So come, my merry men, we will prepare a christening feast for this fair infant." So turning their backs upon the stream, they plunged into the forest once more, through which they traced their steps till they reached the spot where they dwelled in the depths of the woodland.

There had they built huts of bark and branches of trees, and made couches of sweet rushes spread over with skins of fallow deer.

Here stood a great oak tree with branches spreading broadly around, beneath which was a seat of green moss where Robin Hood was wont to sit at feast and at merrymaking with his stout men about him.

Here they found the rest of the band, some of whom had come in with a brace of fat does.

Then they all built great fires and after a time roasted the does and broached a barrel of humming ale.