Page 360 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

he wheeled his horse in the road and went off in a cloud of
dust. The Sheriff’s men, seeing their master thus fleeing for
his life, thought that it was not their business to tarry longer,
so, clapping spurs to their horses, they also dashed away af-
ter him. But though the Sheriff of Nottingham went fast, he
could not outstrip a clothyard arrow. Little John twanged
his bowstring with a shout, and when the Sheriff dashed in
through the gates of Nottingham Town at full speed, a gray
goose shaft stuck out behind him like a moulting sparrow
with one feather in its tail. For a month afterward the poor
Sheriff could sit upon nought but the softest cushions that
could be gotten for him.
Thus the Sheriff and a score of men ran away from Robin
Hood and Little John; so that when Will Stutely and a doz-
en or more of stout yeomen burst from out the covert, they
saw nought of their master’s enemies, for the Sheriff and his
men were scurrying away in the distance, hidden within a
cloud of dust like a little thunderstorm.
Then they all went back into the forest once more, where
they found the widow’s three sons, who ran to Little John
and kissed his hands. But it would not do for them to roam
the forest at large any more; so they promised that, after
they had gone and told their mother of their escape, they
would come that night to the greenwood tree, and thence-
forth become men of the band.