Page 327 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

for that good fat capon.’ So both sat down and began to feast
right lustily, so that when they were done the bones of the
capon were picked as bare as charity.
Then Robin stretched his legs out with a sweet feeling
of comfort within him. Quoth he, ‘By the turn of thy voice,
good Quince, I know that thou hast a fair song or two run-
ning loose in thy head like colts in a meadow. I prythee,
turn one of them out for me.’
‘A song or two I ha’,’ quoth the Cobbler, ‘poor things,
poor things, but such as they are thou art welcome to one
of them.’ So, moistening his throat with a swallow of beer,
he sang:

‘Of all the joys, the best I love,
Sing hey my frisking Nan, O,
And that which most my soul doth move,
It is the clinking can, O.

‘All other bliss I’d throw away,
Sing hey my frisking Nan, O,
But this—‘

The stout Cobbler got no further in his song, for of a
sudden six horsemen burst upon them where they sat, and
seized roughly upon the honest craftsman, hauling him to
his feet, and nearly plucking the clothes from him as they
did so. ‘Ha!’ roared the leader of the band in a great big
voice of joy, ‘have we then caught thee at last, thou blue-clad
knave? Now, blessed be the name of Saint Hubert, for we are

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood