So, in all that year, fivescore or more good stout yeomen gathered about Robin Hood, and chose him to be their leader and chief.  Then they vowed that even as they themselves had been despoiled they would despoil their oppressors, whether baron, abbot, knight, or squire, and that from each they would take that which had been wrung from the poor by unjust taxes, or land rents, or in wrongful fines.  But to the poor folk they would give a helping hand in need and trouble, and would return to them that which had been unjustly taken from them.  Besides this, they swore never to harm a child nor to wrong a woman, be she maid, wife, or widow; so that, after a while, when the people began to find that no harm was meant to them, but that money or food came in time of want to many a poor family, they came to praise Robin and his merry men, and to tell many tales of him and of his doings in Sherwood Forest, for they felt him to be one of themselves.

Up rose Robin Hood one merry morn when all the birds were singing blithely among the leaves, and up rose all his merry men, each fellow washing his head and hands in the cold brown brook that leaped laughing from stone to stone.  Then said Robin, “For fourteen days have we seen no sport, so now I will go abroad to seek adventures forthwith.  But tarry ye, my merry men all, here in the greenwood; only see that ye mind well my call.  Three blasts upon the bugle horn I will blow in my hour of need; then come quickly, for I shall want your aid.”

So saying, he strode away through the leafy forest glades until he had come to the verge of Sherwood.  There he wandered for a long time, through highway and byway, through dingly dell and forest skirts.  Now he met a fair buxom lass in a shady lane, and each gave the other a merry word and passed their way; now he saw a fair lady upon an ambling pad, to whom he doffed his cap, and who bowed sedately in return to the fair youth; now he saw a fat monk on a pannier-laden ass; now a gallant knight, with spear and shield and armor that flashed brightly in the sunlight; now a page clad in crimson; and now a stout burgher from good Nottingham Town, pacing along with serious footsteps; all these sights he saw, but adventure found he none.  At last he took a road by the forest skirts, a bypath that dipped toward a broad, pebbly stream spanned by a narrow bridge made of a log of wood.  As he drew nigh this bridge he saw a tall stranger coming from the other side.  Thereupon Robin quickened his pace, as did the stranger likewise, each thinking to cross first.

“Now stand thou back,” quoth Robin, “and let the better man cross first.”

“Nay,” answered the stranger, “then stand back shine own self, for the better man, I wet, am I.”

“That will we presently see,” quoth Robin, “and meanwhile stand thou where thou art, or else, by the bright brow of Saint AElfrida, I will show thee right good Nottingham play with a clothyard shaft betwixt thy ribs.”