"Come here and take your punishment," called Robin Hood. The king supposed that, since he had missed by so little, he would receive but a light tap, but he got a blow that knocked him spinning across the grass, heels over head.
"Ha, ha, ha!" laughed his comrades, and "O ho!" thought King Richard, "I am glad I am not in this." But he was much impressed with the way Robin Hood's men obeyed him.
"They are better to follow his commands than my servants are to follow mine," he thought.
The shooting went on, and most of the men shot their arrows within the garland, but a few missed and received tremendous buffets.
Last Robin Hood shot. His first shaft split off a piece of the stake on which the garland was hung. His second lodged a scant inch from the first. But the last arrow he shot was feathered faultily, and it swerved to one side, and smote an inch outside of the garland.
Then all the company roared with good-natured laughter, for it was seldom indeed that they saw their master miss.
"Go and take your punishment, master," said Midge, the miller's son. "I hope it will be as heavy as Wat's."
"Well," said Robin Hood, "I will forfeit my arrow to our guest and take my buffet from him."
Now the merry Robin was somewhat crafty in this, for, though he did not mind hard knocks at all, he did not like the thought of being sent sprawling before his band. The hands of churchmen were soft, and their strongest blows but feeble, for they did not work nor use their muscles much. But the pretended abbot bared an arm so stout and muscular that it made the yeomen stare. Robin Hood placed himself fairly in front of him and he struck a blow that would have felled an ox. Down went Robin Hood on the ground rolling over and over, and his men fairly shouted with laughter.