“Ay,” said Little John sorrowfully.

“And a man-eating bishop?”

“Ay,” said Little John, more sorrowfully than before.

“And a money-gorging usurer?”

“Ay,” said Little John in so sorrowful a voice that it might have drawn tears from the Dragon of Wentley.

“Alas, that these things should be!” said jolly Robin, turning to the Bishop, “for I have ever found Little John a truthful man.”

At this, a roar of laughter went up, whereat the blood rushed into the Bishop’s face till it was cherry red from crown to chin; but he said nothing and only swallowed his words, though they well-nigh choked him.

“Nay, my Lord Bishop,” said Robin, “we are rough fellows, but I trust not such ill men as thou thinkest, after all.  There is not a man here that would harm a hair of thy reverence’s head.  I know thou art galled by our jesting, but we are all equal here in the greenwood, for there are no bishops nor barons nor earls among us, but only men, so thou must share our life with us while thou dost abide here.  Come, busk ye, my merry men, and get the feast ready.  Meantime, we will show our guests our woodland sports.”

So, while some went to kindle the fires for roasting meats, others ran leaping to get their cudgels and longbows.  Then Robin brought forward Sir Richard of the Lea.  “My Lord Bishop,” said he, “here is another guest that we have with us this day.  I wish that thou mightest know him better, for I and all my men will strive to honor you both at this merrymaking.”

“Sir Richard,” said the Bishop in a reproachful tone, “methinks thou and I are companions and fellow sufferers in this den of—­” He was about to say “thieves,” but he stopped suddenly and looked askance at Robin Hood.

“Speak out, Bishop,” quoth Robin, laughing.  “We of Sherwood check not an easy flow of words.  ‘Den of thieves’ thou west about to say.”

Quoth the Bishop, “Mayhap that was what I meant to say, Sir Richard; but this I will say, that I saw thee just now laugh at the scurrilous jests of these fellows.  It would have been more becoming of thee, methinks, to have checked them with frowns instead of spurring them on by laughter.”

“I meant no harm to thee,” said Sir Richard, “but a merry jest is a merry jest, and I may truly say I would have laughed at it had it been against mine own self.”

But now Robin Hood called upon certain ones of his band who spread soft moss upon the ground and laid deerskins thereon.  Then Robin bade his guests be seated, and so they all three sat down, some of the chief men, such as Little John, Will Scarlet, Allan a Dale, and others, stretching themselves upon the ground near by.  Then a garland was set up at the far end of the glade, and thereat the bowmen shot, and such shooting was done that day as it would have made one’s heart leap to see.  And all the while Robin talked so quaintly to the Bishop and the Knight that, the one forgetting his vexation and the other his troubles, they both laughed aloud again and again.