"Now then, don't you be long," cried the young swineherd, and he raised his stick threateningly, and made another thrust at Robin, which was avoided; and feeling desperate now as well as hungry, feeling too, that it would be better to fall into any other hands, the little fellow ran on, following a faint track in and out among the trees, till he came suddenly into an opening, face to face with a group of fifty or sixty people busily engaged around a heap beneath a spreading beech tree.
Robin's first act was to stand and stare, for the heap consisted of bales similar to those with which he had seen the mules laden a couple of days back, and tied up together a few yards away were the very mules, while the little crowd of men who were busy bore a very strong resemblance to those by whom the attack was made on the previous day.
Robin knew nothing in those days about the old proverb of jumping out of the frying-pan into the fire, but he felt something of the kind as he found himself face to face with the marauders who had seized upon the bales of cloth and put his aunt's servants to flight, and without a moment's hesitation he turned and began to hurry back, but ran into the arms of a huge fellow who caught him up as if he had been a baby.
"Hullo, giant!" cried the big man, "who are you?" And the party of men with him, armed with long bows and arrows, began to laugh merrily.
"Let me go--let me go!" cried the boy, struggling angrily.
"Steady, steady, my little Cock Robin," said the man, in his big bluff way; "don't fight, or you'll ruffle your feathers."
The boy ceased struggling directly.
"How did you know my name was Robin?" he said.
"Guessed it, little one. There, I shan't hurt you. Where do you come from?"
"Ellton," said the boy.
"But what are you doing here in the forest?"
"You came and fought David, and frightened him and the men away, and those are our mules and the cloth."
Robin stopped short, for the big man broke out into a loud whistle, and then laughed.
"Oh, that's it, is it?" he said; "and so your name's Robin, is it?"
The little fellow nodded. "Yes," he said. "What's yours?"
"John," said the great fellow, laughing heartily; "and they call me little because I'm so big. What do you think of that?"
"I think it's very stupid," said the boy. "I thought you must be Robin Hood."
"Then you thought wrong. But if you thought that this one was you would be right. Here he comes." The boy looked in wonder at a tall man who looked short beside Little John, as he came up in coat of green with brown belt, a sword by his side, quiver of arrows hung on his back, and longbow in his hand.
"What woodland bird have you got here, John?" he said. And the boy saw that he smiled pleasantly and did not look fierce or threatening.
"A young Robin," said the big fellow; "part of yesterday's plunder."
"I want to find my way home," said the boy. "Will you please show me?"
"But you did not come here into the forest in shirt and hose, did you, my little man?" said the great outlaw.
"No; someone took my cap and doublet away, sir."
Robin Hood frowned.
"Who was it?" he cried angrily. "Find out, John, and he shall have a bowstring about his back. Point out the man who stripped you, my little lad," he continued, turning to the boy.
"It wasn't a man," said the little fellow, "but a boy who minds pigs."
"What, a young swineherd!" cried the outlaw, laughing. "Why did you let him? Why didn't you fight for your clothes like a man?"
"I did," said young Robin stoutly; "but he was so big, he knocked me down and sat upon me."
"Oh! that makes all the difference. How big was he--big as this man?"
Young Robin glanced at the giant who had caught him, and shook his head.
"No," he said; "not half, so big as he is. But he was stronger than I am."
"So I suppose. Well, bring him along. Little John, and let's see if the women can find him some clothes and a cap. You would like something more to wear, wouldn't you?"
"I should like something to eat,"' said the boy sadly. "I have not had anything since breakfast."
"That's not so very long," said Robin Hood. "We have not had anything since breakfast."
"But I mean since breakfast yesterday," said young Robin piteously.
"What!" cried Little John. "Why, the poor boy's starved. But we can soon mend that. Come here!"
Young Robin's first movement was to shrink from the big fellow, but he smiled down in such a bluff, amiable way, that the boy gave him his hands, and in an instant he was swung up and sitting six feet in the air upon the great fellow's shoulder, and then rode off to an open-fronted shed-like place thatched with reeds, Robin Hood, with his bow over his shoulder, walking by the side.
"Here, Marian," cried the outlaw, and young Robin's heart gave a throb and he made a movement to get down to go to the sweet-faced woman who came hurriedly out, wide-eyed and wondering, in her green kirtle, her long soft naturally curling hair rippling down her back, but confined round her brow by a plain silver band in which a few woodland flowers were placed.
"Oh! Robin," she cried, flushing with pleasure; "who is this?"
"It is some one for you to take care of," said the outlaw, who smiled at the bright look in the girl's face. "He is both hungry and tired, and his people ran away and left him alone in the forest."
"Oh, my dear!" she cried, as Little John lightly jumped the boy down at her feet. "Come along."
Young Robin put his hand in hers and gave her a look full of trust and confidence, before turning to the two men, for all his troubles seemed over now.
"Thank you for bringing me here," he said; "but are you bold Robin Hood and Little John, of whom I've heard my father talk?"
"I daresay we are the men he has talked about," said the outlaw smiling; "but who is your father, and what did he say?"
"My father is the Sheriff of Nottingham," said the boy, "and he said that he was going to catch you and your men some day, for you were very wicked and bad. But he did not know how good and kind you are, and I shall tell him when you send me home."
The two men exchanged glances with Maid Marian.
"We shall see," said the outlaw; "but you are nearly starved, aren't you?"
"Yes, very, very hungry," said the boy, looking piteously at his new protector, whose hand he held.
"Hungry?" she cried.
"Yes, he has had nothing since yesterday morning; but you can cure that."
"Oh, my dear, my dear!" cried the woman. And she hurried young Robin beneath the shelter, and in a very short time he was smiling up in her face in his thankfulness, for she had placed before him a bowl of sweet new milk and some of the nicest bread he had ever tasted.
As he ate hungrily he had to answer Maid Marian's questions about who he was and how he came there, which he did readily, and it did not strike him as being very dreadful that the mules and their loads had been seized, for old David had been very cross and severe with him for getting tired, and these people in the forest were most kind.
