So turning their backs upon the stream, they plunged into the forest once more, through which they traced their steps till they reached the spot where they dwelled in the depths of the woodland.  There had they built huts of bark and branches of trees, and made couches of sweet rushes spread over with skins of fallow deer.  Here stood a great oak tree with branches spreading broadly around, beneath which was a seat of green moss where Robin Hood was wont to sit at feast and at merrymaking with his stout men about him.  Here they found the rest of the band, some of whom had come in with a brace of fat does.  Then they all built great fires and after a time roasted the does and broached a barrel of humming ale.  Then when the feast was ready they all sat down, but Robin placed Little John at his right hand, for he was henceforth to be the second in the band.

Then when the feast was done Will Stutely spoke up.  “It is now time, I ween, to christen our bonny babe, is it not so, merry boys?” And “Aye!  Aye!” cried all, laughing till the woods echoed with their mirth.

“Then seven sponsors shall we have,” quoth Will Stutely, and hunting among all the band, he chose the seven stoutest men of them all.

“Now by Saint Dunstan,” cried Little John, springing to his feet, “more than one of you shall rue it an you lay finger upon me.”

But without a word they all ran upon him at once, seizing him by his legs and arms and holding him tightly in spite of his struggles, and they bore him forth while all stood around to see the sport.  Then one came forward who had been chosen to play the priest because he had a bald crown, and in his hand he carried a brimming pot of ale.  “Now, who bringeth this babe?” asked he right soberly.

“That do I,” answered Will Stutely.

“And what name callest thou him?”

“Little John call I him.”

“Now Little John,” quoth the mock priest, “thou hast not lived heretofore, but only got thee along through the world, but henceforth thou wilt live indeed.  When thou livedst not thou wast called John Little, but now that thou dost live indeed, Little John shalt thou be called, so christen I thee.”  And at these last words he emptied the pot of ale upon Little John’s head.

Then all shouted with laughter as they saw the good brown ale stream over Little John’s beard and trickle from his nose and chin, while his eyes blinked with the smart of it.  At first he was of a mind to be angry but found he could not, because the others were so merry; so he, too, laughed with the rest.  Then Robin took this sweet, pretty babe, clothed him all anew from top to toe in Lincoln green, and gave him a good stout bow, and so made him a member of the merry band.

And thus it was that Robin Hood became outlawed; thus a band of merry companions gathered about him, and thus he gained his right-hand man, Little John; and so the prologue ends.  And now I will tell how the Sheriff of Nottingham three times sought to take Robin Hood, and how he failed each time.