“Why,” said Robin, “my men and even the Sheriff of Nottingham know me as Robin Hood, the outlaw.”
“Then am I right sorry that I beat you,” exclaimed the man, “for I was on my way to seek you and to try to join your merry company. But after my unmannerly use of the cudgel, I fear we are still strangers.”
“Nay, never say it!” cried Robin, “I am glad I fell in with you; though, sooth to say, I did all the falling!”
And amid a general laugh the two men clasped hands, and in that clasp the strong friendship of a lifetime was begun.
“But you have not yet told us your name,” said Robin, bethinking himself.
“Whence I came, men call me John Little.”
“Enter our company then, John Little; enter and welcome. The rites are few, the fee is large. We ask your whole mind and body and heart even unto death.”
“I give the bond, upon my life,” said the tall man.
Thereupon Will Stutely, who loved a good jest, spoke up and said: “The infant in our household must be christened, and I’ll stand godfather. This fair little stranger is so small of bone and sinew, that his old name is not to the purpose.” Here he paused long enough to fill a horn in the stream. “Hark ye, my son,”--standing on tiptoe to splash the water on the giant--“take your new name on entering the forest. I christen you Little John.”
At this jest the men roared long and loud.
“Give him a bow, and find a full sheath of arrows for Little John,” said Robin joyfully. “Can you shoot as well as fence with the staff, my friend?”
“I have hit an ash twig at forty yards,” said Little John.
Thus chatting pleasantly the band turned back into the woodland and sought their secluded dell, where the trees were the thickest, the moss was the softest, and a secret path led to a cave, at once a retreat and a stronghold. Here under a mighty oak they found the rest of the band, some of whom had come in with a brace of fat does. And here they built a ruddy fire and sat down to the meat and ale, Robin Hood in the center with Will Stutely on the one hand and Little John on the other. And Robin was right well pleased with the day’s adventure, even though he had got a drubbing; for sore ribs and heads will heal, and ‘tis not every day that one can find a recruit as stout of bone and true of soul as Little John.