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!”