und favor with the
Sheriff. "So, Master Reynold Greenleaf, thou art anhungered, art thou?"
quoth he. "But, fair youth, if thou livest long enough, thou wilt find
that he who getteth overmuch sleep for an idle head goeth with an empty
stomach. For what sayeth the old saw, Master Greenleaf? Is it not 'The
late fowl findeth but ill faring'?"

"Now, thou great purse of fat!" cried Little John, "I ask thee not for
fool's wisdom, but for bread and meat. Who art thou, that thou shouldst
deny me to eat? By Saint Dunstan, thou hadst best tell me where my
breakfast is, if thou wouldst save broken bones!"

"Thy breakfast, Master Fireblaze, is in the pantry," answered the
Steward.

"Then fetch it hither!" cried Little John, who waxed angry by this time.

"Go thou and fetch it thine own self," quoth the Steward. "Am I thy
slave, to fetch and carry for thee?"

"I say, go thou, bring it me!"

"I say, go thou, fetch it for thyself!"

"Ay, marry, that will I, right quickly!" quoth Little John in a rage.
And, so saying, he strode to the pantry and tried to open the door but
found it locked, whereat the Steward laughed and rattled his keys. Then
the wrath of Little John boiled over, and, lifting his clenched fist, he
smote the pantry door, bursting out three panels and making so large an
opening that he could easily stoop and walk through it.

When the Steward saw what was done, he waxed mad with rage; and, as
Little John stooped to look within the pantry, he seized him from behind
by the nape of the neck, pinching him sorely and smiting him over the
head with his keys till the yeoman's ears rang again. At this Little
John turned upon the Steward and smote him such a buffet that the fat
man fell to the floor and lay there as though he would never move again.
"There," quoth Little John, "think well of that stroke and never keep a
good breakfast from a hungry man again."

So saying, he crept into the pantry and looked about him to see if he
could find something to appease his hunger. He saw a great venison pasty
and two roasted capons, beside which was a platter of plover's eggs;
moreover, there was a flask of sack and one of canary--a sweet sight to
a hungry man. These he took down from the shelves and placed upon a
sideboard, and prepared to make himself merry.

Now the Cook, in the kitchen across the courtyard, heard the loud
talking between Little John and the Steward, and also the blow that
Little John struck the other