"And to-morrow's sweeping day," cried Robin. "'Thursday I brew and Friday I sweep,' and how'll she sweep if she has no floor?"
"We'll have to make her a floor," declared Friar Tuck.
"So we will," said Robin. "There's a good man not far away who can work in wood, and he shall come in the morning and build her another room."
"Oh, oh!" cried the merry little old woman with delight, "I never thought I should have a house with two rooms; but I'll always care for this room the most, for there's just where Master Robin stood when he came in at the door, and there's where he sat when he was spinning the flax. But, Master Robin, Master Robin, did any one ever see such a thread as you've left on the spool!"
It was so funny that the merry little old woman really couldn't help jumping up and dancing.
"Hey down, down, an a down!"
And then the brave men and true all said good-night and went back to the forest.
[414]
All attempts to prove the historical existence of Robin Hood have been unsuccessful. His story has come down to us in a group of old folk ballads, about forty in number, dating from about the beginning of the fifteenth century. One of these old ballads is given below. They were sung to a recurrent melody, which was as much a part of them as the words of the story. Other ballads in the group that are likely to be very interesting to children are "Robin Hood and Little John," "Robin Hood and Maid Marian," "Robin Hood Rescuing the Three Squires," "Robin Hood's Death and Burial." The best source for these ballads is Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads (ed. Sargent and Kittredge). Tennyson dramatized the Robin Hood story in The Foresters, as did Alfred Noyes in Sherwood. Reginald De Koven made a very successful comic opera out of it, while Thomas Love Peacock's Maid Marian is an interesting novelization of the theme.