Robin, like a proper knight,

As he should have been,

Carv'd a part of the shoulder right,

And bore off a portion clean.

"Oh, what hast thou done, dear master mine,

What hast thou done for me?"

"Roast it, Will, for excepting wine,

Thou shalt feast thee royally."

And Nokes he took and half roasted it,
Blubbering with blinding tears,

And ere he had eaten a second bit,
A trampling came to their ears.

They heard the tramp of a horse's feet,
And they listen'd and kept still,

For Will was feeble, and knelt by the meat;
And Robin he stood by Will.

"Seize him, seize him!" the Abbot cried
With his fat voice through the trees;

Robin a smooth arrow felt and eyed,
And Will jump'd stout with his knees.

Time had made the fat Abbot, I trow,
A fatter and angrier man;

Yet the voice was the same that twelve years ago

Out of the window, to Robin below,

Answer'd the tan a ran tan.

"Seize him! seize him!" and now they appear,

The Abbot and foresters three:

""Twas I," cried Will, "that slew the deer:"

Says Robin, "Now let not a man come near,
Or he's dead as dead can be."

But on they came, and with gullet cleft

The first one met the shaft,

And he fell with a face of all mirth bereft,
That just before had laugh'd.

The others turn'd to that Abbot vain,
But "Seize him !" still he cried,
And as the second man turn'd again,
The second man shriek'd, and died.

"Seize him, seize him still, I say,"

Cried the Abbot, in furious chafe, "Or these dogs will grow so bold some day, E'en monks will not be safe."

A fatal word! for as he sat,

Urging the sword to cut,

An arrow stuck in his paunch so fat,

As in a leathern butt:

As in a leathern butt of wine,

Or piece of beef so round,
Stuck that arrow, strong and fine;
Sharp had it been ground.

I know not what the Abbot, alack!
Thought when that was done;

But there tumbled from the horse's back
A matter of twenty stone.

"Truly," said Robin without fear,

Smiling there as he stood,

"Never was slain so fat a deer

In good old Gamelyn's wood."

Pardon, pardon, Sir Robin stout,"

Said he that stood apart,

"As soon as I knew thee, I wish'd thee out Of the forest with all my heart.

"And I pray thee let me follow thee

Any where under the sky,

For thou wilt never stay here with me,

Nor without thee can I."

Robin smiled, and suddenly fell

Into a little thought;

And then into a leafy dell

The three slain men they brought.

Ankle deep in leaves so red,

Which autumn there had cast,

When going to her winter bed
She had undrest her last.

And there in a hollow, side by side,
They buried them under the treen;
The Abbot's belly, for all its pride,
Made not the grave be seen.

Robin Hood, and the forester,

And Nokes the happy Will,

Struck off among the green leaves there Up a pathless hill;

And Robin caught a sudden sight

Of merry sweet Locksley town, Reddening in the sunset bright;

And the gentle tears came down.

Robin look'd at the town and land,
And the church-yard where it lay;

And loving Will he kiss'd his hand,

And turn'd his head away.

Then Robin turn'd with a grasp of Will's, And clapp'd him on the shoulder,

And said, with one of his pleasant smiles, "Now show us three men bolder."

And so they took their march away,

As firm as if to fiddle,

To journey that night and all next day, With Robin Hood in the middle.

ROBIN HOOD AN OUTLAW.

ROBIN HOOD is an outlaw bold,
Under the greenwood tree;
Bird, nor stag, nor morning air,
Is more at large than he.

They sent against him twenty men,
Who join'd him laughing-eyed;
They sent against him thirty more,
And they remain'd beside.

All the stoutest of the train

That grew in Gamelyn wood, Whether they came with these or not, Are now with Robin Hood.

And not a soul in Locksley town

Would speak him an ill word;

The friars raged; but no man's tongue,
Nor even feature stirred;