now, and
having a curious desire to meet with Robin Hood, he and his friends
went into Sherwood Forest, dressed as friars. Robin and his men found
them, of course, and made them guests at a feast. Later, there was
shooting, and Robin Hood, having once missed the mark, applied to the
King, whom he did not recognize, for a punishment. Thereupon King
Richard arose, rolled up his sleeve, and gave such a blow as Robin had
never felt before. It was afterwards that Sir Richard of the Lea
appeared upon the scene, and disclosed the identity of the powerful
stranger. Then Robin Hood, Little John, Will Scarlet, and Alan-a-Dale
followed the King to London at the royal wish, and left Sherwood for
many a long day."

They were now passing through a very dense part of the wood. Close
about the feet of the oaks, a thick, tangled underbrush grows. Some of
the old trees seem to be gray with age, and their whitish, twisted
branches offer a sharp contrast to the dark shadows, and make a weird,
ghostlike effect.

"Oh!" exclaimed Betty, "it must have been in just such a spot as this
in the forest that Gurth in 'Ivanhoe' suddenly came upon a company of
Robin Hood's men. Gurth was the Saxon, you know. He had been to Isaac,
the Jew, at York, and was carrying back the ransom money to his
master, Ivanhoe. Of course, poor Gurth thought he would surely be
robbed, when he discovered in whose society he was; but as you said,
Mrs. Pitt, Robin Hood never took money from honest men, especially
when it was not their own. They led Gurth farther and farther into the
depths of Sherwood. I can just imagine it was a place like
this,--where the moonlight lit up these ghostly trees, and the red
glow of the camp-fire showed Gurth's frightened face. He was quite
safe, though, for he proved that the money was his master's, and Robin
let him go, and even showed him the way to the 'skirts of the forest,'
as he did the Sheriff of Nottingham."

All this time the carriage had been rolling along, and as they neared
an open space in the forest, John suddenly caught sight of something
which made him turn to his friend, the driver, and exclaim: "Oh, what
are they?"

Stretching away for quite a distance on either side of the road were
rows and rows of tiny, peaked houses or coops. The coachman told them
that here was where they breed the pheasants which are hunted. When
the birds have reached a certain age, they are set free, and a gun is
fired in their midst to give t