"
So he looked up the road and down the road to see who might come, until
at last he saw someone drawing near, riding upon a horse. When the
traveler came nigh enough for him to see him well, Robin laughed, for a
strange enough figure he cut. He was a thin, wizened man, and, to look
upon him, you could not tell whether he was thirty years old or sixty,
so dried up was he even to skin and bone. As for the nag, it was as thin
as the rider, and both looked as though they had been baked in Mother
Huddle's Oven, where folk are dried up so that they live forever.
But although Robin laughed at the droll sight, he knew the wayfarer to
be a certain rich corn engrosser of Worksop, who more than once had
bought all the grain in the countryside and held it till it reached even
famine prices, thus making much money from the needs of poor people, and
for this he was hated far and near by everyone that knew aught of him.
So, after a while, the Corn Engrosser came riding up to where Robin sat;
whereupon merry Robin stepped straightway forth, in all his rags and
tatters, his bags and pouches dangling about him, and laid his hand upon
the horse's bridle rein, calling upon the other to stop.
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