Page 264 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

Robin Hood Turns Beggar

FTER JOLLY ROBIN had left Little John at the forking
Aof the roads, he walked merrily onward in the mellow
sunshine that shone about him. Ever and anon he would
skip and leap or sing a snatch of song, for pure joyousness
of the day; for, because of the sweetness of the springtide,
his heart was as lusty within him as that of a colt newly
turned out to grass. Sometimes he would walk a long dis-
tance, gazing aloft at the great white swelling clouds that
moved slowly across the deep blue sky; anon he would stop
and drink in the fullness of life of all things, for the hedge-
rows were budding tenderly and the grass of the meadows
was waxing long and green; again he would stand still and
listen to the pretty song of the little birds in the thickets
or hearken to the clear crow of the cock daring the sky to
rain, whereat he would laugh, for it took but little to tick-
le Robin’s heart into merriment. So he trudged manfully
along, ever willing to stop for this reason or for that, and
ever ready to chat with such merry lasses as he met now
and then. So the morning slipped along, but yet he met no
beggar with whom he could change clothes. Quoth he, ‘If I
do not change my luck in haste, I am like to have an empty
day of it, for it is well nigh half gone already, and, although
I have had a merry walk through the countryside, I know
nought of a beggar’s life.’