Page 348 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

and to where a little thatched cottage stood back of a clus-
ter of twisted crab trees, with flowers in front of it. Here
he stopped of a sudden, for he thought that he heard the
sound of someone in sorrow. He listened, and found that it
came from the cottage; so, turning his footsteps thither, he
pushed open the wicket and entered the place. There he saw
a gray-haired dame sitting beside a cold hearthstone, rock-
ing herself to and fro and weeping bitterly.
Now Little John had a tender heart for the sorrows of
other folk, so, coming to the old woman and patting her
kindly upon the shoulder, he spoke comforting words to
her, bidding her cheer up and tell him her troubles, for that
mayhap he might do something to ease them. At all this the
good dame shook her head; but all the same his kind words
did soothe her somewhat, so after a while she told him all
that bore upon her mind. That that morning she had three
as fair, tall sons beside her as one could find in all Notting-
hamshire, but that they were now taken from her, and were
like to be hanged straightway; that, want having come upon
them, her eldest boy had gone out, the night before, into
the forest, and had slain a hind in the moonlight; that the
King’s rangers had followed the blood upon the grass un-
til they had come to her cottage, and had there found the
deer’s meat in the cupboard; that, as neither of the younger
sons would betray their brother, the foresters had taken all
three away, in spite of the oldest saying that he alone had
slain the deer; that, as they went, she had heard the rang-
ers talking among themselves, saying that the Sheriff had
sworn that he would put a check upon the great slaughter of