old David had been very cross and severe
with him for getting tired, and these people in the forest were
most kind.

CHAPTER IV

It was a very strange life for a boy who had been accustomed to
every comfort, but young Robin enjoyed it, for everything seemed to
be so new and fresh, and the men treated him as if he had come to
them for the purpose of being made into a pet.

They were, of course, fierce outlaws and robbers, ready to turn
their bows and swords against anyone; but the poor people who lived
in and about the forest liked and helped them, for Robin Hood's men
never did them harm, while as to young Robin, they were all eager
to take him out with them and show him the wonders of the forest.

On the second day after his arrival in the camp, the boy asked when
he was to be shown the way home, and he asked again on the third
day, but only to be told each time that he should go soon.

On the fourth day he forgot to ask, for he was busy with big Little
John, who smiled with satisfaction when young Robin chose to stay
with him instead of going with some of the men into the forest
after a deer.

Young Robin forgot to ask when he was to be shown the way home,
because Little John had promised to make him a bow and arrows and
to teach him how to use them. The great tall outlaw kept his word
too, and long before evening he hung a cap upon a broken bough of
an oak tree and set young Robin to work about twenty yards away
shooting arrows at the mark.

"You've got to hit that every time you shoot," said Little John;
"and when you can do that at twenty yards you have got to do it at
forty. Now begin."

For the bow was ready and made of a piece of yew, and half a dozen
arrows had been finished.

"Think you can hit it?" said Little John, after showing the boy how
to string his bow and fit the notch of the arrow to the string.

"Oh! yes," said Robin confidently.

"That's right! then you will soon be able to kill a deer."

"But I don't want to kill a deer," said the boy. "I want to see
some, but I shouldn't like to kill one."

"Wait till you're hungry, my fine fellow," said Little John,
laughing. "But my word! you look fine this morning; just like one
of us. Did Maid Marian make you that green jerkin?"

"Yes," said the boy.

"That's right; so's your cap and feather. But now then, try if you
can hit the cap. Draw the arrow right to the head before you let
it go. My word, what funny little fumbling f