some
sickly sheep that grazed on a wild, weedy pasture, hard by the forest.

Poor Fairyfoot was often lonely and sorrowful; many a time he wished his
feet would grow larger, or that people wouldn't notice them so much; and
all the comfort he had was running and jumping by himself in the wild
pasture, and thinking that none of the shepherds' children could do the
like, for all their pride of their great feet.

Tired of this sport, he was lying in the shadow of a mossy rock one warm
summer's noon, with the sheep feeding around, when a robin, pursued by a
great hawk, flew into the old velvet cap which lay on the ground beside
him. Fairyfoot covered it up, and the hawk, frightened by his shout,
flew away.

"Now you may go, poor robin!" he said, opening the cap: but instead of
the bird, out sprang a little man dressed in russet-brown, and looking
as if he were an hundred years old. Fairyfoot could not speak for
astonishment, but the little man said--

"Thank you for your shelter, and be sure I will do as much for you. Call
on me if you are ever in trouble; my name is Robin Goodfellow"; and
darting off, he was out of sight in an instant. For days the boy
wondered who that little man could be, but he told nobody, for the
little man's feet were as small as his own, and it was clear he would be
no favorite in Stumpinghame. Fairyfoot kept the story to himself, and at
last midsummer came. That evening was a feast among the shepherds. There
were bonfires on the hills, and fun in the villages. But Fairyfoot sat
alone beside his sheepfold, for the children of his village had refused
to let him dance with them about the bonfire, and he had gone there to
bewail the size of his feet, which came between him and so many good
things. Fairyfoot had never felt so lonely in all his life, and
remembering the little man, he plucked up spirit, and cried--

"Ho! Robin Goodfellow!"

"Here I am," said a shrill voice at his elbow; and there stood the
little man himself.

"I am very lonely, and no one will play with me, because my feet are not
large enough," said Fairyfoot.

"Come then and play with us," said the little man. "We lead the merriest
lives in the world, and care for nobody's feet; but all companies have
their own manners, and there are two things you must mind among us:
first, do as you see the rest doing; and secondly, never speak of
anything you may hear or see, for we and the people of this country have
had no friendship eve