time when leaves grow green, and flowers are fresh and gay,
Robin Hood and his merry men were all disposed to play. Thus runs a
quaint old ballad which begins the next adventure. Then some would leap
and some would run and some try archery and some ply the quarter-staff
and some fall to with the good broad sword. Some again would try a round
at buffet and fisticuff; and thus by every variety of sport and exercise
they perfected themselves in skill and made the band and its prowess
well known throughout all England.

It had been a custom of Robin Hood's to pick out the best men in all the
countryside. Whenever he heard of one more than usually skilled in
any feat of arms he would seek the man and test him in personal
encounter--which did not always end happily for Robin. And when he had
found a man to his liking he offered him service with the bold fellows
of Sherwood Forest.

Thus it came about that one day after a practice at shooting, in which
Little John struck down a hart at five hundred feet distance, Robin Hood
was fain to boast.

"God's blessing on your heart!" he cried, clapping the burly fellow on
the shoulder; "I would travel an hundred miles to find one who could
match you!"

At this Will Scarlet laughed full roundly.

"There lives a curtall friar in Fountain's Abbey--Tuck, by name--who can
beat both him and you," he said.

Robin pricked up his ears at this free speech.

"By our Lady," he said, "I'll neither eat nor drink till I see this same
friar."

And with his usual impetuosity he at once set about arming himself for
the adventure. On his head he placed a cap of steel. Underneath his
Lincoln green he wore a coat of chain metal. Then with sword and buckler
girded at his side he made a goodly show. But he also took with him his
stout yew bow and a sheaf of chosen arrows.

So he set forth upon his way with blithe heart; for it was a day when
the whole face of the earth seemed glad and rejoicing in pulsing life.
Steadily he pressed forward by winding ways till he came to a green
broad pasture land at whose edge flowed a stream dipping in and out
among the willows and rushes on the banks. A pleasant stream it was, but
it flowed calmly as though of some depth in the middle. Robin did not
fancy getting his feet wet, or his fine suit of mail rusted, so he
paused on the hither bank to rest and take his bearings.

As he sat down quietly under the shade of a drooping willow he heard
snatches of a jovia