But Little John suffered the most, for he had become
unused to such
stiff labor, and his joints were not as supple as they had been
before he went to dwell with the Sheriff.
All this time Robin Hood lay beneath the bush,
rejoicing at such
a
comely bout of quarterstaff. "By my faith!" quoth he to himself,
"never had I thought to see Little John so evenly matched in all my life.
Belike, though, he would have
overcome yon fellow before this had he been
in his former trim."
At last Little John saw his chance, and, throwing all the
strength he felt going from him into one blow that might have
felled an ox, he struck at the Tanner with might and main.
And now did the Tanner's cowhide cap stand him in good stead,
and but for it he might never have held staff in hand again.
As it was, the blow he caught beside the head was so shrewd
that it sent him staggering across the little glade, so that,
if Little John had had the strength to follow up his vantage,
it would have been ill for stout Arthur. But he regained himself
quickly and, at arm's length, struck back a blow at Little John,
and this time the stroke reached its mark, and down went Little John
at full length, his
cudgel flying from his hand as he fell.
Then, raising his staff, stout Arthur dealt him another blow
upon the ribs.
"Hold!" roared Little John. "Wouldst thou strike a man when he is down?"
"Ay, marry would I," quoth the Tanner, giving him another thwack
with his staff.
"Stop!" roared Little John. "Help! Hold, I say! I yield me!
I yield me, I say, good fellow!"
"Hast thou had enough?" asked the Tanner
grimly,
holding his staff aloft.
"Ay, marry, and more than enough."
"And thou dost own that I am the better man of the two?"
"Yea, truly, and a murrain seize thee!" said Little John,
the first aloud and the last to his beard.
"Then thou mayst go thy ways; and thank thy
patron saint that I
am a
merciful man," said the Tanner.
"A
plague o' such mercy as thine!" said Little John, sitting up and
feeling his ribs where the Tanner had
cudgeled him. "I make my vow,
my ribs feel as though every one of them were broken in twain.
I tell thee, good fellow, I did think there was never a man in all
Nottinghamshire could do to me what thou hast done this day."
"And so thought I, also," cried Robin Hood, bursting out of the thicket
and shouting with
laughter till the tears ran down his cheeks.
"O man, man!" said he, as well as he could for his mirth, " 'a didst
go over like a bottle knocked from a wall. I did see the whole
merry bout, and never did I think to see thee yield thyself so,
hand and foot, to any man in all merry England. I was seeking thee,
to chide thee for leaving my bidding
undone; but thou hast been
paid all I owed thee, full
measure, pressed down and overflowing,
by this good fellow. Marry, 'a did reach out his arm full
length while thou stood gaping at him, and, with a pretty rap,
tumbled thee over as never have I seen one tumbled before."
So spoke bold Robin, and all the time Little John sat upon
the ground, looking as though he had sour curds in his mouth.
"What may be thy name, good fellow?" said Robin, next, turning
to the Tanner.
"Men do call me Arthur a Bland," spoke up the Tanner boldly,
"and now what may be thy name?"
"Ha, Arthur a Bland!" quoth Robin, "I have heard thy name before,
good fellow. Thou didst break the crown of a friend of mine
at the fair at Ely last October. The folk there call him
Jock o' Nottingham; we call him Will Scathelock. This poor
fellow whom thou hast so belabored is counted the best hand at
the quarterstaff in all merry England. His name is Little John,
and mine Robin Hood."
"How!" cried the Tanner, "art thou indeed the great Robin Hood,
and is this the famous Little John? Marry, had I known who thou art,
I would never have been so bold as to lift my hand against thee.
Let me help thee to thy feet, good Master Little John, and let me
brush the dust from off thy coat."
"Nay," quoth Little John testily, at the same time rising carefully,
as though his bones had been made of glass, "I can help myself,
good fellow, without thy aid; and let me tell thee, had it not
been for that vile cowskin cap of thine, it would have been ill
for thee this day."
At this Robin laughed again, and, turning to the Tanner, he said,
"Wilt thou join my band, good Arthur? For I make my vow thou art
one of the stoutest men that ever mine eyes beheld."
"Will I join thy band?" cried the Tanner joyfully.
"Ay, marry, will I! Hey for a merry life!" cried he, leaping aloft
and snapping his fingers, "and hey for the life I love!
Away with tanbark and
filthy vats and foul cowhides!
I will follow thee to the ends of the earth, good master,
and not a herd of dun deer in all the forest but shall know
the sound of the twang of my bowstring."
"As for thee, Little John," said Robin, turning to him and laughing,
"thou wilt start once more for Ancaster, and we will go part way with thee,
for I will not have thee turn again to either the right hand or the left
till thou hast fairly
gotten away from Sherwood. There are other inns
that thou knowest yet, hereabouts." Thereupon, leaving the thickets,
they took once more to the
highway and
departed upon their business.
Robin Hood and Will Scarlet
THUS THEY
traveled along the sunny road, three stout fellows such as you
could hardly match
anywhere else in all merry England. Many stopped
to gaze after them as they
strode along, so broad were their shoulders
and so
sturdy their gait.
Quoth Robin Hood to Little John, "Why didst thou not go straight
to Ancaster,
yesterday, as I told thee? Thou hadst not
gottenthyself into such a coil hadst thou done as I ordered."
"I feared the rain that threatened," said Little John in a
sullen tone,
for he was vexed at being so chaffed by Robin with what had happened to him.
"The rain!" cried Robin, stopping of a sudden in the middle of the road,
and looking at Little John in wonder. "Why, thou great oaf! not a drop
of rain has fallen these three days, neither has any threatened,
nor hath there been a sign of foul weather in earth or sky or water."
"Nevertheless," growled Little John, "the holy Saint Swithin
holdeth the waters of the heavens in his pewter pot, and he could
have poured them out, had he chosen, even from a clear sky;
and wouldst thou have had me wet to the skin?"
At this Robin Hood burst into a roar of
laughter. "O Little John!"
said he, "what butter wits hast thou in that head of thine!
Who could hold anger against such a one as thou art?"
So
saying, they all stepped out once more, with the right foot foremost,
as the
saying is.
After they had
traveled some distance, the day being warm and the road dusty,
Robin Hood waxed thirsty; so, there being a
fountain of water as cold as ice,
just behind the hedgerow, they crossed the stile and came to where the water
bubbled up from beneath a mossy stone. Here, kneeling and making cups
of the palms of their hands, they drank their fill, and then, the spot being
cool and shady, they stretched their limbs and rested them for a space.
In front of them, over beyond the hedge, the dusty road stretched
away across the plain; behind them the
meadow lands and bright green
fields of tender young corn lay
broadly in the sun, and
overheadspread the shade of the cool, rustling leaves of the beechen tree.
Pleasantly to their nostrils came the tender
fragrance of the purple
violets and wild thyme that grew within the dewy
moisture of the edge
of the little
fountain, and
pleasantly came the soft
gurgle of the water.
All was so pleasant and so full of the gentle joy of the bright Maytime,
that for a long time no one of the three cared to speak, but each lay
on his back, gazing up through the trembling leaves of the trees to
the bright sky
overhead. At last, Robin, whose thoughts were not quite
so busy wool-gathering as those of the others, and who had been gazing
around him now and then, broke the silence.
"Heyday!" quoth he, "yon is a gaily
feathered" target="_blank" title="a.有羽毛的;羽状的">
feathered bird, I take my vow."
The others looked and saw a young man walking slowly down the
highway.
Gay was he, indeed, as Robin had said, and a fine figure he cut,
for his
doublet was of
scarlet silk and his stockings also;
a handsome sword hung by his side, the embossed leathern scabbard being
picked out with fine threads of gold; his cap was of
scarlet velvet,
and a broad
feather hung down behind and back of one ear.
His hair was long and yellow and curled upon his shoulders,
and in his hand he bore an early rose, which he smelled at daintily
now and then.
"By my life!" quoth Robin Hood, laughing, "saw ye e'er such
a pretty, mincing fellow?"
"Truly, his clothes have overmuch prettiness for my taste," quoth Arthur
a Bland, "but, ne'ertheless, his shoulders are broad and his loins are narrow,
and seest thou, good master, how that his arms hang from his body?
They
dangle not down like spindles, but hang stiff and bend at the elbow.
I take my vow, there be no bread and milk limbs in those fine clothes,
but stiff joints and tough thews."
"Methinks thou art right, friend Arthur," said Little John. "I do
verilythink that yon is no such roseleaf and whipped-cream
gallant as he would
have one take him to be."
"Pah!" quoth Robin Hood, "the sight of such a fellow doth put
a nasty taste into my mouth! Look how he doth hold that fair
flower betwixt his thumb and finger, as he would say, `Good rose,
I like thee not so ill but I can bear thy odor for a little while.'
I take it ye are both wrong, and
verily believe that were
a
furious mouse to run across his path, he would cry,
`La!' or `Alack-a-day!' and fall
straightway into a swoon.
I wonder who he may be."
"Some great baron's son, I doubt not," answered Little John,
"with good and true men's money
lining his purse."
"Ay, marry, that is true, I make no doubt," quoth Robin. "What a pity
that such men as he, that have no thought but to go
abroad in gay clothes,
should have good fellows, whose shoes they are not fit to tie,
dancing at their bidding. By Saint Dunstan, Saint Alfred, Saint Withold,
and all the good men in the Saxon
calendar, it doth make me mad to see
such gay lordlings from over the sea go stepping on the necks of good Saxons
who owned this land before ever their great-grandsires chewed rind of brawn!
By the bright bow of Heaven, I will have their ill-
gotten gains from them,
even though I hang for it as high as e'er a forest tree in Sherwood!"
"Why, how now, master," quoth Little John, "what heat is this?
Thou dost set thy pot a-boiling, and mayhap no bacon to cook!
Methinks yon fellow's hair is overlight for Norman locks.
He may be a good man and true for aught thou knowest."
"Nay," said Robin, "my head against a leaden
farthing, he is what I say.
So, lie ye both here, I say, till I show you how I drub this fellow."
So
saying, Robin Hood stepped forth from the shade of the beech tree,
crossed the stile, and stood in the middle of the road, with his hands
on his hips, in the stranger's path.
Meantime the stranger, who had been walking so slowly that all this talk
was held before he came opposite the place where they were, neither quickened
his pace nor seemed to see that such a man as Robin Hood was in the world.
So Robin stood in the middle of the road,
waiting while the other walked
slowly forward, smelling his rose, and looking this way and that,
and everywhere except at Robin.
"Hold!" cried Robin, when at last the other had come close
to him. "Hold! Stand where thou art!"
"Wherefore should I hold, good fellow?" said the stranger in soft
and gentle voice. "And
wherefore should I stand where I am?
Ne'ertheless, as thou dost desire that I should stay,
I will abide for a short time, that I may hear what thou mayst
have to say to me."
"Then," quoth Robin, "as thou dost so fairly do as I tell thee, and dost
give me such soft speech, I will also treat thee with all due courtesy.
I would have thee know, fair friend, that I am, as it were, a votary at
the
shrine of Saint Wilfred who, thou mayst know, took, willy-nilly, all
their gold from the
heathen, and melted it up into candlesticks.
Wherefore, upon such as come hereabouts, I levy a certain toll, which I
use for a better purpose, I hope, than to make candlesticks withal.
Therefore, sweet chuck, I would have thee deliver to me thy purse,