not asked me, I would have given you a score of pounds for the sweet
entertainment I have had."

"Nay," quoth Robin seriously, "it would ill beseem us to treat Your
Worship so meanly. By my faith, Sir Sheriff, I would be ashamed to show
my face if I did not reckon the King's deputy at three hundred pounds.
Is it not so, my merry men all?"

Then "Ay!" cried all, in a loud voice.

"Three hundred devils!" roared the Sheriff. "Think ye that your
beggarly feast was worth three pounds, let alone three hundred?"

"Nay," quoth Robin gravely. "Speak not so roundly, Your Worship. I do
love thee for the sweet feast thou hast given me this day in merry
Nottingham Town; but there be those here who love thee not so much. If
thou wilt look down the cloth thou wilt see Will Stutely, in whose eyes
thou hast no great favor; then two other stout fellows are there here
that thou knowest not, that were wounded in a brawl nigh Nottingham
Town, some time ago--thou wottest when; one of them was sore hurt in one
arm, yet he hath got the use of it again. Good Sheriff, be advised by
me; pay thy score without more ado, or maybe it may fare ill with thee."

As he spoke the Sheriff's ruddy cheeks grew pale, and he said nothing
more but looked upon the ground and gnawed his nether lip. Then slowly
he drew forth his fat purse and threw it upon the cloth in front of him.

"Now take the purse, Little John," quoth Robin Hood, "and see that the
reckoning be right. We would not doubt our Sheriff, but he might not
like it if he should find he had not paid his full score."