But I will arouse me and go back to mine own dear friends once more, and never will I leave them again till life doth leave my lips." So saying, he leaped from bed, for he hated his sluggishness now.
When he came downstairs he saw the Steward standing near the pantry door--a great, fat man, with a huge bundle of keys hanging to his girdle.

Then Little John said, "Ho, Master Steward, a hungry man am I, for nought have I had for all this blessed morn.

Therefore, give me to eat." Then the Steward looked grimly at him and rattled the keys in his girdle, for he hated Little John because he had found favor with the Sheriff.

"So, Master Reynold Greenleaf, thou art anhungered, art thou ?" quoth he.

"But, fair youth, if thou livest long enough, thou wilt find that he who getteth overmuch sleep for an idle head goeth with an empty stomach.