he
stopped of a sudden, for he thought that he heard the sound of someone
in sorrow. He listened, and found that it came from the cottage; so,
turning his footsteps thither, he pushed open the wicket and entered the
place. There he saw a gray-haired dame sitting beside a cold
hearthstone, rocking herself to and fro and weeping bitterly.

Now Little John had a tender heart for the sorrows of other folk, so,
coming to the old woman and patting her kindly upon the shoulder, he
spoke comforting words to her, bidding her cheer up and tell him her
troubles, for that mayhap he might do something to ease them. At all
this the good dame shook her head; but all the same his kind words did
soothe her somewhat, so after a while she told him all that bore upon
her mind. That that morning she had three as fair, tall sons beside her
as one could find in all Nottinghamshire, but that they were now taken
from her, and were like to be hanged straightway; that, want having come
upon them, her eldest boy had gone out, the night before, into the
forest, and had slain a hind in the moonlight; that the King's rangers
had followed the blood upon the grass until they had come to her
cottage, and had there found the deer's meat in the cupboard; that, as
neither of the younger sons would betray their brother, the foresters
had taken all three away, in spite of the oldest saying that he alone
had slain the deer; that, as they went, she had heard the rangers
talking among themselves, saying that the Sheriff had sworn that he
would put a check upon the great slaughter of deer that had been going
on of late by hanging the very first rogue caught thereat upon the
nearest tree, and that they would take the three youths to the King's
Head Inn, near Nottingham Town, where the Sheriff was abiding that day,
there to await the return of a certain fellow he had sent into Sherwood
to seek for Robin Hood.

To all this Little John listened, shaking his head sadly now and then.
"Alas," quoth he, when the good dame had finished her speech, "this is
indeed an ill case. But who is this that goeth into Sherwood after
Robin Hood, and why doth he go to seek him? But no matter for that now;
only that I would that Robin Hood were here to advise us. Nevertheless,
no time may be lost in sending for him at this hour, if we would save
the lives of thy three sons. Tell me, hast thou any clothes hereabouts
that I may put on in place of these of Lincoln green? Marry, if