Page 276 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

feast left and a little Malmsey in the pottle.’ At this, the lame
man, who had taken off his wooden leg and unstrapped his
own leg, and was sitting with it stretched out upon the grass
so as to rest it, made room for Robin among them. ‘We are
glad to see thee, brother,’ said he, holding out the flask of
Malmsey.
‘Marry,’ quoth Robin, laughing, and weighing the flask in
his hands ere he drank, ‘methinks it is no more than seemly
of you all to be glad to see me, seeing that I bring sight to
the blind, speech to the dumb, hearing to the deaf, and such
a lusty leg to a lame man. I drink to your happiness, broth-
ers, as I may not drink to your health, seeing ye are already
hale, wind and limb.’
At this all grinned, and the Blind beggar, who was the
chief man among them, and was the broadest shouldered
and most lusty rascal of all, smote Robin upon the shoulder,
swearing he was a right merry wag.
‘Whence comest thou, lad?’ asked the Dumb man.
‘Why,’ quoth Robin, ‘I came this morning from sleeping
overnight in Sherwood.’
‘Is it even so?’ said the Deaf man. ‘I would not for all
the money we four are carrying to Lincoln Town sleep one
night in Sherwood. If Robin Hood caught one of our trade
in his woodlands he would, methinks, clip his ears.’
‘Methinks he would, too,’ quoth Robin, laughing. ‘But
what money is this that ye speak of?’
Then up spake the Lame man. ‘Our king, Peter of York,’
said he, ‘hath sent us to Lincoln with those moneys that—‘
‘Stay, brother Hodge,’ quoth the Blind man, break-