They rose and, gathering in Ruth, who didn’t want to leave the mimic drama till Maid Marian whispered that Robin might arrive at any minute, and once he did they would never be able to get within sight of the contestants, they shoved and wriggled through the jolly holiday crowd until they found themselves in the front row of observers.
“GREETING, SWEET MAID,” HE SAID TO MARIAN
It was a gay sight. Two stakes, from which fluttered many coloured streamers, were set up at either end of a broad stretch of greensward. On this several young men were engaged in trials of strength. Just opposite the girls a handsome young fellow, tall and active, lithe as a cat, was exchanging rapid blows with a shorter, thickset man, who was none the less extremely agile. Their weapons were stout staves, and the way they went at each other was most thrilling. Shouts greeted their efforts, and from the applause and laughter when either man got in a good stroke, it was easy to see that both had plenty of friends.
Not far distant two other lads were wrestling, struggling on the ground, breathing heavily as they tugged and strove together. There were others besides these, but too far off to engage the girls’ attention.
“Ho-ho! well struck, Tom,” roared a fat man beside Rose, as one of the two who were having the bout at single sticks delivered a resounding thwack on his opponent’s leather cap. “Nay, but the boy is a wonder. He’ll win, I’ll wager my best calf on it. Saw ye that now ... lay on, Tom; ye’ll have him on his knees to you.”
Tom was the shorter of the two young men, and though he had got in a good blow or two, it did not look as though he had the best of his adversary. That young man fought on with a smile, dodging and springing about, and presently he came down hard on Tom’s cap, so hard that the young fellow reeled.
“Where’s your Tom now!” shouted another man, thumping the fat gentleman on the back. “And the calf? Will ye wager the calf now!” A chorus of laughs and shouts greeted this inquiry, but the fat man was no whit disturbed.
“It wouldn’t be easy for thee to wager a calf, Ned, unless it were one of those you carry about with you,” he retorted.
At this moment there was a disturbance at the further end of the common. Men crowded thither, surging across the grass and being pushed back again. And then three men clad in Lincoln green, with long bows in their hands, broke through the fringe of people and strode out into the open.