ught, "It really
doesn't matter, so long as I don't want to go back;" and so he walked
along very contentedly.

By and by the path seemed to give itself a shake, and, turning abruptly
around a large tree, brought Davy suddenly upon a little butcher's shop,
snugly buried in the wood. There was a sign on the shop, reading, "ROBIN
HOOD: VENISON," and Robin himself, wearing a clean white apron over his
suit of Lincoln green, stood in the door-way, holding a knife and steel,
as though he were on the lookout for customers. As he caught sight of
Davy he said, "Steaks? Chops?" in an inquiring way, quite like an
every-day butcher.

"Venison is deer, isn't it?" said Davy, looking up at the sign.

"Not at all," said Robin Hood, promptly. "It's the cheapest meat about
here."

"Oh, I didn't mean that," replied Davy; "I meant that it comes off of a
deer."

"Wrong again!" said Robin Hood, triumphantly. "It comes _on_ a deer. I
cut it off myself. Steaks? Chops?"

"No, I thank you," said Davy, giving up the argument. "I don't think I
want anything to eat just now."

"Then what did you come here for?" said Robin Hood, peevishly. "What's
the good, I'd like to know, of standing around and staring at an honest
tradesman?"

"Well, you see," said Davy, beginning to feel that he had, somehow, been
very rude in coming there at all, "I didn't know you were this sort of
person at all. I always thought you were an archer, like--like William
Tell, you know."

[Illustration: "'VENISON IS DEER, ISN'T IT?' SAID DAVY, LOOKING UP AT
THE SIGN."]

"That's all a mistake about Tell," said Robin Hood, contemptuously.
"_He_ wasn't an archer. He was a crossbow man,--the crossest one that
ever lived. By the way," he added, suddenly returning to business with
the greatest earnestness, "you don't happen to want any steaks or
chops to-day, do you?"

"No, not to-day, thank you," said Davy, very politely.

"To-morrow?" inquired Robin Hood.

"No, I thank you," said Davy again.

"Will you want any yesterday?" inquired Robin Hood, rather doubtfully.

"I think not," said Davy, beginning to laugh.

Robin Hood stared at him for a moment with a puzzled expression, and
then walked into his little shop, and Davy turned away. As he did so the
path behind him began to unfold itself through the wood, and, looking
back over his shoulder, he saw the little shop swallowed up by the trees
and bushes. Just as it disappeared from view he caught a glimpse of a
c