I can ill care for them myself beneath this motley."
"Why, master," quoth Little John, taking the bags and weighing them in
his hand, "here is the chink of gold."
"Well, what an there be," said Robin, "it is mine own coin and the band
is none the worse for what is there. Come, busk ye, lads," and he
turned quickly away. "Get ye ready straightway." Then gathering the
score together in a close rank, in the midst of which were Allan a Dale
and Friar Tuck, he led them forth upon their way from the forest shades.
So they walked on for a long time till they had come out of Sherwood and
to the vale of Rotherstream. Here were different sights from what one
saw in the forest; hedgerows, broad fields of barley corn, pasture lands
rolling upward till they met the sky and all dotted over with flocks of
white sheep, hayfields whence came the odor of new-mown hay that lay in
smooth swathes over which skimmed the swifts in rapid flight; such they
saw, and different was it, I wot, from the tangled depths of the sweet
woodlands, but full as fair. Thus Robin led his band, walking blithely
with chest thrown out and head thrown back, snuffing the odors of the
gentle breeze that came drifting from over the hayfields.
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