Page 270 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

ly not talk of things appertaining to serious affairs upon
such ale as this!’
‘Nay,’ quoth Robin, laughing. ‘I would not check thy
thirst, sweet friend; drink while I talk to thee. Thus it is: I
would have thee know that I have taken a liking to thy craft
and would fain have a taste of a beggar’s life mine own self.’
Said the Beggar, ‘I marvel not that thou hast taken a lik-
ing to my manner of life, good fellow, but ‘to like’ and ‘to
do’ are two matters of different sorts. I tell thee, friend, one
must serve a long apprenticeship ere one can learn to be
even so much as a clapper-dudgeon, much less a crank or
an Abraham-man.[3] I tell thee, lad, thou art too old to en-
ter upon that which it may take thee years to catch the hang
of.’
[3] Classes of traveling mendicants that infested England
as late as the middle of the seventeenth century. VIDE Da-
kkar’s ENGLISH VILLAINIES, etc.
‘Mayhap that may be so,’ quoth Robin, ‘for I bring to
mind that Gaffer Swanthold sayeth Jack Shoemaker maketh
ill bread; Tom Baker maketh ill shoon. Nevertheless, I have
a mind to taste a beggar’s life, and need but the clothing to
be as good as any.’
‘I tell thee, fellow,’ said the Beggar, ‘if thou wert clad as
sweetly as good Saint Wynten, the patron of our craft, thou
wouldst never make a beggar. Marry, the first jolly traveler
that thou wouldst meet would beat thee to a pudding for
thrusting thy nose into a craft that belongeth not to thee.’
‘Nevertheless,’ quoth Robin, ‘I would have a try at it; and
methinks I shall change clothes with thee, for thy garb see-