[CHAPTER X.—THE HAUNTS OF ROBIN HOOD.]
“Well, boys,” said Professor Gunn, “we are at last in the very heart of Sherwood Forest, the haunt of Robin Hood, the outlaw.”
“There certain is a right good stretch of timber and some of the biggest trees I ever saw,” confessed Brad Buckhart; “but it doesn’t seem to me that it should have been such a mighty hard thing to hunt an old outlaw out of a place like this.”
“Times were different then, and you must not forget that, while Robin plundered the rich, legends have it that he was always kind to the poor, and, therefore, he had many friends who warned him of danger and gave him protection.”
Dick Merriwell, Brad Buckhart, and Professor Gunn were being driven in an open carriage through the noble and famous forest. All around them stood the mighty oaks, some of which, it was said, had withstood the storms of seven centuries. The westering sun of what had been an ideal autumn day gleamed through the branches on which the brown leaves rustled and where the squirrels chattered. The frozen ground was bestrewn with fallen leaves, which rustled in little flocks along the hard road when stirred by a passing breeze, seeming like startled birds.
Earlier in the day they had visited Newstead Abbey, the home of Byron, where two hours were spent. On leaving they drove through the ever-thickening forest to a little wayside inn, where they lunched. After a rest, they resumed their drive, it being their object to stop for the night at Robin Hood’s Tavern, an inn of which they had been told by their cockney driver.
“Is it really true, professor,” asked Dick, “that Robin Hood was of noble birth?”
The old pedagogue shrugged his shoulders and smiled a withered smile.
“That is a question no one can answer,” he declared. “It has been said that he was the outlawed Earl of Huntingdon, but such a tale may have come from the fact that the really noble qualities he betrayed seemed quite unnatural for a robber and outlaw, and were supposed to be possessed only by those of gentle birth. But here in this forest he roamed with Friar Tuck, Little John, Will Scarlett, Allen-a-Dale, and Maid Marion. Here he made merry and lived such a life of adventure, and ease, and pleasure, that he has been the envy of every romantic youngster to this day.”
“Did he live long?” questioned Buckhart.