m, and when Robin demanded his
purse he smiled and said it would be better to fight for that article
and the better man should have it. Whereupon he went to the side of the
road, still humming his snatch of a tune, and to the amazement of Robin
and Little John, laid hold of a young oak tree and tore it up by the
roots, with apparently but little exertion of his strength. Then,
trimming off the branches, he stood on guard.

Robin was warned by this exhibition of power and approached him warily,
but the stranger struck with such force that nobody could stand up to
him, and although Robin put up a long and furious fight his guard was
at last beaten down and he was knocked senseless on the ground.

With an aching head, but with admiration of the strange young man in
his heart, Robin asked him to join his band, promising him food, booty
and good Lincoln green to wear; and the stranger, after learning who
Robin was, disclosed himself as no other than Robin's own nephew, Will
Scarlet, whom the outlaw had not seen since he was a baby. Delighted at
the meeting, Will Scarlet, Little John and Robin Hood made haste to
join the rest of the band beneath the greenwood tree, where a feast was
set forth and good brown ale poured out in honor of the newcomer.

On another occasion Robin and his band married two lovers who had been
forced to part because the maiden's father had determined that she was
to become the bride of a wicked but wealthy old nobleman. The outlaws
surrounded the chapel in which the wedding was to take place and when
the ceremony was begun Robin stepped between the bride and groom and
declared that the ceremony could not continue. When the wedding guests
learned that it was indeed Robin Hood that stood before them, they were
greatly frightened, and the outlaws with drawn weapons made their
appearance among them. Friar Tuck himself finished the wedding--only
this time a different groom was substituted and one more after the
maiden's heart, for they gave her the man she loved.

There are many tales about the English King Richard, the Lion Hearted,
and none is more interesting than that of his meeting with Robin Hood
in Sherwood Forest. King Richard was the brother of the base-hearted
John--who tried to steal the throne from him when he was imprisoned on
the continent after the Crusades. But Richard won back his kingdom and
pardoned his brother, and later on John regained the English throne.

Richard traveled a great