The shadows grew long, and
finally merged into the grayness of the mellow twilight. The dusty
highway lay all white betwixt the dark hedgerows, and along it walked
four fellows like four shadows, the pat of their feet sounding loud, and
their voices, as they talked, ringing clear upon the silence of the air.
The great round moon was floating breathlessly up in the eastern sky
when they saw before them the twinkling lights of Barnet Town, some ten
or twelve miles from London. Down they walked through the stony streets
and past the cosy houses with overhanging gables, before the doors of
which sat the burghers and craftsmen in the mellow moonlight, with their
families about them, and so came at last, on the other side of the
hamlet, to a little inn, all shaded with roses and woodbines. Before
this inn Robin Hood stopped, for the spot pleased him well. Quoth he,
"Here will we take up our inn and rest for the night, for we are well
away from London Town and our King's wrath. Moreover, if I mistake not,
we will find sweet faring within. What say ye, lads?"
"In sooth, good master," quoth Little John, "thy bidding and my doing
ever fit together like cakes and ale.
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