Page 349 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

deer that had been going on of late by hanging the very first
rogue caught thereat upon the nearest tree, and that they
would take the three youths to the King’s Head Inn, near
Nottingham Town, where the Sheriff was abiding that day,
there to await the return of a certain fellow he had sent into
Sherwood to seek for Robin Hood.
To all this Little John listened, shaking his head sadly
now and then. ‘Alas,’ quoth he, when the good dame had
finished her speech, ‘this is indeed an ill case. But who is
this that goeth into Sherwood after Robin Hood, and why
doth he go to seek him? But no matter for that now; only
that I would that Robin Hood were here to advise us. Never-
theless, no time may be lost in sending for him at this hour,
if we would save the lives of thy three sons. Tell me, hast
thou any clothes hereabouts that I may put on in place of
these of Lincoln green? Marry, if our stout Sheriff catcheth
me without disguise, I am like to be run up more quickly
than thy sons, let me tell thee, dame.’
Then the old woman told him that she had in the house
some of the clothes of her good husband, who had died only
two years before. These she brought to Little John, who,
doffing his garb of Lincoln green, put them on in its stead.
Then, making a wig and false beard of uncarded wool, he
covered his own brown hair and beard, and, putting on a
great, tall hat that had belonged to the old peasant, he took
his staff in one hand and his bow in the other, and set forth
with all speed to where the Sheriff had taken up his inn.
A mile or more from Nottingham Town, and not far
from the southern borders of Sherwood Forest, stood the

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood