The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood | Page 4

would despoil their oppressors, whether baron, abbot, knight, or squire,
and that from each they would take that which had been wrung from
the poor by unjust taxes, or land rents, or in wrongful fines. But to the
poor folk they would give a helping hand in need and trouble, and
would return to them that which had been unjustly taken from them.
Besides this, they swore never to harm a child nor to wrong a woman,
be she maid, wife, or widow; so that, after a while, when the people
began to find that no harm was meant to them, but that money or food
came in time of want to many a poor family, they came to praise Robin

and his merry men, and to tell many tales of him and of his doings in
Sherwood Forest, for they felt him to be one of themselves.
Up rose Robin Hood one merry morn when all the birds were singing
blithely among the leaves, and up rose all his merry men, each fellow
washing his head and hands in the cold brown brook that leaped
laughing from stone to stone. Then said Robin, "For fourteen days have
we seen no sport, so now I will go abroad to seek adventures forthwith.
But tarry ye, my merry men all, here in the greenwood; only see that ye
mind well my call. Three blasts upon the bugle horn I will blow in my
hour of need; then come quickly, for I shall want your aid."
So saying, he strode away through the leafy forest glades until he had
come to the verge of Sherwood. There he wandered for a long time,
through highway and byway, through dingly dell and forest skirts. Now
he met a fair buxom lass in a shady lane, and each gave the other a
merry word and passed their way; now he saw a fair lady upon an
ambling pad, to whom he doffed his cap, and who bowed sedately in
return to the fair youth; now he saw a fat monk on a pannier-laden ass;
now a gallant knight, with spear and shield and armor that flashed
brightly in the sunlight; now a page clad in crimson; and now a stout
burgher from good Nottingham Town, pacing along with serious
footsteps; all these sights he saw, but adventure found he none. At last
he took a road by the forest skirts, a bypath that dipped toward a broad,
pebbly stream spanned by a narrow bridge made of a log of wood. As
he drew nigh this bridge he saw a tall stranger coming from the other
side. Thereupon Robin quickened his pace, as did the stranger likewise,
each thinking to cross first.
"Now stand thou back," quoth Robin, "and let the better man cross
first."
"Nay," answered the stranger, "then stand back shine own self, for the
better man, I wet, am I."
"That will we presently see," quoth Robin, "and meanwhile stand thou
where thou art, or else, by the bright brow of Saint AElfrida, I will
show thee right good Nottingham play with a clothyard shaft betwixt

thy ribs."
"Now," quoth the stranger, "I will tan thy hide till it be as many colors
as a beggar's cloak, if thou darest so much as touch a string of that same
bow that thou holdest in thy hands."
"Thou pratest like an ass," said Robin, "for I could send this shaft clean
through thy proud heart before a curtal friar could say grace over a
roast goose at Michaelmastide."
"And thou pratest like a coward," answered the stranger, "for thou
standest there with a good yew bow to shoot at my heart, while I have
nought in my hand but a plain blackthorn staff wherewith to meet
thee."
"Now," quoth Robin, "by the faith of my heart, never have I had a
coward's name in all my life before. I will lay by my trusty bow and
eke my arrows, and if thou darest abide my coming, I will go and cut a
cudgel to test thy manhood withal."
"Ay, marry, that will I abide thy coming, and joyously, too," quoth the
stranger; whereupon he leaned sturdily upon his staff to await Robin.
Then Robin Hood stepped quickly to the coverside and cut a good staff
of ground oak, straight, without new, and six feet in length, and came
back trimming away the tender stems from it, while the stranger waited
for him, leaning upon his staff, and whistling as he gazed round about.
Robin observed him furtively as he trimmed his staff, measuring him
from top to toe from out the corner of his eye, and thought that he had
never seen a lustier or a stouter man. Tall was Robin, but taller was the
stranger