he, sternly. “Down, Beauty! down, sirrah! What means this?”

The yeomen shoot at the hounds, but the dogs catch the arrows in their mouths.

At the sound of his voice each dog shrank back quickly, and then straightway came to him and licked his hands and fawned upon him, as is the wont of dogs that meet one they know. Then the four yeomen came forward, the hounds leaping around Will Scarlet joyously. “Why, how now!” cried the stout Friar, “what means this? Art thou wizard to turn those wolves into lambs? Ha!” cried he, when they had come still nearer, “can I trust mine eyes? What means it that I see young Master William Gamwell in such company?”

The hounds know Will Scarlet.

“Nay, Tuck,” said the young man, as the four came forward to where Robin was now clambering down from the tree in which he had been roosting, he having seen that all danger was over for the time; “nay, Tuck my name is no longer Will Gamwell, but Will Scarlet; and this is my good uncle, Robin Hood, with whom I am abiding just now.”

“Truly, good master,” said the Friar, looking somewhat abashed and reaching out his great palm to Robin, “I ha’ oft heard thy name both sung and spoken of, but I never thought to meet thee in battle. I crave thy forgiveness, and do wonder not that I found so stout a man against me.”

“Truly, most holy father,” said Little John, “I am more thankful than e’er I was in all my life before that our good friend Scarlet knew thee and thy dogs. I tell thee seriously that I felt my heart crumble away from me when I saw my shaft so miss its aim, and those great beasts of thine coming straight at me.”

“Thou mayst indeed be thankful, friend,” said the Friar, gravely. “But, Master Will, how cometh it that thou dost now abide in Sherwood?”

“Why, Tuck, dost thou not know of my ill happening with my father’s steward?” answered Scarlet.

“Yea, truly, yet I knew not that thou wert in hiding because of it. Marry, the times are all awry when a gentleman must lie hidden for so small a thing.”

“But we are losing time,” quoth Robin, “and I have yet to find that same curtal Friar.”

“Why, uncle, thou hast not far to go,” said Will Scarlet, pointing to the Friar, “for there he stands beside thee.”

“How?” quoth Robin, “art thou the man that I have been at such pains to seek all day, and have got such a ducking for?”

“Why, truly,” said the Friar, demurely, “some do call me the curtal Friar of the Fountain Dale; others again call me in jest the Abbot of Fountain Abbey; others still again call me simple Friar Tuck.”

Robin Hood findeth the man he sought.

“I like the last name best,” quoth Robin, “for it doth slip more glibly off the tongue. But why didst thou not tell me thou wert he I sought, instead of sending me searching for black moonbeams?”

“Why, truly, thou didst not ask me, good master,” quoth stout Tuck; “but what didst thou desire of me?”

“Nay,” quoth Robin, “the day growth late, and we cannot stand longer talking here. Come back with us to Sherwood, and I will unfold all to thee as we travel along.”

So, without tarrying, longer, they all departed, with the stout dogs at their heels, and wended their way back to Sherwood again; but it was long past nightfall ere they reached the greenwood tree.

The Friar goeth back with the yeomen to Sherwood Forest.

Now listen, for next I will tell how Robin Hood compassed the happiness of two young lovers, aided by the merry Friar Tuck of Fountain Dale.

III.

Robin Hood compasseth the Marriage of Two True Lovers.

AND now had come the morning when fair Ellen was to be married, and on which merry Robin had sworn that Allan a Dale should, as it were, eat out of the platter that had been filled for Sir Stephen of Trent. Up rose Robin Hood, blithe and gay, up rose his merry men one and all, and up rose last of all stout Friar Tuck, winking the smart of sleep from out his eyes. Then, whilst the air seemed to brim over with the song of many birds, all blended together and all joying in the misty morn, each man laved face and hands in the leaping brook, and so the day began.

“Now,” quoth Robin, when they had broken their fast, and each man