Then up and down and back and forth they trod, the blows falling so thick and fast that, at a distance, one would have thought that half a score of men were fighting.

Thus they fought for nigh a half an hour, until the ground was all plowed up with the digging of their heels, and their breathing grew labored like the ox in the furrow.

But Little John suffered the most, for he had become unused to such stiff labor, and his joints were not as supple as they had been before he went to dwell with the Sheriff.
All this time Robin Hood lay beneath the bush, rejoicing at such a comely bout of quarterstaff.

"By my faith!" quoth he to himself, "never had I thought to see Little John so evenly matched in all my life.
Belike, though, he would have overcome yon fellow before this had he been in his former trim." At last Little John saw his chance, and, throwing all the strength he felt going from him into one blow that might have felled an ox, he struck at the Tanner with might and main.

And now did the Tanner's cowhide cap stand him in good stead, and but for it he might never have held staff in hand again.