'Ne'er buy a horse,
good friend, without first looking into its mouth,' as our good gaffer
Swanthold says. And so, once more, fare thee well." Then he clapped his
hand to the horse's back, and off went nag and Sheriff through the
forest glades.
Then bitterly the Sheriff rued the day that first he meddled with Robin
Hood, for all men laughed at him and many ballads were sung by folk
throughout the country, of how the Sheriff went to shear and came home
shorn to the very quick. For thus men sometimes overreach themselves
through greed and guile.
Little John Goes to Nottingham Fair
SPRING HAD GONE since the Sheriff's feast in Sherwood, and summer also,
and the mellow month of October had come. All the air was cool and
fresh; the harvests were gathered home, the young birds were full
fledged, the hops were plucked, and apples were ripe. But though time
had so smoothed things over that men no longer talked of the horned
beasts that the Sheriff wished to buy, he was still sore about the
matter and could not bear to hear Robin Hood's name spoken in his
presence.
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