But tarry ye, my merry men all, here in the greenwood; only see that ye mind well my call.

Three blasts upon the bugle horn I will blow in my hour of need; then come quickly, for I shall want your aid." So saying, he strode away through the leafy forest glades until he had come to the verge of Sherwood.

There he wandered for a long time, through highway and byway, through dingly dell and forest skirts.

Now he met a fair buxom lass in a shady lane, and each gave the other a merry word and passed their way; now he saw a fair lady upon an ambling pad, to whom he doffed his cap, and who bowed sedately in return to the fair youth; now he saw a fat monk on a pannier-laden ass; now a gallant knight, with spear and shield and armor that flashed brightly in the sunlight; now a page clad in crimson; and now a stout burgher from good Nottingham Town, pacing along with serious footsteps; all these sights he saw, but adventure found he none.

At last he took a road by the forest skirts, a bypath that dipped toward a broad, pebbly stream spanned by a narrow bridge made of a log of wood.