hand for today. I will choose me one score of my good
men to go with me, for I may need aid; and thou, Will Scarlet, wilt
abide here and be the chief while I am gone." Then searching through
all the band, each man of whom crowded forward eager to be chosen, Robin
called such as he wished by name, until he had a score of stout fellows,
the very flower of his yeomanrie. Besides Little John and Will Stutely
were nigh all those famous lads of whom I have already told you. Then,
while those so chosen ran leaping, full of joy, to arm themselves with
bow and shaft and broadsword, Robin Hood stepped aside into the covert,
and there donned a gay, beribboned coat such as might have been worn by
some strolling minstrel, and slung a harp across his shoulder, the
better to carry out that part.

All the band stared and many laughed, for never had they seen their
master in such a fantastic guise before.

"Truly," quoth Robin, holding up his arms and looking down at himself,
"I do think it be somewhat of a gay, gaudy, grasshopper dress; but it is
a pretty thing for all that, and doth not ill befit the turn of my
looks, albeit I wear it but for the nonce. But stay, Little John, here
are two bags that I would have thee carry in thy pouch for the sake of
safekeeping. I can ill care for them myself beneath this motley."

"Why, master," quoth Little John, taking the bags and weighing them in
his hand, "here is the chink of gold."

"Well, what an there be," said Robin, "it is mine own coin and the band
is none the worse for what is there. Come, busk ye, lads," and he
turned quickly away. "Get ye ready straightway." Then gathering the
score together in a close rank, in the midst of which were Allan a Dale
and Friar Tuck, he led them forth upon their way from the forest shades.

So they walked on for a long time till they had come out of Sherwood and
to the vale of Rotherstream. Here were different sights from what one
saw in the forest; hedgerows, broad fields of barley corn, pasture lands
rolling upward till they met the sky and all dotted over with flocks of
white sheep, hayfields whence came the odor of new-mown hay that lay in
smooth swathes over which skimmed the swifts in rapid flight; such they
saw, and different was it, I wot, from the tangled depths of the sweet
woodlands, but full as fair. Thus Robin led his band, walking blithely
with chest thrown out and head thrown back, snuffing the odors of the
gentle breeze that cam