ng their sticks--each half as long again as the men were, and
thick as their arm--and edging along sidewise, neither wishing to strike
the first blow.

At last Robin could no longer forbear, and his good right arm swung
round like a flash. Ping! went the stick on the back of the other's
head, raising such a welt that the blood came. But the tanner did not
seem to mind it at all, for bing! went his own staff in return, giving
Robin as good as he had sent. Then the battle was on, and furiously it
waged. Fast fell the blows, but few save the first ones landed, being
met in mid-air by a counter-blow till the thwacking sticks sounded like
the steady roll of a kettle-drum and the oak--bark flew as fine as it
had ever done in Arthur-a-Bland's tannery.

Round and round they fought, digging their heels into the ground to keep
from slipping, so that you would have vowed there had been a yoke of
oxen ploughing a potato-patch. Round and round, up and down, in and
out, their arms working like threshing-machines, went the yeoman and the
tanner, for a full hour, each becoming more astonished every minute that
the other was such a good fellow. While Little John from underneath his
bushy covert had much ado to keep from roaring aloud in pure joy.

Finally Robin saw his chance and brought a full arm blow straight down
upon the other's head with a force that would have felled a bullock.
But Arthur's trebled cow-skin cap here stood him in good stead: the blow
glanced off without doing more than stunning him. Nathless, he reeled
and had much ado to keep from falling; seeing which Robin stayed
his hand--to his own sorrow, for the tanner recovered his wits in a
marvelous quick space and sent back a sidelong blow which fairly lifted
Robin off his feet and sent him tumbling on to the grass.

"Hold your hand! hold your hand!" roared Robin with what little breath
he had left. "Hold, I say, and I will give you the freedom of the
greenwood."

"Why, God-a-mercy," said Arthur; "I may thank my staff for that--not
_you_."

"Well, well, gossip' let be as it may. But prithee tell me your name and
trade. I like to know fellows who can hit a blow like that same last."

"I am a tanner," replied Arthur-a-Bland. "In Nottingham long have
I wrought. And if you'll come to me I swear I'll tan your hides for
naught."

"Odds bodikins!" quoth Robin ruefully. "Mine own hide is tanned enough
for the present. Howsoever, there be others in this wood I would fai