Page 394 - the-merry-adventures-of-robin-hood

red glory. Then Robin Hood, in a weak, faltering voice, bade
Little John raise him that he might look out once more upon
the woodlands; so the yeoman lifted him in his arms, as he
bade, and Robin Hood’s head lay on his friend’s shoulder.
Long he gazed, with a wide, lingering look, while the other
sat with bowed head, the hot tears rolling one after another
from his eyes, and dripping upon his bosom, for he felt that
the time of parting was near at hand. Then, presently, Robin
Hood bade him string his stout bow for him, and choose
a smooth fair arrow from his quiver. This Little John did,
though without disturbing his master or rising from where
he sat. Robin Hood’s fingers wrapped lovingly around his
good bow, and he smiled faintly when he felt it in his grasp,
then he nocked the arrow on that part of the string that the
tips of his fingers knew so well. ‘Little John,’ said he, ‘Little
John, mine own dear friend, and him I love better than all
others in the world, mark, I prythee, where this arrow lodg-
es, and there let my grave be digged. Lay me with my face
toward the East, Little John, and see that my resting place
be kept green, and that my weary bones be not disturbed.’
As he finished speaking, he raised himself of a sudden
and sat upright. His old strength seemed to come back to
him, and, drawing the bowstring to his ear, he sped the ar-
row out of the open casement. As the shaft flew, his hand
sank slowly with the bow till it lay across his knees, and
his body likewise sank back again into Little John’s loving
arms; but something had sped from that body, even as the
winged arrow sped from the bow.
For some minutes Little John sat motionless, but present-