming to run away from Little John, for they
could not but think how it would sound in folks’ ears when
they heard how the brethren of Fountain Abbey scam-
pered away from a strolling friar, like the Ugly One, when
the blessed Saint Dunstan loosed his nose from the red-hot
tongs where he had held it fast; but when they had crossed
the crest of the hill and the inn was lost to sight, quoth the
fat Brother to the thin Brother, ‘Brother Ambrose, had we
not better mend our pace?’
‘Why truly, gossip,’ spoke up Little John, ‘methinks it
would be well to boil our pot a little faster, for the day is
passing on. So it will not jolt thy fat too much, onward, say
I.’
At this the two friars said nothing, but they glared again
on Little John with baleful looks; then, without another
word, they clucked to their horses, and both broke into a