“_Robin, my only son and heir, For food and drink take thou no care. Wish what thou wilt, and thou shalt have The power to tease both fool and knave. Change when thou wilt thine Elfish shape, To horse, or hog, or dog, or ape; And scare each idle dirty maid, And make all wicked men afraid. But love thou those that honest be, And help them in necessity._
“_Do thus, and all the world shall know The pranks of Robin Goodfellow. If thou’lt observe my just command, One day thou shalt see Fairyland._”
Robin, having read this, was very joyful, for he perceived that he had Fairy power. He straightway wished for something to eat, and it appeared before him. Then he wished himself a horse, and no sooner did he say so than he became a handsome colt, curveting and leaping about. He wished himself a dog, and was one. After that he turned himself into any shape he liked. Then taking his own form again, he once more started on his travels.
And from that time forward many were the merry tricks Robin played on those he met.
Once, seeing a rude and clownish fellow searching for a lost horse, Robin turned himself into a horse, and led the rude man a chase over field and briar, until he allowed the man to catch him and mount his back. Then Robin jumped into a stream and, turning into a fish, swam to the shore and ran away, laughing, “Ho! Ho! Ho!”--leaving the man to get out of the water as best he could.
At night Robin often visited farmers’ houses, and helped the neat housemaids with their work, breaking their hemp, dressing their flax, and spinning their yarn. One night he came to a house where there was a good and handsome maid. And while she slept Robin did her work, more than she could have done in twelve hours. The maid wondered the next morning to see all done so finely, and that night she watched to see what would follow.
At twelve of the clock in came Robin and, singing, fell to work breaking her hemp and doing her spinning, and as he worked he sang a mad song:--
“_Within and out, in and out, round as a ball, With hither and thither, as straight as a line, With lily and germander, and sops of wine, With sweetbriar, And bonfire, And strawberry wire, And columbine!_”
The maid, seeing that he had no clothes, pitied him, and the next night she laid out a little suit that she had cut and sewed during the day. Robin, coming in, spied the clothes, whereat he started, and said:--