n to bleed him, and for long Robin said nothing, giving
her credit for kindness and for knowing her art, but at length so much
blood came from him that he suspected treason.

He tried to open the door, for she had left him alone in the room, but
it was locked fast, and while the blood was still flowing he could not
escape from the casement. So he lay down for many hours, and none came
near him, and at length the blood stopped.

Slowly Robin uprose and staggered to the lattice-window, and blew
thrice on his horn; but the blast was so low, and so little like what
Robin was wont to give, that Little John, who was watching for some
sound, felt that his master must be nigh to death.

At this thought he started to his feet, and ran swiftly to the Priory.
He broke the locks of all the doors that stood between him and Robin
Hood, and soon entered the chamber where his master lay, white, with
nigh all his blood gone from him.

"I crave a boon of you, dear master," cried Little John.

"And what is that boon," said Robin Hood, "which Little John begs of
me?" And Little John answered, "It is to burn fair Kirkley Hall, and
all the nunnery."

[Illustration: Robin Hood shoots his last arrow]

But Robin Hood, in spite of the wrong that had been done him, would not
listen to Little John's cry for revenge. "I never hurt a woman in all
my life," he said, "nor a man that was in her company. But now my time
is done, that know I well; so give me my bow and a broad arrow, and
wheresoever it falls there shall my grave be digged. Lay a green sod
under my head and another at my feet, and put beside me my bow, which
ever made sweetest music to my ears, and see that green and gravel make
my grave. And, Little John, take care that I have length enough and
breadth enough to lie in." So he loosened his last arrow from the
string and then died, and where the arrow fell Robin was buried.

WAYLAND THE SMITH.

PART I.

Right up to the north of Norway and Sweden, looking straight at the
Pole, lies the country of Finmark. It is very cold and very bare, and
for half the year very dark; but inside its stony mountains are rich
stores of metals, and the strong, ugly men of the country spent their
lives in digging out the ore and in working it.

Like many people who dwell in mountains, they saw and heard strange
things, which were unknown to the inhabitants of the lands to the south.

Now in Finmark there were three brothers whose na